ZRS Names New CEO
This veteran executive succeeds Steve Buck, who helmed the firm for 30 years.
ZRS Management has named its current President, Darren Pierce, to the role of chief executive officer. Pierce will replace former CEO Steve Buck who will remain actively involved as an advisor and a member of the company’s board of directors.
Having tallied more than 20 years’ experience with some of the most successful real estate companies in the nation, Pierce was promoted to president in 2022. He has since worked alongside Buck and the executive team, playing a central role in growing ZRS’s assets under management.
The company has tripled its portfolio to more than 90,000 units, and now ranks 19th on the National Multifamily Housing Council’s list of the nation’s largest property managers. Earlier, ZRS fortified its executive leadership team by promoting Jackie Impellitier from vice president to chief operating officer.
“There is extremely healthy competition across all our markets, which is an indicator of our thriving multifamily industry,” Pierce told Multi-Housing News. “Fundamentals of supply and demand are normal in our business, so with the historically high number of additional units that came online last year, we anticipate continued downward pressure on rents.”
A transformative role
Buck joined ZRS Management, then ZOM Residential Services, in 1994 when the fledgling firm was no more than three years old. At that time ZRS managed just a few properties. Under Buck’s stewardship, the independent company expanded into a nationally recognized property management firm.
By 2016, when Pierce joined the company, ZRS had grown to more than 30,000 units under management. Today, the stand-alone, third-party management company manages more than 90,000 units for an array of institutional clients, partnerships and individual owners.
Pierce assumes the reins at a time when the industry is undergoing transformation. In a prepared statement, Pierce said: “The past year has been a time of helping clients with new deliveries that have been at an all-time high. We opened 60 lease-ups in 2024, double what we typically see. However, as the bid-ask spread continues to narrow, we expect transaction activity to pick up in the second half of 2025 and our attention will turn to assisting clients identify and close on new opportunities.”
Last year, Impellitier sat down with MHN’s Denile Doyle to discuss how technology enables property managers to devote more time on resident engagement. Listen to the podcast to hear how she finds a balance between efficiency and quality customer service.
