ZRS Management announced that Darren Pierce has been elevated to the role of CEO, succeeding Steve Buck, in a news release shared exclusively with Multifamily Dive.
Buck, who led the company for the past 30 years, will continue to be involved with ZRS as a member of the board of directors and in an advisory capacity.
When Buck joined the firm in 1994, it was known as ZOM Residential Services and only operated a few properties. In the most recent National Multifamily Housing Council Top 50 Managers list, it ranked No. 19 with over 90,000 units under management.
Pierce joined Orlando, Florida-based ZRS as a vice president in 2016, when it had 30,000 units under management. He previously held roles with Englewood, Colorado-based REIT Archstone and Charlotte, North Carolina-based real estate investor, developer and operator Crescent Communities.
“When I was at Crescent Communities in Charlotte, I actually hired ZRS to run a couple of deals for me in Orlando,” Pierce told Multifamily Dive. “So that's how I got to know Steve and the team. He came up with what was, at the time, a pretty crazy idea of, ‘Hey, do you want to come over to the management side?’”
After initial skepticism about moving to apartment management operations, Pierce came on board.
“Steve has this way of explaining very complicated things in a very easy way,” Pierce said. “And he just said, ‘Hey, here's the opportunity. At some point — that could be in five years, 10 years or 20 years down the road — I’m looking to bring on the next person and continue all the great things we're doing at ZRS and people seem to like you. What do you think about coming over here and running the East region for me?”
Pierce was promoted to president in 2022 and oversaw the company’s national portfolio before becoming CEO this year.
“It is pretty remarkable when you have somebody that sets out this vision,” Pierce said. “Then you meet everything that you need to do to make it happen, and then they actually fulfill their promise and let it all happen.”
As Pierce steps into the top role, his goal is to continue to grow ZRS organically.
“We have never bought another company,” Pierce said. “We have no interest in growing through acquisition. We have no interest in changing the product types that we manage or going into markets where we don't have partners and owners that we've already worked with before. It's just doing really good business, working with really good people and taking care of all of our employees the exact same way.”
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