Moving up in the guy-dominated real estate industry didn’t prove too much of a challenge for Julie Schoenbachler, vice president of Irvine-based apartment investor and manager Bascom Group.
The 29-year-old has been promoted four times in seven years at Bascom.
Being taken seriously as a younger executive has proved more challenging, according to Schoenbachler, who joined one of the country’s largest apartment owners straight out of college.
“You stand out,” said Schoenbachler, who joined Bascom after graduating from the University of California, Irvine, in 2003 with a political science degree and a minor in psychology.
“When I started and went out to management companies—even though they’re more female-dominated than other parts (of the industry)—I definitely stood out,” she said. “Being younger, that made it a little harder. It forces you to grow up a little bit.”
It helped that most of Bascom’s executive team also was on the younger side when she joined. The company was formed in 1996—at a college bar—by a trio of buddies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Everyone here is relatively young,” Schoenbachler said. “It’s a relaxed environment.”
Schoenbachler was one of five businesswomen honored at the Business Journal’s 16th annual Women in Business award luncheon May 25 at the Hyatt Regency Irvine.
As vice president of operations, Schoenbachler oversees the bulk of the company’s Southern California and Colorado holdings.
She also handles internal financial reporting for the portfolio and helps to maintain ties with lenders and investors.
Schoenbachler first joined the company as a marketing intern.
Bascom ranked as the 38th largest apartment owner in the country last year, according to trade publication Multifamily Executive magazine.
The company owned 31,142 apartments at the end of 2009, the trade publication reported last month.
Schoenbachler, who is seven months pregnant with her third son, oversees a portfolio that makes up about a third of Bascom’s apartments. She handles 31 properties, or about 10,000 apartments.
Those buildings are valued at close to $1 billion.
The largest property Schoenbachler oversees is the 190-acre Breakers Resort complex in Denver.
Bascom and Denver-based Koelbel and Co. teamed up to buy the Breakers, which counts about 1,500 apartments, for a reported $190 million in 2006.
Schoenbachler reportedly turned the Breakers around, going from negative cash flow to the best-performing complex in Bascom’s portfolio.
Finding ways to turn a profit amid a tough market for apartment owners is one of her main tasks these days.
Despite paring back the number of apartments Bascom owned by nearly 13% last year, the company generated $236 million in 2009 revenue, a sizable increase from 2008, according to Multifamily Executive’s figures.
The company was able to cut expenses by some $9 million last year, helping to increase net operating income by $11 million.
Expenses were cut by renovating lighting and water systems, as well as by handling internally a number of expensive contractor services, such as painting and heating and air conditioning repair, according to Schoenbachler.
“Some of our (properties) are showing double-digit growth in the first quarter, even while we’re seeing a drop in rents,” she said.
Keeping tenants is key for Bascom. The company’s known for social outreach programs at its complexes, ranging from job fairs to yard sales to tutoring for residents, among other things.
Like other apartment owners, “we’re trying to eliminate expenses, but we decided not to compromise on social outreach,” Schoenbachler said.
That’s helped keep apartments full, she said.
Bascom officials told Multifamily Executive that they plan on taking advantage of the savings the company has made in expenses during the past year by acquiring apartments in distressed markets like Las Vegas.
