Tammy Babb has a full plate in front of her. It’s piled high with soup, bread, side dishes and a hearty main course. Yet, as the saying goes, there’s room for dessert.
As the lease administrator at Luken Holdings, Babb is responsible for making sure property mogul Henry Luken’s commercial interests are leased and his tenants are happy.
This is her main course. And it’s no small task, as Luken owns over three million square feet of commercial property, including the 12-story James Building, the ten-story Krystal Building, the Tallan Building and over 40 other major properties throughout Chattanooga. A view of Chattanooga from Lookout Mountain is like a view of a giant Monopoly board on which Luken has purchased a lot of plastic houses. Contained within these holdings are over 500 tenants. Babb handles the renewals on almost all of them. That keeps her busy.
“It’s been a good year. We’ve had a few tenants leave, but not many, and some of our other tenants are expanding,” Babb says. Then she whispers, “It’s been crazy since January 3.” Luken Holdings has been growing, too. Over the past three years, the company has added sizable land assets, including Montlake Golf Course, a new broadcasting venture called Retro Television, and other interests to its portfolio. The expansion precipitated a move from the James Building into the Krystal Building in April.
Babb’s refurbished workspace still has a new office smell. She appreciates the breathing room, but misses the adorned elegance of the James Building.
“I love that building,” she says. But Babb digresses, which is something she can ill afford to do, given what’s on her plate. In addition to keeping Mr. Luken’s properties humming with activity, she also does outside commercial brokerage. This is one of her side dishes. “If we have a client that wants to buy or lease a building, but we don’t have something that fits his needs, we can help him find a building outside of Luken,” she says. These duties alone keep Babb’s calendar full, but they’re only the tip of the iceberg. Babb’s profile on the Luken Holdings Web site includes a list of responsibilities with 12 bullet points - appetizers that might be set in front of her on any given day - including appearing in court as the company’s representative, administering cold calls and fostering leads, coordinating tenant build-out construction bid meetings, and more. Yet, as the saying goes, there’s room for dessert. And, in this case, dessert is residential real estate. “Our focus this year has been to kick off our residential business. A lot of our properties are leased up, and since I’m a licensed broker, I can do anything related to real estate, so we thought, ‘Why not offer residential if that’s what our clients want?’” Babb says, her blue eyes widening with excitement.
By “residential,” Babb means listing and selling, not property management.
Although Luken Holdings is known for its commercial endeavors, Babb has for several years been capable of handling residential transactions. She earned her affiliate broker’s license in 2005 and her broker’s license in 2009, and last November, received her Graduate Realtor Institute Certificate, which involved an additional 90 hours of coursework. She is also a Certified Distressed Property Expert. Yet she didn’t do residential work until Luken said he wanted to move in that direction.
“We were getting calls from people who wanted us to either list their house or help them to find a house to buy,” she says. As Babb has wet her feet in residential over the past year, she’s been drawn more toward being a buyer’s representative than a seller’s agent. Part of the reason has to do with the current difficulty involved with competing against foreclosures and short sales. “People are listing their houses, but it’s hard to compete against all of the foreclosures out there. I had my house on the market for about three months, and I couldn’t compete with what the banks wanted for their foreclosures. Plus, they’re doing more short sales than ever,” she says. Babb isn’t complaining, but offering her perspective on the market. And she says a more seasoned agent might have a different point of view. But like any Realtor worth his or her salt, Babb is focusing on where the business is, and in the current market, that’s buyers. While Babb is new to residential business, she’s no novice when it comes to networking, so she’s been tapping into the relationships she’s established through Luken to attract business. This has worked like a charm, as many of her clients have been people who work for her boss.
Babb has also adopted a slow-growth strategy that involves working nights and weekends. “My commercial work keeps me busy during the day. And I don’t mind working nights and weekends because that’s when people can look at houses. We’ve been slow to get into this because I want to learn to do it right,” Babb says.
If Babb’s track record is an indication, she’ll become a local force in residential real estate. Her roots hearken back to her days of doing data entry for Bob Corker’s mayoral campaign. She went to work for Luken Holdings when Luken purchased Corker’s assets in 2006 and then climbed through the ranks to become Luken’s lease administrator.
Babb, who’s licensed in both Tennessee and Georgia, will succeed because forward momentum has always been a part of her life and career. When she went to work for Corker, she was raising a young son and going to school to be a paralegal. And despite having a full plate today, she’s considering returning to school to earn a bachelor’s degree. Her reason is simple: “I like to learn. It’s good for me,” she says.
Standing on Lookout Mountain, one might see the vast holdings of Henry Luken stretched across the valley in which Chattanooga rests. But the people who work for Luken are as much a part of the landscape as he is. Babb keeps over 500 tenants in 40 properties happy, secures buildings outside of Luken Holdings for other clients, and extending her reach into the residential pot. She has a lot on her plate, but that’s OK, because she has a big appetite.