NEW YORK – October 1, 2007 – Kent M. Swig, President of Swig Equities, LLC, a full service real estate development, investment and management company with a proven track record in the investment and development of over $3 billion of residential and commercial properties, and operating companies, announced that he has acquired Helmsley-Spear, Inc. from the Schneider family.
Helmsley-Spear has been a leader in commercial and residential real estate since 1866, evolving from a real estate company to a full-service firm providing highly-professional performance and bottom-line profitability for its clients. Helmsley-Spear has focused for over 140 years on servicing the commercial real estate marketplace including disciplines in office and retail leasing, investment sales, asset management, and property management. Originally founded as L.B. Goodale in 1866, the company went through three ownership changes with new partners added in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Kent Swig represents only the fourth owner of Helmsley-Spear, Inc.
Swig Equities is owner and manager of over 4 million square feet of commercial office space in New York City and San Francisco and over 1,200 luxury residential apartments in New York City. Currently, Swig Equities’ project development department is undertaking over $1 billion of development projects under the direction of its seven licensed, in house architects, working with its construction management affiliate, Falcon Pacific Construction, LLC.
“Helmsley-Spear’s core expertise in the commercial office market segment will integrate seamlessly with Swig Equities existing business platform. Helmsley-Spear’s substantial name recognition provides the opportunity to leverage Swig Equities’ network of relationships and expertise by providing additional services to tenants and landlords in the commercial real estate marketplace,†added Kent Swig.
The company will now be in a position to offer the commercial market place a complete range of operating, management and construction services. Swig Equities has created an operating platform with a comprehensive and sophisticated array of services on which Helmsley-Spear can draw to create a more productive, efficient and cost effective basis for all operations. These services include property and asset management procedures and policies, accounting, financial reporting, human resources, payroll, information technology, market research, and economic forecasting. In addition, the project development department within Swig Equities, consisting of 7 full-time, licensed architects, as well as Falcon Pacific Construction, will be available to provide development and construction management services to those Helmsley-Spear clients seeking to redevelop and reposition their properties.
“Helmsley-Spear will be repositioned and expanded and will operate as an independent affiliate company as part of the Swig Equities organization. In order to reposition and expand Helmsley-Spear, we shall be undertaking a major capital program which will include new office space, new computers, new software technology, new telephones, new marketing and collateral materials, and new policies and procedures. In addition, we shall begin an expansion program to selectively retain additional brokers in investment sales, and retail and commercial office leasing, as well as new property management assignments. It is anticipated that the Swig Equities affiliate Falcon Pacific Construction will play an increasingly larger role in future Helmsley-Spear activities, particularly as an owner’s representative on commercial construction projects,†added Swig.