PARK RIDGE, IL, July 04, 2026 /24-7PressRelease/ -- In commercial real estate, the most common landlord-tenant arrangement follows a familiar pattern. An investor acquires a property, hires a general contractor to finish the space, signs a lease, and steps back. The building generates income. The tenant handles the rest. It is a model built for the owner, not the occupant.

Paul Leongas, the principal of Axis Development Group LLC in Park Ridge, Illinois, believes that model is broken. After spending more than 25 years as a commercial tenant himself, operating The Curragh Traditional Irish Pub across three locations on Chicago's North Shore, Leongas argues that absentee ownership and contractor-delegated construction create spaces that look presentable but perform poorly for the businesses inside them. His alternative is direct and specific: developers should build and manage their properties with the operational knowledge of someone who has worked inside them.

The Problem with Hands-Off Ownership

The standard commercial landlord relationship, Leongas contends, treats the lease signing as the end of the landlord's active obligation rather than the beginning. Property management becomes reactive. Maintenance requests enter a queue. Mechanical failures that affect daily business operations get classified as routine work orders and addressed on the property manager's timeline, not the tenant's.

"When a walk-in cooler goes down on a Thursday night, the tenant does not have until Monday to wait for a service call," said Paul Leongas. "I have been that tenant. I made those calls and waited for callbacks that came the next business day. The food spoiled. The cost was mine. The landlord never knew the difference."

That gap between owner priorities and tenant realities, Leongas believes, is the central failure in how most commercial properties operate. The owner measures performance by occupancy rates and rent collection. The tenant measures it by whether the building allows them to do their job without interference from preventable mechanical problems.

A Developer-Operator Mindset in an Investor-Focused Industry

Leongas describes his approach as that of a developer-operator: someone who builds and manages commercial properties with the working knowledge of what it means to occupy them daily. Through Axis Development Group LLC, he acquires, constructs, and manages commercial properties in Park Ridge and across Chicago's North Shore, including Edison Park, Skokie, and Schaumburg.

"I build the spaces the way I wished somebody had built them for me," said Leongas. "That is not a slogan. It is the standard I hold every project to, because I know what it costs a business when the building does not work."

The firm self-performs all construction, with Leongas and his team managing demolition, framing, mechanical systems, and finish work directly rather than delegating to a general contractor. Leongas manages his commercial portfolio through several entities, including EP Curragh LLC, EPC Properties LLC, PLL LLC, and RLS Edison Park LLC.

Twenty-Five Years on the Tenant Side of the Lease

Before entering commercial real estate development, Paul Leongas and his sisters Sophia and Lydia Leongas purchased and operated The Curragh Traditional Irish Pub, beginning in Schaumburg, Illinois, and expanding to Edison Park and Skokie. Paul operated each location for approximately 12 years. The restaurant earned the Guinness Gold Standard Award for the Perfect Pint in 2002 and was recognized by Whisky Magazine as one of the notable whisky bars in the world.

"My family taught me that when you put food in front of someone, it reflects who you are," said Leongas. "Running a pub for more than two decades taught me the same thing about a commercial building. The mechanical systems, the plumbing, the electrical capacity: those reflect what the landlord actually thinks of the person paying rent."

Leongas graduated from Michigan State University and attended Maine South High School in Park Ridge. He credits his upbringing in a Greek household with shaping the discipline and attention to detail that carried through his restaurant career and now informs his approach to commercial development.

Why the General Contractor Model Falls Short

Leongas reserves particular scrutiny for the industry's standard reliance on general contractors. In most commercial construction projects, the property owner hires a GC, the GC hires subcontractors, and the owner receives a finished product several layers removed from the decisions that shaped it. The owner approves plans and writes checks. The contractor controls execution.

"The general contractor model rewards speed," said Leongas. "It does not reward quality. A contractor who finishes fast collects payment and moves to the next job. The tenant is the one left dealing with whatever got cut to make the schedule work."

By self-performing construction, Leongas makes real-time decisions on the job site rather than reviewing them after the fact. He specs mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems based on how the tenant will actually use the space, sizing HVAC for real operational loads and electrical panels for the equipment a commercial operator will plug in, not for the minimum that code allows.

The Role of Presence and Accountability

For Leongas, the alternative to hands-off ownership is direct: be present. He walks his job sites daily during construction. He responds to tenant maintenance issues personally. He treats building problems with the urgency of someone who has absorbed the financial consequences of a landlord's indifference.

"When I was running restaurants, the worst part was calling a landlord about something that was affecting my business and hearing it would get handled eventually," said Leongas. "My tenants do not make that call. I already know what needs attention because I am there."

That presence extends to how he structures tenant relationships at his properties across Park Ridge and Chicago's North Shore. Leongas views his tenants as operators whose daily success directly reflects the quality of the space he provides. A tenant who struggles because the building fails is not just a business problem. It is a building problem.

Consistency as a Professional Standard

Leongas draws parallels between the discipline required to run a restaurant for more than two decades and the discipline required to develop and maintain commercial properties over time. He remains active in the Park Ridge community, supporting Maine South Hawks football, the Hawkettes dance team, and youth athletics programs, commitments he describes as long-term rather than occasional.

"The things that matter are the things you show up for repeatedly," said Leongas. "A youth football program. A building. A neighborhood. You cannot maintain any of them with occasional attention."

A Call for Accountability in Commercial Development

Leongas does not claim his approach should replace every model in commercial real estate. He does believe the industry would serve its tenants better if more developers had direct operational experience with the kinds of spaces they build and manage. The Leongas family continues to operate in the hospitality industry through Holland Pub LLC in Holland, Michigan, maintaining the connection to the tenant perspective that informs Axis Development Group's work.

"I am not asking every landlord to swing a hammer," said Paul Leongas. "I am asking them to stand inside their own building and ask whether they would want to run a business there. If the answer is no, they have more work to do. I build the spaces the way I wished somebody had built them for me, and I think this industry needs more people who can say the same thing."

Paul Leongas is a commercial real estate developer and construction management professional based in Park Ridge, Illinois. He is the principal of Axis Development Group LLC, focused on commercial property development across Chicago's North Shore and northwest neighborhoods. Paul spent more than 25 years in the restaurant and hospitality industry before moving into development. He and his family operated The Curragh Traditional Irish Pub at locations in Schaumburg, Edison Park, and Skokie. The Curragh earned the Guinness Gold Standard Award for the Perfect Pint in 2002. The family also owns Holland Pub LLC in Holland, Michigan. Paul manages commercial properties across the North Shore and self-performs construction through Axis. He graduated from Michigan State University and attended Maine South High School in Park Ridge. Paul supports Maine South Hawks football and local youth athletics.

# # #