New Orleans-based real estate development company HRI Properties has shifted the roles of its owners, naming co-founder Pres Kabacoff as the chairman of the board, and current president Tom Leonhard as both president and CEO. Eddie Boettner continues to serve as chief administrative officer.
“In 1982 when the late Edward B. Boettner and I formed HRI, we were a small company that began by revitalizing vacant historic buildings in the New Orleans Warehouse District,” says Kabacoff. “HRI Properties has grown into an important enterprise that employs nearly 2,000 people, operates in 16 states, and has completed more than 70 large-scale projects totaling more than $2.5 billion.”
Leonhard is a fourth generation New Orleanian who joined HRI properties in 1988 as an accounting intern while attending the University of New Orleans, where he first earned a degree in finance, and then an MBA with a focus on real estate. Since then, Leonhard has held several roles at HRI in the financing and development departments. He became president in 2001, and was named a partner in 2006. Today, he is responsible for all of HRI Properties’ operations including the ownership and management of 23 hotels and 43 apartment buildings in 16 states, with revenues exceeding $220 million annually.
“Today, HRI is poised to become a key player in the national real estate market,” Kabacoff adds. “Our growth and rapid expansion stresses the importance of clarifying roles so that our leadership team allocates duties and responsibilities that maximize our respective areas of strength. Tom Leonhard has earned national respect for his executive ability in building a disciplined organization, attracting top managerial talent, providing financial acumen and inspiring a tremendous esprit within HRI.”
HRI Properties continues to grow rapidly, with multiple satellite offices around the country, and seven projects under development in five states, creating 870 hotel rooms and 484 apartments totaling $438 million in funding.
“I expect the company to double in size to $2 billion of assets under management by 2018,” says Leonhard. “Our unique niche of repurposing historic properties into large-scale, mixed-use projects in urban areas represents a compelling opportunity in today’s competitive real estate market.”
