🔒Ex-NFL linebacker, former Lehman Brothers real estate manager grow CT development firm one project at a time

In 2013, two brothers who grew up in Plainville set out to launch their own development firm, ready for a new chapter in their professional lives. Niko Koutouvides was a linebacker for the National Football League’s Seattle Seahawks, Denver Broncos, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New England Patriots from 2004 to 2013. Aristides Koutouvides oversaw commercial real estate investments for Lehman Brothers before taking a job with a New York City multifamily developer. “We had talked about potentially pursuing opportunities to develop some real estate together,” Aristides Koutouvides told the Hartford Business Journal during a recent interview. “Just like everything in life, it was timing. He was winding down his career, and I was coming to somewhat of a crossroads.” The brothers eventually founded Skala Partners — a Fairfield-based development firm specializing in multifamily housing. More than a decade later, the Koutouvides are now pursuing their fifth development — a plan to demolish a restaurant and one-story office building in Fairfield to make way for a five-story, 90-unit apartment complex with ground-floor retail space. They also have a construction management arm that does work for outside clients.

Their strategy is to focus on one project at a time to maintain high quality standards, and work with local officials to ensure developments align with a community’s long-term planning goals — a contrast to some developers who push their vision regardless of whether it’s embraced by the municipality. “… We’re not trying to swim upstream,” Aristides Koutouvides said. “I do not want to do six projects at once. We really focus our time and energy and efforts on select projects, pour our heart and soul into them to try to have them perform at a really high level.”

Finding new opportunities

Niko Koutouvides focuses on running Skala Construction, an affiliated construction management firm that has managed Skala Partners’ developments and projects for outside clients. Aristides heads up Skala Partners, a multifamily housing development firm. They are both principal owners and managers of parent company Skala Companies. The business employs eight people overall. Niko Koutouvides was always attracted to construction, his brother said. He majored in organizational leadership supervision at Purdue University, where he was a standout defensive linebacker. After graduating, Niko was drafted in 2004 by the Seattle Seahawks and was a member of their 2005 team that played in the Super Bowl. His final season in the NFL was in 2012, when he played for the New England Patriots. Aristides Koutouvides is a UConn alum who majored in business and philosophy. He spent most of his early career at Lehman Brothers Inc., the former investment banking giant that collapsed in 2008 amid the global financial crisis.

Koutouvides was working in real estate asset management at Lehman Brothers when the firm filed for bankruptcy. He said he was asked to remain after the collapse to lead a real estate workout and restructuring group. He managed a team that oversaw a $1.6-billion portfolio of legacy Lehman commercial real estate investments. He also led the recapitalization and $820 million sale of Lehman’s stake in a real estate operating company to CalSTRS. Dissolving Lehman’s commercial real estate assets was “very challenging work during very challenging financial times,” Koutouvides said. But it was also “the best education that I could have asked for,” he added. “It was obviously stressful, but I appreciate that I was young enough in my career to be able to learn, adapt and find new opportunities.” After his work for Lehman Brothers was complete in 2013, he joined real estate developer LCOR Inc. as vice president of asset management and acquisitions. “That job was not as entrepreneurial as I expected, so I decided to start a firm from scratch to focus on development opportunities that I found compelling in Connecticut,” Koutouvides said.

‘Crystal-balling’

Skala Partners has found fertile ground in Fairfield. Its first project in town — Trademark Fairfield — was completed in 2017. The five-story, 101-unit apartment building at 665 Commerce Drive includes nearly 14,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Four years later came Alto Fairfield Metro, a five-story, 160-unit multifamily development, at 1401 Kings Highway, featuring nearly 13,000 square feet of retail space. Skala’s latest proposed project in town targets a 1.4-acre parcel at 730 Commerce Drive.

All are located near the Fairfield Metro Center train station, an area the town has designated for transit-oriented development, particularly mixed-use housing projects, said Mark Barnhart, the town’s economic development director. Barnhart said he’s supportive of Skala’s recent proposal because it “will yield additional net new tax revenues and provide residents with additional housing options close to transit that are very much in demand.” He said Skala’s projects have been “high quality and very well-received.” “They deliver on what they promise. They actually do what they say they are going to do,” Barnhart said. Skala’s work extends beyond Fairfield County. In Farmington, construction is expected to wrap up in October on The Olmsted Farmington, a four-story, 204-unit apartment building at 80 Batterson Park Road. In 2016, the firm completed an 18-unit apartment building at 24 N. Main St., in West Hartford. Looking ahead, Skala is exploring multifamily housing opportunities in other parts of Connecticut, targeting markets with the strongest demand, Koutouvides said. In addition to its apartment developments, the firm owns several office properties.

Playing through cycles

Koutouvides said rising interest rates have made financing more challenging, but it hasn’t forced his firm to alter or cancel projects. He expects borrowing costs to ease as inflation slows. Skala typically relies on project funding from local and regional banks, private investors and family offices. Koutouvides said building multifamily housing that aligns with a town’s needs, earns resident support and meets zoning requirements is complex in any market. “I think in general, people don’t really appreciate how difficult it is to actually build something,” he said. “I just don’t think people understand development and construction well enough.”