Founder/Chairman’s Legacy Built on Quality Service and Team Culture
Commercial real estate services firm Levin Management Corporation (LMC) this year is celebrating a golden anniversary for Founder and Chairman William Farber: a 50-year affiliation with the Levin name.
After military service as an Army officer, Farber in 1971 was hired as in-house attorney for pioneering shopping center developer Philip J. Levin. In the early 1980s, with the support of Mr. Levin’s widow, Janice H. Levin, Farber established LMC as an offshoot of Levin Properties.
“We agreed that ‘Levin’ would become the trade name for a professional, third-party management company – with me at the helm and Levin Properties as its first and foremost client,” Farber noted. “This new company would also serve other commercial real estate owners and investors.”
Farber subsequently led LMC’s growth into one of the nation’s leading third-party providers. Today, the award-winning, privately held firm maintains a diversified, yet still retail-focused leasing and management portfolio of approximately 120 properties totaling 16 million square feet in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. The company continues to represent properties for the Levin family, though today institutional, fiduciary and individual owners comprise nearly 90% of its client base.
EARLY CHALLENGES, DEEP ROOTS
LMC faced early challenges in establishing its identity as an independent business. “The strength of the Levin name was both a gift and a challenge,” Farber said. “Levin Properties was such a huge client that it provided my start-up business with enough income to pay our bills. Yet it was very difficult to establish LMC’s identity as an independent business; many simply saw us as a back office for Levin Properties.”
According to Farber, a notable turning point came in the mid-1990s when he approached Matthew Harding, who at that time was working for LMC as a leasing agent. “I identified Matthew as someone that had talent well beyond that position,” Farber noted. “Today, he continues to drive LMC forward as our chief executive officer. I credit the partnership he and I formed decades ago, and the team we built here, for where the company is today.”
LMC has distinguished itself as a firm large enough to excel in assignments of any scale while continuing to employ a hands-on, proprietary strategy to leasing and operating properties. Harding grounds this sustained positive trajectory in the roots and culture established by Farber, who today remains active as LMC chairman and as a fiduciary for the Levin family business interests.
“Bill did an excellent job creating the LMC brand as a go-to for third-party commercial real estate services,” Harding said. “The real estate market evolves continually, but through the years LMC’s focus on client service and the quality of its team have remained constant.”
Farber and Harding both take pride in LMC’s reputation as a company whose employees know they will have a place to work for their entire career. “We offer stability, a terrific work environment and in-house opportunities for career advancement,” Harding said. “It is not the exception but the rule to be here for decades – and, in one case, a full half-century.”
LMC helps its clients operate properties and create case-specific solutions to protect and improve value. The firm offers leasing, property management, financial management and reporting, construction management and development, lease administration, marketing services, and acquisition and disposition consulting services. LMC’s capabilities continue to evolve with new technologies, efficiencies and sustainability-focused initiatives to serve a new generation of properties, investors and tenants.
