H. Dale Hemmerdinger took over the business in 1967, after his father, Monroe’s, untimely death. Dale quickly realized that the key to real estate in a softening economy was to forge lasting relationships with his tenants. He learned that outside contractors, hired to do piecemeal work for the expanding portfolio of ATCO real estate holdings, were often less than dedicated to doing a superior job. Dale decided that ATCO would hire its own permanent and committed staff to provide general contracting, thereby guaranteeing that his tenants would benefit from construction as solid and enduring as their relationships with ATCO. To this day, ATCO remains the contractor for all the work done on our properties.
Dale expanded the business, creating a unique, vertically integrated organization
that provides contracting, commercial and residential brokerage, consulting
services to tenants, fellow real estate operators and accidental owners
— banks and individuals who unexpectedly become property owners through
inheritance and foreclosures. In 1970, Dale consolidated these various holdings
into ATCO Properties and Management.
In the ‘80’s, Dale began to venture across the country and beyond.
In the ‘90’s, Dale created Atlas
Real Estate Fund, which trades U.S. property securities, both long
and short, in order to give real property owners like himself the opportunity
to hedge their holdings.
