PennCap Properties was formed in May 2011 to own and operate 32 buildings purchased from Liberty Property Trust, representing one of the largest real estate transactions ever to occur in the Lehigh Valley. The PennCap Properties portfolio offers potential and existing clients the largest selection of office buildings and industrial flex properties in the Lehigh Valley region, consisting of 13 commercial office properties and 18 industrial flex properties totaling 1.43 million square feet. Currently, the portfolio is comprised of over 100 tenants representing a diverse cross-section of industries such as education, healthcare, business services, and logistics. A key objective of PennCap Properties is to continue to “brand” the portfolio ownership to maintain the company’s dominate position in the local market, while concentrating on economies of scale and micromanagement of vendor contracts and building systems. The current team consists of 16 people based in the company’s downtown Bethlehem headquarters, with property management team services outsourced from Newmark Grubb Knight Frank and leasing, construction management, marketing, and asset management outsourced to ALT Realty which is wholly owned by Lisa and Lou Pektor. Both Newmark and ALT are under contract with PennCap for their respective services to the portfolio and are thus poised to assist PennCap with additional future growth. The paring of the national platform provided by Newmark, and the local platform of ALT Realty, creates a symbiotic company operating under the PennCap brand without exposing the assets to risks associated with human resources and other general liabilities. Property management, leasing, and maintenance personnel act as a unified team, while successfully providing a high level of professionalism and tenant satisfaction. Daily communication, as well as regular bi-weekly meetings, help to keep team members informed while effectively, efficiently, and respectfully working together to achieve high tenant retention rates. Since acquisition of the properties in 2011, PennCap Properties has implemented an innovative repair and maintenance program that capitalized on the highly trained and accredited skill set of its service engineers. The program was designed to decrease the use of third party vendors and to increase responsiveness to tenant queries by utilizing in-house service engineers. The Angus software system provides PennCap the ability to track work orders, building announcements and routine preventative maintenance measures. The repair and maintenance program has reduced operating expenses by approximately $120,000 per year and reduced capital expenditures by nearly $3.2 million over a 5 year timeline. Throughout its operating history, it has become increasingly clear that PennCap Properties is the landlord of choice for growing tenants due to PennCap’s selection of premier properties located in the Lehigh Valley and our ability to acquire new assets to accommodate tenant’s real estate needs. In addition, PennCap has achieved a 94% occupancy rate beating the regional trend by 4%. Our tenant retention and expansion rate, coupled with the substantial amount of new deal flow, has been a key factor in PennCap’s ability to maintain a high occupancy rate, as tenants prefer to lease space from a professional landlord rather than one-off building owners as we can offer a variety of options as tenant’s real estate needs change.
