Reza Habibi Celebrates 10 Years with Curry in a Second Career

Reza Habibi is celebrating 10 years of his work carrying out maintenance for Curry Real Estate Services but his relationship with the company goes back more than 20.

“We were living in Wichita and my wife, a nurse, temporarily moved to the Kansas City area to pursue another degree in her field,” said Habibi. “She rented an apartment near KU Medical Center in a small property Curry managed at the time and came to take on its management in addition to her studies. When I came up to be with her, she knew I could be helpful fixing things.”

Indeed. Habibi has an engineering degree and has enjoyed fixing things his entire life. After meeting Curry’s supervisor for the apartment building, Habibi was hired to maintain the property which he did for a year. That was in 2005. They returned to their home in Wichita and it was not until their KC-based daughter married and was having their first grandchild that the Habibis moved to the Kansas City area permanently.

He had retired from his engineering career but didn’t want to just stay home. The house they bought was four miles from Curry-managed Herrington Park Townhomes, 6522 Noble Street in Shawnee. Habibi reached out to Curry to see about taking up maintenance work at this property.

“It has turned into a kind of second career,” Habibi said. “I really like the team, Curry is a very good employer and it all makes coming to work every day a pleasure.”

A team of five works daily to serve the residents of Herrington Park Townhomes and includes property manager Starlene (Star) Ramirez and assistant property manager, Cherice DeRuse as well as Travis and Scott with whom Habibi works on all things maintenance. The residential community has grown to three times the number of units (now more than 300) since Habibi rejoined Curry in 2015.

When not on the townhome grounds he is digging up his own, working a vegetable garden that, like Herrington Park, started relatively small and has grown exponentially. “It did start small,” he said, “but I love to garden, and it has grown as a result.” Considering the absolute bounty of his homegrown tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, zucchini and more, urban farming could be Habibi’s third career.