by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
As the Amelia Island/Nassau County Association of Realtors membership has over the years, so have their building needs.
The association is now looking at expanding their building located at 910 S. 14th Street in Fernandina Beach.
They revealed plans for the expansion recently at a general membership meeting.
Did You Know?
• FSBO sellers must make many key decisions about how to price and market their home, often based on limited experience. The most difficult task, cited by 18 percent of FSBOs, was preparing or fixing up the home for sale. Other major problem areas included understanding and completing paperwork (16 percent), selling within the length of time planned (15 percent) and setting an appropriate price for the home (11 percent).
(2006 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers)
Currently their building is 3,600 square feet. They would like to add 3,250 square feet to their existing building giving them a total of 6,850 square feet.
“Our association is quickly approaching 500 members, which we thought would happen sometime in the next five years, but it is growing faster sooner than later,” said Jackie Darby, president of the association. “We can only hold approximately 90 people comfortably in our auditorium now for monthly functions such as luncheons and annual functions such as GRI or other well attended education sessions.”
Clyde Goodbread, executive vice president of the association said they will not have to leave the building during construction. They can maintain what they have and utilize it to the fullest during renovations.
“We are going to be adding a new building to the north side of our existing building,” said Goodbread. “The two buildings will be joined. However we will construct the new office area and tie it to our current building. At that time we will move the administrative offices into the new area and we’ll gut the current building to make the auditorium, kitchen and other areas.”
The expansion of the building will provide a more accommodating place to hold the association’s meetings as well as provide for a nice place that other people can rent if they need a room for a reception, homeowner association meeting or whatever.
With more building comes more responsibility.
“Obviously, we’ll have a new debt to pay but with growth comes more income, as well as new debt sometimes,” said Darby. “We will have more space for the new government affairs director that we are about to hire, Clyde (Goodbread) will have a bigger office with much needed storage space, as well as a large conference room where we can hold board meetings and such without having to heat or cool the large auditorium for such small meetings.”
The architect of the plans is Elizabeth Dion of Fernandina Beach. Darby said when they decide on final plans they will then start taking bids for the construction.
“Our plan is to pay off the current debt we have on the additional land that we purchased several years ago. Then we will go into debt for the building,” he said.
The association currently owns almost three acres of property that will hold their current building and the addition nicely, even with a little left over.
“I doubt there will be room or a need for future expansion,” said Darby. “If we ever outgrow the new building, we’ll probably build a new one off-island. The plan is to possibly sell or develop the back part of our property on 15th Street to help offset our debt.”
Darby said the parking will increase with the renovation.
“The layout that the architect has shown us provides us with ample parking for what we feel we need,” she said.