� By ASHLEIGH OLDLAND

Staff Writer

I NCO Company has leased and sold retail busi-

nesses, office buildings and industrial build-

ings in the Long Beach area for the past four

decades, and the business isn’t planning to let

recessed market conditions knock it down now.

“We’ve been here since 1972, and we plan on

being here another 40 years,” says Douglas Shea,

president and one of six partners at INCO.

Shea, a Long Beach native, began his involve-

ment with the company in the mid-1970s as a

teenage laborer on construction jobs. He then grad-

uated as a double major in finance and physical

education from California State University, Long

Beach (CSULB), tried a couple of different careers

and ultimately came back to the company as a full-

time employee.

The real estate company, originally founded by

Albert Iten, has experienced many changes in its

time in Long Beach. The technical impacts of the

fax machine, computers, the Internet and the

BlackBerry have greatly shifted the way day-to-day

business is done in the real estate world.

“We used to say the biggest change was the fax

machine,” says Shea, who has a BlackBerry

device poking out of his suit pocket. “In real estate

you have to run paperwork and have it signed and

everything, so when the fax machine got real pop-

ular in the 1990s, we thought, ‘Oh this is the great-

est thing in the world.’ Then the Internet and com-

puters and everything really changed it too, and

that’s still evolving. Almost all the marketing now

is Internet-based. We spend about $15,000 a

month just on Internet to multiple listing services

[subscriptions]. And that’s a huge cost.”

Using the Internet has also expanded the compa-

ny’s coverage area to a national level, even though

INCO typically focuses on the real estate market

from Long Beach to the Inland Empire and from

Orange County to the South Bay.

“Now with the Internet, we go national,” Shea

says. “So for instance now, the way the business

has changed, I’m actually helping buyers purchase

property all across the country. I did a transaction

last year with four properties in Atlanta, Georgia.

And I just did a deal in Madera, California.”

The company itself has also shifted its look over

the years. INCO has added new aspects to the busi-

ness such as its counterpart, CORE Property

Management, run by one of the partners. The firm is

also using a consulting firm, IMC Municipal

Consulting, run by Jerry Miller, former Long Beach

city manager. And, as of 2003, the company has had

six partners specializing in different aspects of the

business: Shea, Guido Haug, Brad Miles, Stephen

C. Bello, Jon Sweeney and Bill Townsend.

Shea says bringing in the partners and moving

the company from Signal Hill to a larger venue in

Long Beach has upped its market share and helped

grow business.

“The last years since we’ve moved here in 2000,

we’ve averaged in revenue anywhere from $3

[million] to $5 million a year just in the real estate

side. Our property management side handles well

over a million square feet at any given time, and

we’ve also brought in a consulting firm under-

neath in the last two years,” he says.

While the economic downturn has raised wor-

ried eyebrows across the nation, Shea remains

confident that INCO’s business will grow in 2009

even though he doesn’t expect the economy to do

the same.

“I see our company here growing probably by

about 30 or 40 percent. I see us growing higher

than we’ve grown since we brought in new part-

ners. I think 2009 is going to be the year where

we’ve probably grown the biggest,” he says.

“Where you see negativity in the market, we see

growth. Because people are downsizing, they still

have to move. People are going to have to sell their

buildings. There’s still all this movement. We are

seeing a lot of people downsizing, restructuring

and getting a little more conservative. . . . We are

seeing the big real estate companies starting to

waver a little bit, so we are getting more inquiries

from agents that want to come over because we are

so stable.”

INCO is the largest, busiest commercial firm in

Long Beach, says Shea, and he believes the con-

tinual success of the company has a lot to do with

the firm’s interaction and high level of involve-

ment with the community.

“We need to stay connected – especially in a

small town like this,” Shea says, adding that giving

back to the community is rewarding not only

because it helps him keep in touch with the com-

munity, but because it is enjoyable.

INCO Company contributes time and financial

resources to various local and national nonprofit

and community-based organizations such as the

Long Beach Community Hospital Foundation,

Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, Memorial

Medical Center Foundation Partnerships in

Excellence Program, Salvation Army, American

Cancer Society, CSULB Athletics, Long Beach

Rotary and others. The company also has an

internship program for local college students.

The commercial brokerage company also handles

tenant, seller, buyer and landlord representation as

well as investment properties, corporate client serv-

ices and consulting. To contact INCO Company,

visit www.incocompany.com. n

INCO Company: Serving Long Beach Since 1972February 17-March 2, 2009

Pictured, left to right, are INCO Company’s six partners: Guido Haug, Doug Shea, Brad Miles, Stephen C. Bello, Jon Sweeney and Bill Townsend. (Photo courtesy of INCO Company)