A local company is marking three decades of elevating the skill of property management to an art for their satisfied clients.

Empire Management opened the doors to its Parker St. offices in 1994. Today, the company, which also has an office in Westborough, has 22 employees and manages over 100 condominiums, homeowners associations, and residential properties across Massachusetts.

Gabrielle Surette, whose father, Mark Surette founded the company, serves today as Empire Management’s office manager. She said the secret to the business’s success over the last 30 years had been the tenacity its skilled staff.

“You know you’re going to get knocked down a couple of times but just how some things go, but it’s really about getting back up and making sure that you’re giving the best quality service to everyone that you work with,” she said.

Youthful staff brings unique skills to property management

Jenna Hartman, president of Empire Management, began working for the company when it acquired the Westborough business where she was employed in the accounts payable department over 10 years ago. She said the property management business had changed quite a bit over the last three decades, most notably in a way that gives her staff – which is comprised predominantly of younger women – a slight advantage over their older counterparts.

“The use of social media is a huge thing,” she said. “All of our younger employees are pretty tech-savvy, which is helpful, and they bring different ideas to how we share information, how we allow people to communicate with us, and how we advertise – it’s been a game-changer.”

More: Vacant for 5 years: Gardner's old Bank of America building has been sold

Hartman said there were both challenges and benefits to being female in a business where most business owners and developers were men.

“It’s definitely challenging to always be taken seriously, but I love it,” she said.

Was it possible that men might sometimes underestimate her abilities?

“Definitely,” she said.

Hartman said it was exciting to watch the transformation of the Chair City from the windows of their downtown offices.

“I first came to Gardner only 12 years ago, where there wasn’t really anything here,” Hartman said. "There were absentee landlords and completely vacant buildings, there was literally nothing going on. But now some of our neighbors are outside investors who’ve done a great job beautifying some of these buildings, and we have apartments next to us that look good, and everybody is putting in some work. It’s really exciting to see for me because I came in when it was almost nothing.”

Hartman said she realized just how notable Gardner’s comeback had been during a visit to Shrewsbury when some restaurant employees, who had noticed her Empire Management logo, inquired about available apartments in the Chair City.

“It’s crazy that people in Shrewsbury, which is essentially where I’m from, are actually asking about moving out here, and they actually did look at some apartments next to us,” she said. “We have people coming in and calling constantly looking for apartments.”

Empire at vanguard of Gardner's downtown transformation

Having restaurants in the city that were not part of a chain, such as the Gardner Ale House and Williams Restaurant, was another factor that was drawing people looking to move into the area, according to Hartman.

“That’s something that a lot of people look for,” she said.

More: Gardner's downtown renaissance continues with new apartments - what you need to know

Playing a part in the revitalization of the city she grew up in was a rewarding experience, Surette said.

“I remember Gardner when I was quite younger, and it was a great city, but unfortunately I did get to see it kind of fall too, which was disappointing,” she said. “I was on the swim team at Greenwood, so driving home from swim practice I remember all the businesses and the lights (downtown), so it was kind of a bummer to see a lot of what was cool about Gardner kind of go away. But now it’s coming back.”

As for the future of Empire Management, Hartman said she hoped to see the company, which recently purchased the vacant Bank of America building across the street from its office, continue to grow at its current rate as it becomes a leader in the industry.

“I love the fact that we’re diversifying a bit more, I’d love to see us buy more property, especially in this area, and bring something special to the downtown,” she said.

“Gardner is especially important to us, with our home office being here,” Surette said. “We don’t want to acquire buildings just to acquire buildings, we either want to restore them to what they used to be or take something that could be great and make it great.”

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: The secret to Empire Management's success in downtown Gardner MA