by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
A vibrant real estate economy and growing membership has prompted the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors to expand its current building on the Southside to handle the new growth.
Since the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors moved into its headquarters in 2001, the association has almost doubled its membership.
“At the end of 2001, we were at 3,375 total members,” said Glenn East, NEFAR CEO. “As of this September we were at 6,155.”
The organization has plans to add a 7,700-square-foot wing to its current 10,000-square-foot building, which also houses the Multiple Listing Service.
“We are adding a new education wing to the building,” said East. “When you enter the current building, those doors will actually be a hallway. To the left where the grass is will be a new wing.”
Construction by KurStar Construction Inc. is scheduled to start on the new wing in January and to be completed by the end of the year.
“Construction is going to be a little bit of a challenge because we may have to go off-site to do some of our educational classes,” said East. “We are going to try to keep as much of it here as possible.”
The new education wing will have an auditorium that will seat at least 200 people in classroom-style and 300 people theater-style. There will be storage on either side of the rooms for tables and chairs and additional storage in the attic area.
There will be a covered walkway to the wing and separate doors for people to enter and exit the wing without going through the front of the building.
“We will move the education department over into that building,” he said. “There will be an office or two in the new building for our education associates.”
There also will be restrooms and a kitchen for people attending the classes. The addition of the new wing also will add 30 more parking spaces.
The current meeting rooms will be renovated into offices and the staff of MLS and NEFAR will be shifted around to make the best use of the space.
“Right now, we are built out,” said East. “We are just jam-packed. We have probably 500 people in the pipeline right now. They are applicant Realtors who haven’t been through the orientation yet. We have them in our system, but they have the requirement to do their orientation within 90 days.”
NEFAR just doesn’t have enough space to handle orientations for all of the new Realtors coming in with only one session a month.
“We’ve only been doing one orientation a month and can only handle 100 to 125 people,” said East. “Our growth is averaging well over that as new members enter the association every month. If we have 150 people coming in a month and we are only getting a 100 through orientation, then obviously we have additional people to take care of. We are actually doing three orientations this month to try to catch up.”
If NEFAR outgrows its current space and the addition, East said the association probably would relocate.