Bevy of area real estate agents switches affiliation

The Realtor do si do continues in Northern Colorado, with Loveland Re/Max First Associates owner-broker Betsy Burns selling her interest in that firm and moving on to Moore & Company Progressive.
Three Re/Max agents, Barbara Giesey, Kathi Kanton and Brian Lindley, followed Burns to Moore.
But Burns and her cadre aren’t the first to change agencies in the past few months.
In November, long-time Fort Collins agent and broker Jay Stoner sold his interest in Re/Max First and joined The Group Inc. in Fort Collins. Former Prudential Prime Properties co-owner Chris McElroy had joined the same firm the month before.
Pam and Dave Pettigrew left The Group and rejoined Prudential. And in December, Ron Kohl left Austin & Austin in Greeley, culled top agents from other firms and launched Re/Max Optimum.
Lawyer and certified public accountant Frank E. Moore, Jr. is back from Michigan and after working for Bill Neal and Fred Croci at Wheeler Commercial Property Services LLC in Fort Collins, has joined Wheeler Management Group Inc. in Greeley as a commercial broker working to put together Wheeler Commercial Alliance.
Jack Mackey joined the Greeley office of Realtec Commercial Real Estate Services Inc., and Stephen C. Greenlee signed up as a commercial broker and consultant at Blackfox Commercial Real Estate Group in Fort Collins. And the list goes on.
So what does this all mean to the market from the consumers’ viewpoint? Larry Kendall, chairman of The Group, said consumers may not immediately recognize the benefits of popular, established agents moving from office to office. But, he said, they may ultimately profit from the very agency characteristics that motivated the Realtor’s move, such as marketing, information gathering and office support.
“I think a trend in Fort Collins, and the trend nationally, is that how real estate agents choose a company has changed,” Kendall said. “For years, the decision was made a lot of times based on the commission split, so it was basically a dollar decision.
“I am noticing now that agents are looking at the companies that, number one, have systems that they can drop into. They don’t have to spend time creating all the logistical support that it takes to sell real estate. They can drop right in and focus on selling real estate.”
But don’t discount the significance of a residential Realtor’s agency switch.
“Ron Kohl is a major player, Jay Stoner is a major player, Chris McElroy is a major player. Within the real estate community, these were blockbuster-type decisions, just because of the level these people play at. They are productive, high-profile and are long-term in the business,” Kendall said. “It’s like having Michael Jordan join your team. It changes the game significantly.”
Worzala said brokers may be feeling the pinch from these moves, especially in Greeley.
“Re/Max tends to take the cream,” Worzala said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the top brokers got enticed away and others may be suffering a little bit. Top brokers have the network, know the people, get the listings and have the network into the banks.”
Some agents may have been lured to Kohl’s group by the lucrative commission agreement Re/Max offers, but Stoner and McElroy said they made the decision to move for entirely different reasons.
“There was nothing wrong at Re/Max,” Stoner said. “I just didn’t enjoy managing.”
McElroy, who specializes in residential and small investment transactions, also had tired of the management grind.
In the months prior to joining The Group, he was spending as many as 100 hours a week at the office, between managing Prudential and serving as an officer for the state trade association and teaching finance and taxation classes.
“I had my head in too many places,” McElroy said. “I was successful at it, but at a point it became too much.
“The bottom line? I just like selling real estate.”Le Peep rises from ashes
The Greeley Salad and Pasta Co. had been closed about five days before Jim Deon began digging around in the Westlake Village Centre location, making plans for the state’s 22nd Le Peep Grille, which is expected to be open for breakfast and lunch by March 8.
Le Peep has leased about half the salad company’s space and completely remodeled to include an espresso and juice bar. The restaurant will seat about 200 people once the park-side patio opens later this spring.
“We’re really excited to get up to Greeley, and our intention is to have Le Peep’s in Fort Collins and also in Loveland. We’re anxious to get up into that northern corridor,´ said Mitch Rhoads, LePeep’s chairman, president and CEO.
Rhoads is also an executive professor at the University of Northern Colorado’s Business School.
“I get people who ask us all the time, when we’re going to build a restaurant up there,” he said.
Like most of LePeep’s 60 regional stores, the Greeley location will be an operating partnership with people who have worked with the company, either in company stores or other partnership stores. Deon, who managed two stores in Aurora, has moved to Greeley with his wife and young family and will be Rhoads’ partner.
With 12 years’ experience under his belt, Rhoads said he is relatively unconcerned about existing Northern Colorado restaurants with a similar concept.
“We’ve had all kinds of other concepts that have been spinoffs of ours, and we have just never had any problems,” he said.Greeley vacancies filling
The 15,000-square foot Big R manufacturing facility on Fourth Avenue in Greeley has been empty for long enough.
So long that H.E. “Skip” Harding, area manager for the concrete construction materials supplier Barnsco West Inc., said property managers “sure were glad to see us.”
The wholly owned subsidiary of Dallas-based Barnsco Inc. opened for business Feb. 2, and expects to be fully stocked with about everything integral to the concrete industry ­ from forms and power screeds to concrete saws, hand tools, specialty sealants and rebar ­ by the end of the month.
While the majority of Barnsco clients come from the highway construction industry, Harding said he is “trying to even that out with the contractors in the area, with foundation, curb and gutter and small subdivision street people.
“We’ve been doing business in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Utah and Kansas out of Dallas all these years,” Harding said. “We’re still doing business in those states, mostly with highway contractors who can take full truck loads of materials.”
Not to worry if you need a product Barnsco West doesn’t yet have on hand.
“Our Dallas parent has most everything in stock that we’re going to have in stock,” Harding said. “It only takes 24 hours to get it up here.”
Barnsco occupies 5,800-square feet in heated storage, 1,800-square feet in office and show room and another 2.5 acres of bare ground,” Harding said.
Realtec Commercial Real Estate Service, Inc. in Greeley handled the lease agreement.Deals
ZTI Group Inc. has acquired a site at Twin Peaks Mall in Longmont for its national client, Econo Lube n’ Tune. Construction on the new building began in February and is to be complete in June.
Rick Goodale of Goodale & Co. and Realtec’s Rhys Christensen have leased 2,242-square feet at the McClelland Office Park in Fort Collins to Colorado Compensation Insurance Authority. CCIA moved from Greeley.
Travel Trade School has moved to an 1,138-square foot space at 4700 McMurray Drive in Fort Collins. Dan Eckles and Tricia Diehl handled the relocation.
Veldman Morgan Commercial’s Chris Wells and Realtec’s Stephen Stansfield arranged the sale of a 5,400-square foot building at 2821 Remington St. in Fort Collins to the software development firm, IntegWare.
Colorado Springs-based Schuck Communities Inc. has acquired the 120-acre Elk Lakes development in Greeley and the 48-acre Quail Ridge neighborhood in Longmont. The deal was part of a five-project acquisition by the company valued at $15 million.

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