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cleaning or janitorial services on some Texas commercial
properties it managed.
Shortly after Century's subsidiary acquired the assets of
Fletcher Emerson, the subsidiary's name was changed to Fletcher
Emerson Co. and then to Property Management Systems, Inc. For
convenience Property Management Systems, Inc., is hereinafter
referred to as Schnitzer-PMS. Schnitzer became the chairman and
chief executive officer of Schnitzer-PMS.
Originally, Schnitzer-PMS's property management business was
conducted primarily in Houston and Dallas, Texas. Schnitzer-PMS
usually managed office buildings and other commercial real estate
owned by others under property management contracts on a month-
to-month basis. Schnitzer wanted to expand the size of
Schnitzer-PMS's property management business, as Schnitzer-PMS
typically earned only a relatively modest profit margin on its
individual property management contracts. Schnitzer felt that
the only way to increase Schnitzer-PMS's profits was having a
large volume of such management contracts.
Fletcher Emerson had been managing a relatively small number
of Prudential's commercial real properties when Century acquired
its assets in 1974. Schnitzer wanted to develop business from
Prudential and American Building Maintenance Industries (AMBI).
To that end, Schnitzer offered AMBI the opportunity to acquire 50
percent of the company. AMBI, however, declined the offer.
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