diff --git a/pageserver/src/bin/pageserver.rs b/pageserver/src/bin/pageserver.rs
index bf6cc90ece..1e6948daf1 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/bin/pageserver.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/bin/pageserver.rs
@@ -294,9 +294,6 @@ fn start_pageserver(conf: &'static PageServerConf) -> Result<()> {
     );
     let pageserver_listener = TcpListener::bind(conf.listen_addr.clone())?;
 
-    // Initialize tenant manager.
-    tenant_mgr::init(conf);
-
     if conf.daemonize {
         info!("daemonizing...");
 
@@ -317,6 +314,9 @@ fn start_pageserver(conf: &'static PageServerConf) -> Result<()> {
         }
     }
 
+    // Initialize tenant manager.
+    tenant_mgr::init(conf);
+
     // keep join handles for spawned threads
     let mut join_handles = vec![];