rubin/wade/mike1st/mark2nd

A. Stuart Rubin

Executive Vice President

Rubin-Pachulski Properties Inc.

Age: 35

A. Stuart Rubin comes close to saying he was predestined to become a real estate developer.

“It was a natural evolution to where I would purchase properties and develop them,” says Rubin, 35, who with his life-long friend and colleague Richard Pachulski, founded Rubin-Pachulski Properties Inc. in 1986.

As he grew up in Los Angeles, Rubin’s family parked cars and managed parking lots in downtown Los Angeles. The family built an empire that now includes ownership of lots in prime downtown Los Angeles, as well as the parking at JFK and La Guardia airports in New York.

As youths, Rubin and Pachulski had learned the tools of the trade so well that they bought and re-sold their first properties two four-unit apartment buildings near what is now the Beverly Center mall when they were 17 and 20 years old, respectively.

From there, they set out to purchase and develop retail centers, apartment buildings and housing developments.

The company and its affiliates have acquired and/or developed in excess of $150 million of properties, and they expect to acquire another $45 million to $55 million worth of properties this year alone.

“Our niche has become … buying Class-B properties in Class-A locations. We are very location-oriented,” says Rubin.

In 1995, the company purchased the debt-laden Janns Court building on Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade for just over $20 million. The space, which is anchored by Cineplex Odeon theaters and the Broadway Deli, at the time had occupants in only 40 percent of its 60,000-square-feet of office space and in 70 percent of its 32 apartments.

Now, with building virtually leased out, the company has listed it for sale at just over $30 million.

Rubin’s success is largely due to his ability to spot and close a deal in far less time than nearly any other firm, says Bob Safai, president of Madison Partners, a Santa Monica-based real estate brokerage. “He is an absolute consummate deal maker who, for example, can go from preliminary meeting to change of title in 30 days vs. the usual 45 or 75 or 90 days, and I’ve seen him do it in three days.”

“I have no aspirations to go public, though we might reach the size where we could,” Rubin says. “I just want to be in and out of the markets.”

Wade Daniels