Barkan Management Co., a Boston-based property management provider and consultant, has had clients in Rhode Island since the 1990s. But there had been too few large-scale residential developments for the firm to keep an office here.
That has changed. Three luxury condominium towers are under construction in downtown Providence, and other high-end residential projects are sprouting in other parts of the state, such as Aquidneck Island. So last month, Barkan opened an office here.
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“Certainly with what’s going on in Providence in particular, we just see tremendous opportunity to bring to the marketplace the resources and expertise that exist within our organization,” William DiSchino, president and CEO at Barkan, said in an interview.
Barkan opened an office on the 28th floor at One Financial Plaza in Providence, where it supports management and consulting functions for projects in the state. But even before the move, the company had acquired several high-profile clients.
Barkan was hired late last year to give the developer of WaterPlace, a 193-unit condo tower under construction at Providence’s Waterplace Park, a plan for the services, employees and legal documentation needed to manage the property.
Early this year, Barkan was contracted to provide similar services for One Ten Westminster, a 145-condo high rise that project developers say will be the tallest building in the capital city.
Barkan already has staff managing and leasing units at The Promenade, a completed 220-apartment complex in renovated industrial buildings in the city.
DiSchino said the firm also has consulted for the project developers at The Tower and Royal Cottages at Carnegie Abbey, a luxury development in a private club in Portsmouth.
The majority of the properties under Barkan’s management, however, are in the Boston area, including well-known developments along the city’s waterfront and downtown. For example, the firm is the manager for The Residences at the Intercontinental, which includes 131 luxury condos, DiSchino said.
Developments such as WaterPlace had been missing in Providence until lately, and third-party property managers for such buildings had been just as rare. Some believe Barkan’s move into Providence shows how much things have changed.
“It does signal a continual expansion of Providence overall, because third-party managers are required for these projects,” said Charles T. Francis, president of the Providence office of CB Richard Ellis–New England, the largest commercial real estate manager in the state.
Francis, who is also president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, said Barkan is the latest in a series of service-related firms, including engineers and architects, to come to Providence from Boston to work with developers.
Barkan is the largest third-party property manager in New England, where it handles 115 properties that total nearly 15,000 residential units. In addition to Providence, the Boston-based firm has satellite offices in Hopkinton, Mass., and Glastonbury, Conn.
DiSchino said Barkan was founded in 1981 to manage properties built by Mel Barkan, who had been a developer since the 1960s. Barkan’s management division grew from a supporting entity to the company’s primary business when the real estate market cooled and new construction began to slow in the late 1980s.
DiSchino said the decision to “focus all the energy of the company toward property management” was based on two factors: First, the second generation of Barkans was less interested in developing properties than in managing them. Second, the management business was virtually “recession-proof.”
The management company is now the largest of four firms – with Barkan Real Estate Services, Barkan Properties LLC, and Barkan Home Services – that operate under The Barkan Companies’ ownership.
