LIVERPOOL — TJMG Properties, LLC, a brokerage, development, and management firm, has acquired DeWitt–based Highlander Associates Ltd. in a deal that closed on Dec. 31.

TJMG Properties, which operates at 209 Second St. in the village of Liverpool, didn’t disclose any terms of the acquisition.

Highlander Associates, which continues operating under that name, has an office at 5988 Wilbur Road, off Manlius Center Road, in DeWitt. It also has a location in Albany.

Here’s how the deal came about. Christine O’Connell More, a Syracuse business consultant, had approached TJMG Properties about the acquisition possibility, says Keith Jones, co-owner of TJMG, who spoke with CNYBJ on Jan. 29.

O’Connell More wondered if Jones and business partner Chris MacEwen had ever thought about buying a business. Jones told CNYBJ that he hadn’t at the time, but the more he thought about it, the more he figured the idea had some potential.

“I better talk to her before somebody else does,” Jones says, recalling the lunch he had with O’Connell More in February 2015.

Jones then researched the firm in the months that followed. His legwork included taking several meetings with the firm’s three partners: Kimberly Wolff, Mark Bright, and Edward Czarny. 

As he researched Highlander Associates, Jones met with the company’s partners and discussed their operations, employees, and clients.

“I got most of my information directly from the owners to get an understanding of how they operated,” says Jones. 

Discussions on the acquisition accelerated in late summer, he adds.

Acquisition benefits
Highlander operates in different market segments than TJMG Properties, but Jones saw that as a plus. 

“To me [that] means growth,” he says. 

TJMG also incorporates more technology into its processes than does Highlander Associates, he adds. 

Launched in 1993, Highlander Associates is involved with homeowners and condominium associations. It offers property management services and a lawn and landscape service as well.

The lawn and landscape service was “something we did not have,” Jones notes. 

TJMG owners financed the acquisition using their own funding and some equity from properties they own through their business, says Jones.

“Completing the purchase of Highlander Associates is a big step towards our goal of becoming a leader in the property-management sector across upstate New York,” Chris MacEwen, co-owner of TJMG Properties, said in a Jan. 25 news release.

“We have been looking to get into another market, and in the course of a day, we were all of a sudden a two-city company,” says Jones, referring to the Albany office his firm picked up in the deal.

Property management
With the acquisition, TJMG’s property management responsibilities grew from 390 units to 2,800 units between the Syracuse and Albany areas, he added. 

TJMG retained all of Highlander Associates’ 25 employees, including 20 in the DeWitt office and five in Albany, says Jones.

Highlander’s partners are remaining with the company “in some capacity,” according to Jones.

Prior to the acquisition, TJMG operated with seven employees and seven real-estate agents, who serve as independent contractors with the firm.

TJMG now employs 32 people, a figure that does not include its seven real-estate agents who work as independent contractors.

When asked if the Highlander employees would start working in TJMG’s Liverpool office or remain in their respective DeWitt and Albany offices, Jones declined to provide an answer. But he did confirm that Highlander’s offices in DeWitt and Albany will remain open.

TJMG operates in a 2,000-square-foot space in Liverpool. Highlander operates in about 8,000 square feet of space in DeWitt, Jones estimates.

Besides the Highlander acquisition, Jones also says the firm’s real-estate department is growing, having increased its number of agents from three to seven during 2015. In addition, a director of brokerage services started Jan. 4 and manages that part of the company. The addition of the director of brokerage services and the additional agents wasn’t related to the Highlander acquisition, says Jones.