Igor Olenicoff, one of the wealthiest American real estate owners, was drawn more to rock ‘n’ roll than real estate early on.
His father helped changed that.
Before getting into real estate in the 1970s, Olenicoff—president and founder of Newport Beach’s Olen Properties Corp.—had an interesting stint in the music business, working in finance and accounting for legendary record producer and Motown Records founder Berry Gordy.
But under his dad’s tutelage, Olenicoff went on to become one of Orange County’s largest commercial property owners and landlords.
“My dad, who had just retired from Pacific Gas and Electric at age 76, loved to hang with me, tell me what I was doing wrong and help me develop the project,” Olenicoff said.
A similar father-son mentoring was expected to be passed down to Olenicoff’s son, Andrei, “who always had great interest in all I was doing,” he said.
His daughter, Natalia, “worked at everything but at Olen,” Igor joked. “She was the creative one and let us know that two-by-fours and concrete were not her thing.”
But it was Natalia who accepted the large business award for Olen Properties at the annual Family Owned Business Award lunch hosted by the Orange County Business Journal and California State University, Fullerton’s Family Business Council on Nov. 19 at the Hyatt Regency Irvine.
In a self-deprecating speech, Natalia acknowledged her somewhat reluctant rise to the head of leasing for Olen Properties after her brother, long the heir apparent for Olen Properties, was killed in a 2005 auto accident.
Both Andrei and younger sister Natalia learned about the company from an early age, she said.
Interest in the family business “all started with my father,” Natalia said. “He taught us all the types of real estate when we were in kindergarten.”
Andrei’s interest was stronger at the outset, according to Igor.
After graduating from college, “He never hesitated joining dad in running Olen and the company really flourished,” he said.
Andrei took over money-raising efforts for the company and was responsible for more than $2 billion in financing during some of the company’s fastest-growing years.
Eventually Natalia became more involved in marketing and leasing for the company.
She really ramped up her involvement after the family tragedy.
She now manages the company’s leasing, makes all tenant-related decisions and is the “most active” in the financial decisions that the company is faced with, according to Igor.
She’s “put a new spark in the step of our staff and the company,” he said.
Natalia’s also responsible for the biggest local development that Olen Properties has built in the past year—a restaurant in Irvine next to the company’s high-rise offices at Main Street and Jamboree Road. Natalia’s the managing partner of the restaurant, called Andrei’s.
The hard-working Igor said he’s in no hurry to retire, although he’s trying to spend more time these days traveling on his boat.
Succession plans are “pretty easy,” he said.
“Natalia seems to love the business and has a real knack for it, so the ownership will transfer to her fully in time,” Olenicoff said.
But she isn’t the only “family” member at Olen Properties.
Both Igor and Natalia said that they consider everyone who works at Olen as part of their family. He notes the company’s executive staff of about 40 people has an average tenure of more than 20 years.
“Natalia and I have discussed that any succession should benefit everyone who we consider the Olen family,” according to Igor. “That is not a term we use lightly, because both Andrei and Natalia realized that Olen belongs to everyone who helped along the way and continues to be part of the company.”
Beginnings
A connection to staff was there from the outset of Olen Properties.
When the company got its start in 1973, Olenicoff was scrambling to find a bank that would lend him money.
So for two years he worked out of the kitchen of the one-bedroom Tustin home of the company’s only other employee, Igor’s assistant, Jeannette Bullington, who now is executive vice president at Olen.
Bullington offered to work for free for the first six months until the company got up and running, according to Igor, who had been working as the vice president of operations for a locally based developer, Dunn Properties.
She said, “Why don’t you start your own company, since you do it all over here (at Dunn) anyway,” Igor said.
The idea of starting a company close to home had appeal to Igor, whose job at Dunn took him to developments across the country.
“It was grueling spending so much time on the road,” he said.
Andrei, his first child, had just been born. His own parents, who escaped political turmoil in their native Russia during the 1940s and spent several years in an Iranian mining town before moving to the U.S. with Igor in the late 1950s, were elderly.
Olen Properties “got started as a matter of family necessity,” Olenicoff said.
The company—now based in one of the more opulent offices in Newport Center—counts some 6 million square feet of commercial property and more than 8,000 apartments.
Much of Olen’s holdings are in OC, although it also has a large number of buildings in Florida, Chicago and Arizona, among other areas.
