Written by: Sharon Piechorowski, Fromer Employee (South Bend, IN)
Having joined the Holladay family in the fall of 1988, I’ve seen Holladay expand from a local developer to national player in the field of real estate. We’ve grown from office, industrial and residential properties in the South Bend area, to retail shopping centers in Indiana and Virginia; business park developments in Portage, Indianapolis, Richmond; and a vast network of medical facilities managed through our Nashville satellite.
Holladay “excels” in providing a quality building/working environment coupled with expert property management with a company motto of “striving to provide exceptional service to exceed our Tenants’ expectations.” Doing things the “[Holladay] Way” is shared with each new employee from day one in their new hire welcome packet.
Two of the things I will carry with me when I retire are memories of our great “Tenant Picnics” and our company’s annual United Way campaign.
If you joined Holladay since 2000, or you were a tenant in the South Bend area between 2000 and 2008, you probably have at one time attended one of the annual picnic/rafting parties held at Seitz Park in downtown South Bend. What you may not know is how the picnics originally started. John Phair, Rick Hopper, Judy Pershing, and I would take a van or truck loaded with a grill, hot dogs & buns, chips and pop and set up a picnic in the parking lot of one of our buildings. Through the summer months we got around to all of the buildings over a lunch hour to meet with and listen to our tenants. At some point we decided why not combine all the tenants from all the properties and throw one big party with all of us together””thus launching the great “Annual Tenant Picnic.” These parties featured pig roasts, rafting competitions down the East Race and began with DJ’s and culminating in live bands from as far as Chicago. Boy could we throw a party! Each year brought a different theme and new challenges for “Bigger & Better” events for our Tenants.
On the humanitarian side we at Holladay have taken part in the United Way of St. Joseph County’s drive since the early 80’s. They started out with coffee, juice and donuts at an early morning meeting in the conference room showing a video and handing out UW information. Over the years, we expanded our quest to help others by taking our campaign kick off to a United Way agency; having lunch on site and touring those facilities to learn more about how our contributions are used to help serve and provide for those most in need in our community. By showcasing the very agencies that put our dollars to the best use, we have humanized our campaign from “asking for money for UW” ”” to showing our staff how their contribution is actually helping to change lives in our community.
That is what is taught and stressed here at Holladay ”” building a better community through our contribution to the work environment for thousands of tenants and giving back to better the lives of those less fortunate in our midst. If you work at Holladay, you are blessed to benefit from the qualities and leadership of our founder Wally Holladay; and the high standards, values and concern for others that John Phair has carried on in the Holladay tradition. I’m proud and privileged to say “I work for Holladay.”