Chicago condo employee

Rejoining the OwnACondo.com staff after an almost five-year absence is someone very familiar to many of our investors and long-standing associates.

Annamarie Vodicka-Blaha, the very first employee hired by Founder Brian Kuzdas almost 10 years ago, is back to help the company grow well into the future.

Annamarie returns to a new role as Executive Administrator for Mr. Kuzdas and Vicki Donnowitz, OwnACondo.com’s Executive Vice President. In addition, Annamarie will handle investor relations and she will also be responsible for documenting and formalizing all the company’s systems, with an eventual goal to bring the winning formula to other markets nationwide.

As with many of the best moves in business, Annamarie’s return was sparked by sheer coincidence and good fortune. A question she and her husband had about an aspect of home construction led her to call Mr. Kuzdas, and a rapport was quickly rekindled. Always with an eye on expansion, Mr. Kuzdas asked if she would consider coming back to the company. In a matter of days, she had made her decision and she officially rejoined OwnACondo.com on September 19, 2007.

“It’s great to have Annamarie back,” says Mr. Kuzdas. “She has the ability to take any condo project and get it done, no questions asked, almost better than you would do it yourself. She performed very strongly for the company in the past and I have every expectation of an even stronger working relationship now.”

Annamarie had joined Mr. Kuzdas in 1998 at the second of his condo projects, which now number 36 and growing. Typical of many employees in a relatively new venture, Annamarie wore many hats in those early years.

“I handled office organization and management, virtually all aspects of condo conversion, even accounting,” she recalls. “I also did open houses with Mr. Kuzdas. I went to closings of new properties, worked with buyers and set up model units, too.”

But her proudest legacy is undoubtedly the actual OwnACondo.com name, which she created. The company’s original name of Brookshire Investments was not easily remembered by the condo-buying public, and with the company’s first-ever website on the horizon, Mr. Kuzdas and his former partner Brian Basic were looking for something different.

“They wanted something that was easy to remember for that time when—not if, but when—it would be up on a giant billboard,” she says. “There’s part of my heart that will always belong to the company because of that.”

Annamarie also created the stylized company logo and colors that have endured to this day, with slight revisions.

During her time away from OwnACondo.com, Annamarie held other office and administrative positions but watched the company as it grew.
“The name recognition has come quite a way,” she says. “I see the billboards almost everywhere I go, and I’m glad to see the company is moving and getting closer to the overall goal of going nationwide.”