Four decades of showing up.
DRS Management began in 1983 as Dunes Residential Services — and has been quietly doing the unglamorous, essential work of running great communities ever since.
Built in Kansas City, for Kansas City
DRS Management, LLC — formerly Dunes Residential Services, Inc. — has made the management of multifamily rental communities its core business since 1983. What started as one founder's hands-on standard has grown into a firm trusted with communities across Kansas and Missouri.
Along the way, DRS and founder Ward A. Katz have sponsored more than $125 million in institutional-grade property investments and developed over 800 apartment homes of our own — so we think like owners, because we are owners.
Today the firm pairs that institutional discipline with something harder to teach: a genuine belief that a well-managed property should feel like home, for the people who live there and the people who own it.
The long game, played well
A few markers from forty-plus years in the multifamily business.
Dunes Residential Services is founded
Ward A. Katz launches the firm with a simple thesis: institutional rigor plus genuine customer service wins in multifamily.
The Dunes communities rise
As principal developer, Katz delivers The Dunes at St. Andrews, Eastland Center, and Falcon Valley — 688 apartment homes across the KC metro, managed by DRS from day one.
Province of Briarcliff
A 120-home community in Kansas City, Missouri joins the development track record.
DRS Management, LLC
Third-party management, LIHTC expertise, receiverships, and advisory work — the full toolkit, still run hands-on from Olathe, Kansas.
The people behind the properties
Ward has led institutional-level property management for more than three decades and has sponsored over $125 million in institutional-grade multifamily investments since 1983. A Certified Property Manager® through IREM, he is known for a hands-on style built on employee training and genuine customer service — and for developing the communities DRS still manages today.
As President of DRS Management, Liz leads operations across the portfolio. She holds the National Apartment Association's Certified Apartment Portfolio Supervisor (CAPS) and Certified Apartment Manager (CAM) designations — expertise earned on-site, community by community, and applied to every property DRS touches.
"Hands-on" isn't a slogan here. It's a management style — training people well, knowing every property, and treating residents like neighbors.
Get to know us properly.
The best way to understand how DRS works is a conversation. Tell us about your property and we'll tell you, honestly, what we'd do with it.