Bad Moe, Good Moe

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The first time Mohammad "Moe" Mohanna fixed up a building, he was just a kid.

Mohanna, now 57 and one of downtown Sacramento's biggest property owners, was an immigrant student from Iran in the early 1970s, attending engineering school in Boston and working as a janitor and handyman for a local property owner.

One Friday, she mentioned a vacant apartment that needed some serious rehab before she could show it to potential tenants. It was a holiday weekend and she told him they would start working on the project next week.

Rather than wait, the young college student hustled up a crew of four or five guys and attacked the job all weekend. Sanding. Painting. Cleaning. Fixing. By Monday, the place was almost as good as new, and potential tenants were already filling out applications.

"Tuesday I came to the office and I tell (the owner) that I think I have rented it," he recalls. "She insulted me, saying, 'You're stupid, don't say "rented it." You say "we're gonna rent it." I say no, it's already done. I rented it."

Not long after, she took Mohanna on as a junior business partner. That was his introduction to the world of real estate in this country.

After earning his engineering degree from Wentworth Institute of Technology, Mohanna headed west, to Sacramento, in search of greater economic opportunity.

Savior or Slumlord?

And he found it. Over the years, Mohanna has become one of downtown Sacramento's biggest landowners, holding full or partial ownership in some three dozen properties. In many cases, he says, he bought buildings that were rundown and vacant, then remodeled them and recruited tenants. It is something that runs deep in his Persian family's background -- his father and grandfather were prominent developers in Teheran -- and something he loves to do.

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