Local real estate brokerage and development firm Abe Lee Realty is acquiring the property management business of Kuchler and Co.

The deal will enable Abe Lee to increase residential property management services and expand into commercial real estate management, while freeing Kuchler Co. principal Philip "Flip" Kuchler to move to Washington to run a bed and breakfast.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Kuchler, who established his company in 1992, said it has been a long-held ambition to own and operate a bed and breakfast with his wife, Bonnie. The couple began searching for a property in the coastal areas of Washington and British Columbia two years ago, and in January decided to buy BJ's Garden Gate Bed and Breakfast in Sequim, Wash.

Abe Lee is assuming property management contracts for mostly multi-family apartment buildings and some commercial property, and will hire Kuchler's staff of three employees. Abe Lee branched out into some property management within the last two years, and with the Kuchler acquisition is forming Abe Lee Property Management.