A married couple recently decided to merge their real estate asset management companies to form AthenianRazak.
The two Philadelphia, Pa.-based companies joining forces are Athenian Properties, founded by Jackie Buhn in 2001, and Razak Companies, created by Alan Razak in 2003. Each ran their own business for several years, but the companies collaborated on many joint projects over the last decade.
“Both companies have done the same things in the real estate area and the merger allows us to double our staff and capacity,” said Buhn, who was appointed as principal and CEO of AthenianRazak, in an interview with Managing REO. “We are excited to bring together the vision of our teams and our integrated understanding of all aspects of real estate.”
AthenianRazak's services include REO management and receivership, development, project and property management, owner's representation, data center consulting and historic redevelopment. The bulk of AthenizanRazak's portfolio is located in the Mid-Atlantic region, but management is done throughout the country on multi-family, commercial, retail and industrial properties.
Even though Buhn has not seen many changes to the REO market since 2009 except that it has been extremely competitive, she said AthenianRazak has experienced recent growth.
“We have relationships with special servicers who value our work and we've seen portfolios grow both for multi-family and commercial, but more commercial right now since multi-family is a hot market,” Buhn said.
Razak, who specializes in real estate development and consulting services as well as IT services, said the merger allows clients to utilize additional resources than it had access to in the past.
“For years, Athenian Properties and Razak Company have been building an array of work in the real estate services market throughout the Mid-Atlantic region,” said Razak, a principal at AthenianRazak. “Now that we can offer our services jointly, clients will benefit from our expertise ranging from financial structuring and strategic planning to hands-on construction and management.”
