From Forgotten to Fabulous

Property ownership is not exactly the same as property management. A large portfolio of properties may or may not pay off and prosper without the right team managing it.

Pete Kutzer, Founder and President of The Kutzer Company, understands that simple concept. A cursory glance across the Pasadena real estate landscape would reveal a small but impressive handful of Kutzer-developed and/or managed properties, including several historic buildings in Old Pasadena, which he began eyeing soon after forming his company, just after graduate school. 

With a range of property types including retail, office, medical, industrial, and multi-family, the company has formed relationships with institutions, corporations, international investors, and family offices, with assignments totaling approximately $2 billion in value.  

As Kutzer recalled in a recent interview, “I started The Kutzer Company when I finished business school back in 1992. I grew up in Sacramento, which was growing quite a lot when I was young, and my mom worked for a local development firm. 

“And so I got interested in real estate from a young age, and then I took jobs over the summer, working at Coldwell Banker Commercial Real Estate. I learned to look around and think about ‘What should go here on this corner, what is missing in the neighborhood? What would make sense and be popular with the people in the community?’” 

Back in 1992, Old Pasadena was only beginning its journey from forgotten to fabulous, a process which spread over a couple of decades, and resulted in one of the prime retail and restaurant destinations in Southern California.

“It was a great opportunity for us to begin working on historic properties in Pasadena that needed to be improved,” said Kutzer. “My team and I really enjoy working on historic buildings and many of them have retail on the ground floor and office space upstairs.”

“In those early 90s, there were a number of troubled real estate properties around Southern California,” he recalled. Kutzer took on a number of assignments throughout  Southern California “to help improve properties and help them get through the recession and re-lease them.”

But he noted how his experiences in Old Pasadena helped the company develop a strong interest and reputation for working with historic properties and “how to help build a neighborhood by working in collaboration with other property owners and the community,” he said. 

“That was a very formative experience for our people and for our company,” he stressed.

These days, with decades of development under the company’s belt, Kutzer is quick to point out his company’s “commitment to quality in design and operations,  and a team of people who really care about the projects that we do and the people who go to them, who work in them.”

Three of the company’s managers have been at the firm for over 26 years, with a number of other employees who’ve seen more than ten years of service. 

“We have a lot of people who are very committed to what we do and take a lot of pride in the quality of the projects that we do,” Kutzer emphasized. 

With partner Joe McNulty, the company also formed a separate affiliate called Edgewood Realty Partners 15 years ago, to serve as the investment platform to buy properties, expanding from managing properties to buying and operating properties as well. 

Both The Kutzer Company and Edgewood Realty Partners have grown substantially since their formation, he noted. 

Finally, Kutzer, like any real estate professional, naturally understands the importance of location.

“We feel very fortunate to be working in Pasadena and other nearby communities,” he said, adding, “We are grateful to be a part of this really tremendous community of people. We love being here and we enjoy working on projects here that our firm and the community can be proud of.”

The Kutzer Company is located at 716 Mission Street in South Pasadena. For more, visit https://www.kutzer.com/ or call (626) 441-9620.