Medical real estate developers Ensemble Real Estate Services and DevMan Company have joined forces to become Ensemble DevMan of Arizona. The union was official Nov. 1.
Ensemble DevMan specializes in medical office development, management, leasing and brokerage — a combination of each firm’s services before the merger. The new company has 110 employees and the combined portfolio includes 124 properties totaling more than 5.4 million square feet of space in four states. Since neither company’s location is big enough to house the new firm under one roof, the Ensemble building on 24th Street and Camelback has been dubbed the south office and the DevMan building a block away on East Missouri Avenue is the north office. Accounting, property management and development services are located in the south building and brokerage operations are in the north office.
Michael Moskowitz of Ensemble Real Estate Services says no money changed hands when the companies merged — they simply combined the two businesses. Ensemble was founded in 1989 by Moskowitz and partners Kambiz Babaoff and Randy McGrane. The company’s focus is developing, leasing and operating medical facilities on hospital campuses.
“This wasn’t a Wall Street-type merger,” says Moskowitz, Ensemble DevMan’s managing director. “Randy, Bill (Molloy) and I have known each other for a long time, so it was a decision that evolved from casual to serious over time. Earlier this year, we talked about doing a specific deal together and then we talked about it again over the summer and questioned whether we should put the businesses together. In the end, we all decided it made sense. Merging allows us to provide our clients with more talent and resources, a bigger knowledge base and more solutions.”
DevMan founder Bill Molloy described the merger as comfortable because both companies share the same culture and values. He also considers it a wonderful opportunity to enhance services for clients and explore new projects. Molloy started DevMan Company in 1981 to provide brokerage and management services to the medical real estate community and to develop physician-owned medical office buildings.
“As a result of the merger, we are now a stronger company with a bigger platform for projects,” Molloy says. “We also have a bigger resource team, so Randy, Michael and I can truly act as managing members and sponsor the business and identify new opportunities in Arizona and outside the states we currently work in.”
Sheila Gerry, senior vice president of John C. Lincoln Health Network, has done business with Ensemble and DevMan in the past and considers both outstanding organizations.
“Ensemble and DevMan have slightly different areas of strength, so this merger is going to bring a full array of diverse services to their clients,” she says. “It’s going to be great for physician-owners and tenants, as well as for our community.”
Tracy Altemus, a member of DevMan’s staff since 1987, admits that initially she was cautiously optimistic about the concept of a merger, but then quickly changed her mind.
“There are always concerns with change, but I couldn’t have thought of a better fit for our two companies,” says Altemus, brokerage service manager for Ensemble DevMan. “I’ve known the principals of Ensemble for several years and always had a very high regard for them. I’ve also worked for years with their key brokerage employees, Sharon Cinadr, Marina Hammersmith and Murray Gares, and I always knew they were a class act. I also knew that their property-management philosophy was similar to ours: The tenant is ‘all important.’ In fact, when one of our clients moved from our building to theirs, I felt good knowing that they were in excellent hands and would be well taken care of.
“Ensemble and DevMan have similar cultures and are a natural fit,” she continues. “We all feel energized by the change and are looking forward to building a better mousetrap to provide excellent development, brokerage, asset and property management services to our clients, while having fun and feeling rewarded as part of a quality-centric organization.”
As a result of the merger, Ensemble DevMan has eight projects in the pipeline for development, totaling 369,000 square feet. The projected value of the projects is $170,537,000.
The projects include:
- The Medical Plaza at THE CITY, a 104,400-square-foot medical office building in Surprise. Project cost is $26 million and it is scheduled to break ground this month.
- Summit Medical Plaza, a 45,000-square-foot physician-owned medical office building on the campus of Summit Regional Medical Center in Show Low. The $11 million project is scheduled to break ground in either March or April.
- A 42,000-square-foot medical office building on the campus of Auburn Regional Medical Center in Auburn, Wash.
- Banner Gateway Medical Center, a 36,000-square-foot medical office building on the campus of Banner Ironwood Medical Center in Pinal County.
- Canyon Crossings, a $9 million, 31,000-square-foot retail and professional plaza across from Banner Gateway Medical Center in Gilbert. Construction on this project kicks off in April and will be complete by the end of the year.
- Phoenix Children’s Hospital’s West Valley Specialty & Urgent Care Center and an adjacent medical office building totaling 72,000 square feet in Avondale. The $19 million project will break ground sometime in February or March.
“The merger of Ensemble and DevMan will ultimately provide Phoenix Children’s Hospital with access to the expertise from both firms,” says Robert Meyer, president and CEO, Phoenix Children’s Hospital. “As a client, this merger will increase the number of important relationships needed in the medical real estate community and will give Phoenix Children’s Hospital a broader reach in the Greater Phoenix market. Having existing relationships with both companies, I see this merger as very positive.”
