American Textile Maintenance Company Employees Cash Balance Pension Plan

American Textile Maintenance Company Employees Cash Balance Pension Plan

American Textile Maintenance Company operates a commercial laundry business serving the Los Angeles region. The Shames family, with Gregory Shames representing the fourth generation, controls the company and its affiliated assets. The firm's employee cash balance pension plan is a defined benefit structure recognized by the Alabama Department of Revenue — an unusual domicile detail for a plan attached to a California operating business. The pension's deployment strategy is singular: it is overwhelmingly concentrated in hard assets tied to the operating company's own footprint. Holdings include the company headquarters at 1667 W Washington Blvd, two industrial properties in Long Beach, an industrial facility in South Gate, and a commercial property in Santa Barbara. The plan also holds an interest in Central Basin water rights, a scarce and politically charged asset class in Southern California. This is not a fund-of-funds or a diversified institutional portfolio — it is a captive balance sheet wrapped around a family-owned operating business. Gregory Shames participates in the Family Office Exchange network. Bruce Moskowitz administers the retirement plans. The Shames Family Foundation provides the philanthropic channel, with Julie Shames active in its leadership. The plan's architecture mirrors the classic closely held business pension: the sponsor is the sole source of contributions, and the assets are interwoven with the family's broader real-estate and operating-company balance sheet. This creates a double identity — retirement vehicle and de facto family real-estate holding company — where fiduciary duty and family control operate in permanent tension.