CRESCO Real Estate was founded nine years ago on a strong basis of teamwork.
Where other traditional brokerage organizations are composed of independent contractors with different goals, CRESCO sought to create a company that worked together and shared both the good and the bad.
In the past five years, CRESCO has grown by 50 percent and is a respected player in the industrial real estate market it serves. Company President Armand Aghajanian believes the company’s success rests on its mix of industry experience, quality customer service and a strong team mentality.
“I’m an active guy,” says Aghajanian. “I’m not just sitting back listening. I’m out on the street with the rookies and I know what’s going on within our company and within our marketplace because I’m still active in the business, as opposed to sitting back as an administrator and having people come to you with problems.”
Typically, there is little teamwork among people associated with a particular brokerage, and the sharing of commission is out of the question. CRESCO’s team concept allows workers to provide a more complete, one-stop company to its clients and creates a more desirable work environment for staff members.
“None of the partners step on each other,” says Aghajanian. “The bottom line is, it’s all coming back to us.”
This kinder, gentler workplace concept has worked well for the company. Since it was founded in 1991, there has been very low turnover. In fact, the staff members who have left did so for personal reasons rather than because they were hired away by a competing firm. And although the work is shared inside the firm, so are the rewards. Bonuses are awarded to everyone at every level of CRESCO, based on the company’s overall performance.
This success sharing, explains Aghajanian, is one of the main reasons the company’s teamwork concept has worked so well for so long: If one person loses, everyone does.
Aghajanian, along with Fred W. Christie and Joseph V. Barna, all former employees of Grubb & Ellis, are the primary account team. Together, the trio has built a strong reputation for themselves in the industrial real estate market. Locally, CRESCO has a number of significant accomplishments, including identifying and securing 15 distribution centers for the Plain Dealer, securing a 10-year lease for GTE on a 78,000-square-foot regional office and selling space downtown for the new Stonebridge condominiums, apartments and retail developments.
As far as being recognized as one of Northeast Ohio’s leading entrepreneurs, Aghajanian deflects credit for the company’s success to everyone who has worked to make it what it is today.
“Not only me, but everybody here feels we’re extremely honored,” he says. “We’re a small company and we have a small niche in our marketplace, although we do a lot of work. Those in our field know who we are and we’re well thought of.
“That’s the way we do our business.” How to reach: CRESCO Real Estate, (216) 520-1200
Jim Vickers ([email protected]) is an associate editor at SBN Cleveland.
