Six Questions With Craig Stevens of Mar West

TUSTIN, CA-Mar West Real Estate founders Craig Stevens and April Buchner have built a substantial and growing business by specializing in a niche within the commercial real estate world that is little-known to many within the industry but is integral to the operation of literally tens of millions of square feet of commercial space. Mar West manages commercial property owners’ associations and operates as a property manager for those associations. The Tustin-based company and its Northern California affiliate Kocal work with 100 developers and manage 225 business parks with approximately 4,000 buildings/units/owners and 50 million square feet of space. To hear Stevens tell it, that’s a pretty good start. He and Buchner have set a goal of tripling the size of the company, and hence have brought in longtime industry veteran John Strockis as president to help shepherd that growth. Strockis calls his new position one of the best opportunities of his lifetime. Stevens, who is irrepressible on the topic of CPOAs (commercial property owners’ associations), talked with GlobeSt.com recently about the importance of good management for CPOAs, the pitfalls of poor CPOA management and Mar West’s ambitious growth plans.

GlobeSt.com: What is the difference between what Mar West does and what a traditional third-party property management company does?