Photo Courtesy of Karl Fritz (www.lighthunters.com)

Property Manager Spotlight: Fred Caminite, CPM
Regional Property Manager, Lincoln BP Management, Inc.
S.D. Chapter President, Institute of Real Estate Management

Fred Caminite moved to San Diego in 1987 to join The Walters Management Company, where he stayed for nearly 10 years, until their apartment division was acquired by AIMCO. After 3 years there, handling a portfolio in San Diego and Las Vegas, Fred moved onto Sunrise Management where he was Director of Operations for 2 years. He recently joined Lincoln Property Company to oversee a 3,000-unit portfolio of off-base military housing, which is some of the first of the national initiative to privatize the military housing stock across the country. This portfolio includes 500 apartment homes being built on the NTC site in Point Loma. Lincoln has formed a partnership with the Navy to own and manage this portfolio.

The partnership with the military presents some unique challenges. First, the rent is paid in arrears, which means that the residents like the first month of living with us (when they don’t pay rent) but don’t appreciate the need to pay rent the last day that they vacate the apartment. Commonly heard around this office is the statement, “but I was planning to use that money to move to my new place!”

Another issue facing the day-to-day operations is the military vernacular used in our dealings with the Navy personnel. We’re actually writing a “dictionary” to translate their jargon into English so we can understand it!

The Lincoln staff understands that our residents are providing a very special and valuable service to our country and they deserve to have a quality living environment. We do many community service events for the families, such as bowling parties, free Internet access, movies, picnics, and Parents -Night-Out. The most rewarding times are when we greet the incoming ships at the dock, and see our residents hold their newborn babies for the first time and greet their families after such a long absence. Some of the residents comment that this is the best military housing they’ve ever lived in!

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