Hartford Business Journal

6 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER 14, 2024 Deal Watch Shane Mulready (left) will soon take over as CEO of well-known Hartford property management firm RM Bradley Management Corp. She will replace longtime CEO David Fagone (right) who is headed into semi-retirement. HBJ PHOTOS | MICHAEL PUFFER Torch Passing Prominent Hartford-based property manager RM Bradley gets new leader JLL and Colliers that offer property management services. Over the years, the number of private office buildings run by RM Bradley has declined. But those losses have been offset, Fagone said, by a growing number of contracts to manage state-owned buildings, including various judicial branch properties, the state office building at 165 Capitol Ave., and others. That shift began in the 1990s with a wave of state building manager retirements, he said. "The competition has sort of come from within, building owners managing from within rather than outsourcing," Fagone said. "It was just coincidence, but while that was happening, the state of Connecticut was outsourcing building after building after building as they were finding their long-term facilities people retiring." The company also maintains a small brokerage arm, with two full-time staff focused primarily on suburban areas around Hartford. A different path While attending George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, Shane Mulready thought she'd work in government. She had interned for Sen. Christopher Dodd and majored in government and politics. In her sophomore year, Mulready was hired as a part-time usher at the university's Patriot Center arena. Within months of graduation, she was hired for a full-time job in the box office. By the time she left in 2008, she was director of arena and event management. In that role Mulready coordinated events ranging from concerts to college sports, overseeing every aspect of logistics and execution from "load-in" to "load-out." That meant arranging staffing, sequencing the arrival of equipment trucks, sizing the stage and organizing vendors, among many other tasks. It was hectic, but there was a great sense of accomplishment at the conclusion of every event. "It was fun and great," Mulready said. "I learned a lot about people, about business and about working very long hours." Those 80-hour workweeks were tough on a single mother, however. So, in 2008, at age 35, Mulready took a property manager job at RM Bradley, something that offered more consis- tent and reasonable hours. Moving back to Connecticut and closer to family was another motivator. In a few years, Mulready began to imagine herself taking the company's helm. "Family brought me back," Mulready said. "Dad started this company when I was 3. I think I had a sense it shouldn't go to someone else. He built this and we never had a want in the world he couldn't provide for us. I felt it should be someone in the family who carried on." By Michael Puffer mpuffer@hartfordbusiness.com A s a child, Shane Mulready would raid supply closets at her dad's company, RM Bradley Management Corp., in downtown Hart- ford's Gold Building office tower. From those offices, she would survey the city with binoculars. At one point or another, the company launched by her father — Richard Mulready — managed most of the high-rise buildings on that skyline. For the majority of her life, Shane Mulready didn't imagine herself working for her father's firm full-time, much less running it. Her parents never pressured her to follow in her father's footsteps. Even so, Mulready, now 51, joined RM Bradley as a property manager in 2008. Earlier this year, she was elevated to president. And on Jan. 1, 2025, Mulready will fully take over the firm's reins, following the semi-retirement of CEO David Fagone — who has headed the company since 2014. Mulready said she's up for leading the firm into the future, after having been groomed for the top job for years, gradually taking on more responsibili- ties. Most recently, she was director of property management for the compa- ny's entire Connecticut portfolio, as well as an executive vice president. "I think when the day came (when I was named president), it was just kind of like a title change," Mulready said. "It wasn't a stark difference that day. It was just a gradual increase in duties. And there will be more to come." Smooth transition Fagone said he will maintain an off-site consulting relationship with the firm for a couple years as a sort of "CEO emeritus." "There is a client base that's known me for 39 years and may not know Shane," Fagone said. "The strategy is to keep a finger on the pulse and help out where possible and fill any gaps, if there are any, during the transition period." Fagone joined the company in 1986, when it was called Servus Management Corp. At the time, the firm employed about a dozen people and managed two or three office buildings, Fagone recalled. Richard Mulready founded his company under the Servus Manage- ment name in 1975. In 2008, Servus acquired and absorbed a small Boston-based real estate services and brokerage firm called RM Bradley. Market testing concluded the RM Bradley name carried wider appeal, so Mulready rebranded his entire firm under that banner. Today, RM Bradley employs 100 people and manages 6.8 million square feet of space — predominantly office — throughout Connecticut, as well as in Boston and Virginia. In Hart- ford, it manages the 30-story Goodwin Square office skyscraper and 26-story Gold Building, among others. RM Bradley is one of the region's largest property managers. Its competitors include blue-chip commercial real estate companies like CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, RM BRADLEY MANAGEMENT CORP. Industry: Property management Top Executives: David Fagone, CEO; Shane Mulready, President, Incoming CEO HQ: 225 Asylum St., 15th Floor, Hartford Employees: 100 Website: www.rmbradley.com Contact: 860-278-2040 Properties under management: 6.8 million square feet, predom- inantly office, in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Virginia

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