FirstService Residential buys Paradise & Associates

FirstService Residential, the biggest residential property management company in the state, said it is expanding in the Twin Cities with the purchase of Paradise & Associates, a medium-size company that manages a portfolio of 100 homeowners' associations with about 7,000 urban and suburban units.

Paradise was founded in 1999 by Maggie Paradise, Bob Paradise and Sandy Lattu, who are expected to continue running the day-to-day operations of the company.

In a statement, Maggie Paradise said that FirstService Residential's culture "aligned perfectly with how Paradise has operated for nearly 20 years."

FirstService Residential Minnesota has management contracts with more than 475 homeowner's associations with 45,000 units, mostly condos and townhouses, across the metro. The company is a division of FirstService Residential, the largest homeowner's association management company in the U.S. and Canada, and a subsidiary of FirstService Corp.

The company's portfolio includes low-, mid- and high-rise condominiums and cooperatives, single-family homes, master-planned, lifestyle and active adult communities and rental and commercial properties.

FirstService Residential made its mark in the Twin Cities when it acquired Gittleman Management Corp. in 2011. That is when former Gittleman CEO, Mark Gittleman, became president of FirstService Residential Minnesota. In 2013, Gittleman Management was renamed FirstService during a companywide rebranding effort.

At the time of the name change, the company managed more than 25,000 units in 260 community associations. Gittleman was founded in 1979 by Mel Gittleman, who had also been a condo developer in the Twin Cities.

Jim Buchta

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