Christopher Leahy grew up in Brooklyn NY. He worked with his grandfather in the multi-family mixed use real-estate business in Manhattan and Brooklyn starting in the early 1970’s. Chris also worked as a General Contractor in NYC since 1980. Maria Manalo grew up in the Chicago suburbs, moved to New Jersey in the early 1990’s, and worked as a software release manager for the telecommunications industry. They met in 1998 and in 2000, already a couple, they took the opportunity to acquire part of Chris’ grandfather’s real estate business and purchased the remainder of the business from relatives over the next decade. In 2014, they sold part of their NYC holdings and purchased their first Maine property in Portland Maine.

Since the first New England acquisition in 2014, they purchased two other Portland properties including a multi-tenant office building currently being converted a few suites at a time into live/work lofts. They also purchased a multi-family property in Lebanon, NH, and recently industrial properties in Plaistow and Rochester, NH. They completed developing two marinas and a restaurant on Greenwood Lake in West Milford NJ. Except for the Lebanon NH property managed by their partner there, Briarcliff Management, all other properties are now owner-managed by Chris & Maria and their employees in New England and the NY Metro area.

What they have learned in the last 25+ years is that satisfied tenants make good tenants. As owners, they take good care of their properties and respond to their tenants’ needs and concerns.