DeWITT — Enterprise Lease Solutions (ELS), which helps clients manage the leasing and financing of equipment to customers, has opened a new office in Denver, Colorado.

ELS operates its main office in a 13,000-square-foot building at 6370 Vip Parkway, off East Molloy Road, in DeWitt. 

The Denver office was a “recent addition,” says Louis Centolella, III, president of ELS, noting the location opened last November. Centolella spoke with CNYBJ on June 7.

“There’s a lot of technology activity out there, and we’re seeing growth there because of that, and we wanted to have more of a proximity to our program customers there,” he adds. 

His brother, John Centolella, is currently the lone employee out in Denver.

Louis Centolella is projecting that ELS in 2018 will service $150 million in third-party administration for the leasing and financing industry, representing revenue growth of between 40 percent and 50 percent compared to 2017. The firm generated revenue growth of between 30 percent and 35 percent in 2017 compared to the previous year, he adds.

“The financial industry in general has rebounded. If you look at 2008, 2009 there was a substantial dip at that point. It’s a robust marketplace right now, so that helps the growth as well,” he notes.

ELS is currently servicing between 20 and 25 of what Centolella calls its program customers. 

When asked to elaborate on the phrase, “program customer,” Centolella says the local firm maintains the customer name and private label, and ELS services on its behalf the same as if they were working directly with ELS, “so we really become an extension” of the client’s leasing and finance unit. 

“There [are] thousands of end-user customers that we service on behalf of [that] group of companies,” he explains.

ELS currently employs 24 people, including 20 in Syracuse between ELS and two associated entities — Ontario Credit Corporation and Computer Gallery.

The employee count includes three employees who work in Richmond, Virginia in roles that focus on system development.

ELS plans to hire at least one new employee in 2018, perhaps two or three as the year proceeds. The firm has operated in its current location since 2014. 

About the firm

Enterprise Lease Solutions, Ontario Credit Corporation, and Computer Gallery all operate at 6370 Vip Parkway in DeWitt. 

Enterprise Lease Solutions is a third-party servicer for other leasing companies. “We’re doing the operational work on behalf of a different lessor or originator,” says Centolella.

ELS services on behalf of Ontario Credit, which has direct customers that it works with, mainly focused on technology and material-handling equipment. 

“It’s the Enterprise Lease team that’s interacting with those customers on behalf of Ontario Credit Corporation,” says Centolella.

As he described it, ELS and Ontario Credit focus on “the beginning of the life cycle of any transaction.”

The third entity, Computer Gallery, focuses on “the end of the life cycle of a transaction” when a customer wants to return the equipment to whoever functions as the lessor on the transaction. Computer Gallery helps with valuing what the product might be worth two, three, or four years down the line. 

“If it ultimately gets returned by whoever’s using that product, it’ll come back to our warehouse we receive it in. We test it and re-market it to the secondary market,” says Centolella.

When asked to name specific clients, Centolella declined citing “confidentiality” in the firm’s service agreements but noted most are involved in the leasing and finance industry.

“The groups that we work with … their parent organizations would sell computers, material handling equipment, furniture, tangible products,” he adds.

When asked about the difference in products, Centolella noted that although the products are different; the handling of the equipment is different; and the user of that equipment is different, “the mechanics of leasing and finance [of the products] are the same,” he says.

Centolella, his brothers John and Jason, and his mother, Emilia Centolella, have equal ownership of the company, he says. “We’re 100 percent family-owned.”

Jason Centolella, an attorney with Virginia–based Hancock Daniel, “acts as our outside counsel.”

“One of the services that we provide for any of our program clients is, that part of the life cycle is you’ve got to negotiate a contract with the end user. We help our program customers with that, so he’s responsible for leading that effort,” he adds.

Father’s death

Centolella’s late father, Louis Centolella, launched Ontario Credit Corp. in 1995. The elder Centolella died in 2010, after which the family decided to form ELS and Computer Gallery as separate entities. 

“Prior to that, everything was legally part of Ontario Credit Corporation,” the younger Centolella notes.

His father had worked for CIS Leasing, another leasing company located in DeWitt. In the 1980s, he and some business partners formed another company that the younger Centolella called a “predecessor” to Ontario Credit, which his father started in the mid-1990s. The younger Centolella joined the company in 2001 but had become familiar with the industry while growing up.         ν