Koll Co. Moves Into Midwest in New Management Pact

The Koll Co. said Monday that it is making a move into managing buildings in the Midwest as part of the company’s plan to transform itself into a nationwide property manager now that its development business has slowed down.

Koll said it assumed management of 1.5 million square feet of property in Ohio from Linclay Corp., St. Louis. Linclay had developed the buildings but ran into problems and wanted out of the Ohio market.

The property is mostly office buildings in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Findlay. The deal is Koll’s first foray into the Midwest.

The company said it is also discussing acquiring two other Ohio management firms with 2 million square feet of buildings under management in Cincinnati and Columbus.

The developer has managed its own buildings and those of its financial partners, mostly big insurance companies and pension funds, for 15 years. In fact, Koll manages a portfolio of 40 million square feet in the West with a property value the company sets at $4.6 billion.

But the company’s development business, meanwhile, has dropped drastically after Koll and other developers overbuilt in the booming 1980s. Now Koll, like other developers, is turning to property management to bring in more revenue.

Koll developed and managed office and industrial buildings on the West Coast as it became one of the nation’s larger developers over the last 30 years. In 1989, it moved farther east by opening an office in Dallas.

The next year it took its first step toward becoming a nationwide manager of property when it was selected by Henley Corp. to manage Henley’s $500 million in property reaching from Henley’s home base in New Hampshire to Hawaii.