After more than four decades building a real estate business together in Central Kentucky and beyond, two trailblazers in the industry are preparing to step down and hand their portfolio of properties over to a group of young, but experienced, successors.
Allen Schubert
R. Allen Schubert and A. John Knapp began managing real estate together in the mid-1980s, first teaming up through a third-party company in 1984 on Crescent at Shadeland. In the years since, they’ve gone on to oversee several other apartment complexes and structures before launching Andover Management Group in the early 2000s so they could oversee every phase of the real estate lifecycle internally.
The company manages a variety of properties, from apartments and conventional real estate to storage unit facilities and warehouses. They’ve also expanded into construction as well, with bases of operation in Colorado and South Carolina in addition to here in the Commonwealth. Aiding the company’s growth has not only been good foresight and investment strategy from its founders, but also a well-equipped and consistent team beneath them that has stayed mostly the same since 2011.
The Landing at Lakewood Harbour, 531 Laketower Dr.
Four of those employees — Dan Kunau, Mike Orsinelli, Mike Hall, and Brad Rose — were promoted to members in recent years as Knapp and Schubert began eyeing a planned leadership transition that now sees them both stepping back from day-to-day operations.
“They’ve been here for 15 years now, so it’s time for me to step to the sidelines and let them rock and roll,” said Schubert. “It’s been fun, but I’m travelling a lot now and am excited to see the job Brad, Dan, and the Mikes have been doing. They’re all young, so we want to do everything we can to support them financially and as investors.”
Brad Rose
With Kunau now overseeing development activities, Orsinelli leading property management operations, Hall continuing as president and managing partner of Andover Construction, and Rose promoted from CFO to CEO, Schubert is confident that the team is poised for success in their new roles.
“Our team is no different than a good basketball or football team — you’ve got to have good people in every position, and we have for the past 15 years,” Schubert said. “Empowering and building around them is what’s going to make our team the most successful.”
With nearly 100 employees, Andover’s impact in the community doesn’t just lie within its properties, but with those among their ranks as well. Per Rose, the company hires lots of University of Kentucky graduates, often starting them in Lexington before moving on to out-of-state projects.
Some of those ventures include breaking ground on a multifamily project in New Castle, Colorado, that’s expected to open in late 2027, as well as another in South Carolina. Andover is also in phase one of a new condo-garage concept in Colorado that splits a 20,000-square-foot space into 1,500-square-foot rooms where individuals can store high-end valuables and collectibles.
Closer to home, the group recently completed a full renovation of Beaumont Farms, a property Knapp and Schubert built together in the ’90s prior to the emergence of the behemoth shopping center that’s since risen around it.
“John and Allen saw [what became Beaumont Centre] before the Kroger, school, or any houses were built and could already envision the potential there from a real estate perspective,” Rose said. “They ended up acquiring the tract and building apartments there in the mid ’90s and now it’s one of Lexington’s premier neighborhoods. Having that asset and seeing it develop — and now redevelop — over the years has been great.”
As Andover completes its leadership transition, Rose says that the impact of Knapp and Schubert is immeasurable and that he’s more than ready to push forward with the company while continuing to honor the legacy they built.
“I can’t stress enough the great leadership we’ve had with Allen and John and how much we’ve learned from them these past 15 years,” Rose said. “We’re excited to take this thing to the next level while still leaning on them when we need to.”