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March 10, 2023
APPLETON – With more than 50 years under its belt, Pfefferle Companies Inc. has become recognized as a leader in selling, leasing and managing commercial real estate – both locally and nationally.
Chairman and CEO John Pfefferle said the company’s two divisions – NAI Pfefferle (brokerage division) and Pfefferle Management (commercial property management division) have been instrumental in making that happen.
In 2022 alone, John said NAI Pfefferle – whose specialties range from sales and leasing to tenant and buyer representation, site selection and market research – performed more than 330 lease and sale transactions worth nearly $200 million.
Pfefferle Management, John said, is quite encompassing in its facility management offerings – which include janitorial services, a landscape division, an HVAC division and a safety/security division.
It all began with a vision
It’s been a nearly-lifelong journey for John who, with his wife Lynn, founded the company as Pfefferle Realtors in 1971.
John said he started the company with a vision of being a full-service commercial real estate firm.
The company’s initial work, John said, focused heavily on the development of properties in downtown Appleton.
He said the Landmark Building – which is located in the heart of downtown Appleton’s central business district – was one of Pfefferle’s first developments, and the company’s headquarters are located on the second floor of the building.
“A key to the growth of the company was the Landmark Building, the first major development of a new office building in 30 years in downtown (Appleton),” he said. “That project catapulted a lot of what we do now into reality. Today, we truly are a full-service commercial real-estate company, with 500 commercial property listings and managing 13 million square feet of space around the state.”
John Pfefferle
John said it’s gratifying that NAI Pfefferle is able to serve a variety of clients through its brokerage services – from small businesses and municipalities to site selectors and corporations.
“We’re proud we can help anyone from small downtown retailers to large, multinational companies,” he said. “We work with a good cross-sector of industries and company sizes.”
The added convenience of property management
John said the company added property management services to its offerings in the 1990s, and today, the majority of its 130 employees work for the Pfefferle Management division.
In addition, NAI Pfefferle employs 20 brokers and support staff at locations in Appleton, Green Bay, Sheboygan and Wausau.
John said both NAI Pfefferle and Pfefferle Management work heavily with office, industrial, retail, land and investment properties.
Manny Vasquez, vice president of business development for NAI Pfefferle and Pfefferle Companies, said these sectors are “pretty even” as far as revenue generators.
“Although, office and industrial were the highest-producing segments this past year,” he said. “There continues to be a high demand for industrial space. We would have had an even better year if we had more inventory available.”
That demand, Vasquez said – particularly for industrial space to lease versus purchase – is top of mind for Pfefferle Companies.
He said they are currently serving as leasing agents for industrial/warehouse space in various stages of development in both Wrightstown and Sheboygan.
The 100,000-square-foot warehouse/manufacturing building on Steffins Street and County DDD in Wrightstown is fully leased even though the building won’t be complete until late spring.
The 100,800-square-foot warehouse/manufacturing building on South Business Drive and Horizon Drive in Sheboygan – the site of the South Pointe Enterprise Center – broke ground in December, and John said NAI Pfefferle is currently marketing its availability to lease.
“We are still at a historic low vacancy for industrial (space), and yet a lot of companies are hesitant to build their own building,” he said.
In addition to serving as leasing agents for these developments, John said the company has had a role in developing and selling Dollar General stores in about 200 communities in Wisconsin and Minnesota over the past 10 years.
Residential properties, he said, have also been an area of focus on the property management side of the business, with Pfefferle Management providing services to a growing number of apartment complexes and condominium associations.
John said this can entail everything from day-to-day maintenance and fee collection to recordkeeping and preventative maintenance.?
While industrial space is something companies continue to clamor for, John said office space is also still in demand, even with the recent shift to more remote and hybrid work.
This need is particularly apparent in Northeast Wisconsin.
“The feedback we’re getting from major office users is that what they miss at home is the collaboration,” John said.
Amy Pfefferle Oelhafen, president of Pfefferle Companies, said company culture is also a “big deal” when it comes to the office space demand.
Amy Pfefferle Oelhafen
“When you tie that into the labor market and the need to recruit and retain employees, having an attractive, comfortable and welcoming office setting is important,” she said.
Vasquez said businesses may seek a slightly smaller physical office space, and one that looks different from what they had before, but the demand is there.
“We have office tenants looking to move closer to downtown or who seek a slightly smaller footprint, but there is definitely activity,” he said.
Local access, worldwide resources
Vasquez said Pfefferle Companies’ work – whether it’s within the four communities they serve or beyond – is bolstered by NAI Pfefferle’s access to a network of more than 400 local real estate offices in 50 states and 40 countries through NAI Global.
Being an affiliate of NAI Global, he said, provides full-market coverage to NAI Pfefferle’s clients as a result.
“The company made the strategic decision to join a national affiliation, NAI Global, which gives us the ability to help companies when their needs go beyond the state,” Vasquez said. “A company may be expanding into a different state or seeking to sell a building in another part of the country. Having that network of local professionals, like our brokers, can help us because they’re on the ground where the need is.”
That affiliation and being plugged in at both the local and national level, Vasquez said, allows NAI Pfefferle to provide both a bird’s-eye view and a localized vantage point on the commercial real estate market to its clients.
In doing so, he said, they have been able to position themselves as experts to their local clients and host annual Forecast Events at which they share real estate trends, insights and challenges, be it locally, statewide or nationally.
“It’s been a good strategic move for the company to belong to NAI,” Vasquez said.
The outward-facing brand starts internally
Pfefferle Oelhafen said the company is equally proud of both its family atmosphere and consistent family philosophies, both of which have lent themselves to many long-term employees and clients.
The company’s tenets include a focus on integrity, trust, community, quality and team that have served it well.
“We have so many employees who have 20- to 30-year careers with us, and who have evolved (with us),” Pfefferle Oelhafen said. “My dad has always had the ability to choose good people who hold the same values he has.”
It’s something John established, his son Mike Pfefferle perpetuated during his tenure as president with the company (he passed away in July 2021) and Pfefferle Oelhafen has done so since then.
“She has done a remarkable job of continuing the family’s philosophies and work ethic and everything we stand for,” John said.
Bringing the vision full circle
Vasquez said he credits the company’s ability to be truly a full-service firm as a key differentiator for the company in 2023, just as John envisioned.
“We’re unique in that we have a true full-service offering,” he said. “That’s unique to this market. We’re the largest commercial property management firm in the state, based on square footage managed, and the largest on the lease/sales side north of Milwaukee.”
The markets they serve may zig and zag, be it financially or due to a global pandemic, but Pfefferle Oelhafen said the company has shifted with it.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Pfefferle Management created new protocols for office cleaning and other safety solutions for its tenants.
“That wasn’t easy as things were evolving and changing daily,” Pfefferle Oelhafen said. “Then again, Pfefferle Companies (as a whole) is always looking for ways to better serve our clients.”
