Condo Media - March 2014 - 42

VENDOR SPOTLIGHT

Great North Property
Management Inc.
Established for Today ... Equipped for Tomorrow
by Pamela Schweppe

f you asked people at Boxberry
Square who their association's
property management firm was,
you might be surprised to find
out that it is Great North Property
Management Inc. After all, Boxberry
Square is located in Rockland, Mass.,
on Boston's South Shore, and Great
North is headquartered in Exeter,
N.H. - about 75 miles away.
"I was skeptical at first," admits Jared
Lewis, president of the board at Boxberry Square. Built early in the 21st century,
the complex was originally managed by a
small local firm when the board decided
they really needed a larger enterprise with
more sophisticated accounting systems
and greater buying power. When a board
member recommended Great North,
"We were concerned about their buying
power and their ability to deal with contractors," Lewis reveals, "but we decided
to go with them."
The company worked in partnership
with the board to find someone locally
who would work as the on-site manager
on behalf of Great North. "They were
able to right the ship and bring more
structure to the association and to the
meetings," Lewis says. "And we really like
their accounting department and their
ability to report to us in a timely fashion."

Strategically Located
Local Offices

One way that Great North offsets
the issue of distance is by maintaining an expanding network of strategically located local offices that today
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include Bretton Woods, Lebanon, and
Nashua, N.H.; Boston, Peabody, and
Foxborough, Mass.; and Wells, Maine.
Through this network, Great North
provides quality management services
with a local touch to more than 200

Justin Gargiulo (left), Lou Gargiulo, and Great North's expanding
network of local offices are ready to serve your association.

associations, totaling more than 13,000
units, throughout New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island. And the firm remains in the mode
of actively seeking acquisitions of other
property management firms.
To provide a local touch throughout
this broad region, the executive team at
Great North maintains a staff of more
than 80 property management, administrative, and accounting professionals -
and they are always on the lookout for
new talent. "Our constant vision is to
offer the highest level of service at the
best price possible," says Lou Gargiulo,
CMCA, president and CEO of Great
North. "We have a full-time human

resources department that's always looking for high-caliber talent as we grow."
The size of the firm was a factor
when the board of Boulder Hills in
Pelham, N.H., went looking for a
property manager. Boulder Hills is also
a new complex, and when the property transitioned from the developer
to the association, "We found that
some things were not done right,"
says George Hallisey, board president.
Among the issues were the septic system and a fence the town required the
association to replace. In addition, the
insurance needed to be shifted from
the builder to the association.
Hallisey had previously lived in a
townhouse complex in Massachusetts
that was managed by Great North, and
he recommended the firm to the board
at Boulder Hills. "We did our research
and found that they were financially
in great shape and that other associations were giving them high praise," he
recalls. "Their reputation is excellent."
This reputation is not just local. Great
North has earned Accredited Management Organization® (AMO) accreditation. Only 530 elite property management organizations nationwide have
achieved this distinguished accreditation,
which represents the highest level of performance, experience, and financial stability among real estate management firms.

Condo Associations
Are a Specialty

Since its inception nearly a quartercentury ago, Great North has special-

Condo Media - March 2014

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