After stepping back as co-CEO of Home Properties, Nelson Leenhouts, decided to return to his affordable-housing roots.Instead, Leenhouts, whose death at 88 was announced by his family Aug. 9, enlisted his daughter, Cathy Sperrick, to start a new company, Home Leasing LLP. A renovator and builder of affordable housing, Home Leasing now owns and manages some 3,000 affordable residential units in the Rochester area, Syracuse, Buffalo, Maryland and Florida, as well as commercial properties in Rochester and Steuben County. The firm’s notable local projects include Voters Block, a sparkling development offering luxury-level amenities that is set in Rochester’s generally not-that-sparkling West Main Street area.The company’s Harper’s Corner project, currently in progress, involves gutting and renovating a long-neglected and deteriorating building at Main Street and Clinton Avenue.Nelson LeenhoutsHome Leasing is a certified benefit corporation or B Corp. Firms seeking that designation undergo rigorous screening by a global nonprofit called B Lab to show that they meet criteria including running sustainable operations, maintaining transparency, and making a positive societal impact.The affordable housing market demands a longer-term vision and more careful planning than the higher-margin upscale rental market, says Home Leasing CEO Bret Garwood. Leenhouts’ single-minded commitment to that market, says Garwood, reflects his lifelong devotion to servant leadership.A philosophy Leenhouts shared with his late twin brother and onetime business partner, Norman Leenhouts, servant leadership calls on its practitioners to put human values first. In the for-profit arena, it calls on businesspeople not to ignore the bottom line but to make profit a secondary rather than primary goal.In recognition of his own mortality, Nelson Leenhouts recruited Garwood to Home Leasing as his successor seven years ago.Neither Leenhouts’ daughter, who chairs Home Leasing’s board, nor his son, Jeff, who serves as Penfield town supervisor, were interested in the company’s top job, and Leenhouts wanted to ensure that the company’s mission would endure.“I’d known Nelson for 20 years and considered him a mentor,” explains Garwood, a former city of Rochester director of business and housing development, who later served as senior vice president of multifamily programs for the State of New York Mortgage Agency.Home Leasing’s name revives the name of a real estate venture Leenhouts and his twin brother, who died in 2017, first started as University of Rochester students.The idea behind that venture, Home Leasing Corp., was to buy, renovate and rent out modest single-family homes. In a servant-leader twist, the brothers offered tenants an opportunity to apply rent to an eventual purchase of their homesteads.The Leenhouts brothers grew up in rural Wayne County. The family had a dairy farm in Ontario. Their father, Peter Leenhouts, passed away at 36 when the brothers were nine years old. To support the family, their widowed mother, Myrna Leenhouts, started a dairy-delivery business where the brothers worked from an early age.The Leenhouts brothers continued to invest in real estate after graduating from UR, but for a time, both also worked at day jobs, Nelson at General Railway Signal and Norman at Schlegel Corp.Eventually, the brothers quit their day jobs to seriously begin growing their real estate portfolio, a budding venture they eventually transitioned into Home Properties. First incorporated in 1993, Home Properties became a multibillion-dollar real estate investment trust after the brothers took it public in 1994.To grow their portfolio, the Leenhouts were at first financially backed by a local investment firm. But that firm was acquired by a larger company that decided not to continue investing in the brothers’ venture.When a CPA he knew suggested to Serve-Rite Food Service founder Harris “Bud” Rusitzky that he might help the brothers find new investors, Rusitzky, who was not previously acquainted with the brothers, not only did so but became an investor himself and a lifelong friend to both brothers.While Norman Leenhouts mostly concentrated on handling the business end of their venture, Rusitzky says, “Nelson was a genius” at handling renovations and upgrades of sometimes distressed properties the brothers acquired. He took equal pride in the quality of upgrades he oversaw and the leg up he was able to give tenants who moved into them.”At one point, Rusitzky says, Nelson Leenhouts took him to a downtown Rochester project to show off a development the company had recently renovated.“I noticed a lot of seedy-looking individuals hanging around,” Rusitzky recalls. “So, I asked Nelson, who are these people?’“They’re ex-convicts,” Leenhouts explained. “I’m trying to find them jobs.”Says Garwood: “Nelson truly enjoyed meeting new people no matter who they were. If residents were people he ostensibly had little in common with, he was genuinely interested in who they were.”By the time of its $7.6 billion sale to Lone Star Funds in 2015, Home Properties had grown to own 141 multifamily apartment developments in seven states and Washington, D.C.Concentrating on B-grade suburban developments as opposed to a more upscale market, the Leenhouts brothers stuck to a formula of attracting stable, middle-income, long-term tenants. To do that, they kept rents reasonable and services reliable. To foster camaraderie and a sense of belonging among residents, they insisted that Home Properties developments be called communities rather apartment complexes.Coming to work for the family business out of college, Norman Leenhouts’ daughter Amy Tait served as a Home Properties executive vice president and a director.While the venture far surpassed her father’s and uncle’s early real estate investments, the brothers never abandoned servant-leadership principles, Tait says, striving to ensure that properties and tenants were well cared for by treating tenants and employees fairly. After Home Properties’ sale, the Leenhouts brothers took different paths in business.Tait, who left Home Properties in 2012, and her father started Broadstone Net Lease, an industrial and commercially focused REIT, while Nelson Leenhouts and his daughter started Home Leasing.A few weeks before Nelson Leenhouts’ passing, Tait, who now lives in Bucks County, Pa., was in the Rochester area to attend her mother’s 90th birthday celebration.During the visit, Tait went to dinner with a longtime Rochester woman friend. Unbeknownst to Tait, the restaurant they chose happened to be the place where Nelson Leenhouts, Rusitzky and other members of an investment club were holding their monthly meeting in a private room.Leenhouts at that point was in a wheelchair but insisted that he be lifted into a seat at the table where other members were sitting. Ill for some time at that point, Leenhouts had printed up a sheet listing his ailments, which he would hand to people who asked about his health.“I think he didn’t want to talk about it,” Rusitzky says.When she unexpectedly discovered her uncle was there, “Amy came over several times. At one point, she kissed him. I think he appreciated that,” Rusitzky says.That was the last time Rusitzky, who had for years spoken to or seen Leenhouts several times a week, saw his friend.“He told me he hoped to make it to his birthday,” Rusitzky recalls. “He didn’t make it. Now he will be buried on his birthday.”In addition to his parents and brother, Nelson Leenhouts was predeceased by his wife, Nancy Leenhouts; grandson, William Struzzi; his first wife, June (Ingleson) Brush; brother-in-law James Ingleson, and son-in-law, Richard Struzzi. In addition to his daughter Cathy Sperrick and son Jeff, he is survived by a sister, Martha Leenhouts; daughters Deborah Leenhouts, Marci Hart and Jodi Falk, and a number of nephews, nieces and grandchildren.The family plans calling hours to be held Aug. 22 from 2:30-5:30 p.m. at Harloff Funeral Home in East Rochester and a 11 a.m. celebration of life service on Aug. 24 at Browncroft Community Church in Penfield. The service will be livestreamed here. Will Astor is Rochester Beacon senior writer. The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. Submissions to the Letters page should be sent to Letters@RochesterBeacon.com. The post An affordable housing visionary and servant leader appeared first on Rochester Beacon.First published by Rochester Beacon.