Wheeler, Fowler merger leads to expansion, changes

FORT COLLINS — The merger between Boulder and Fort Collins real estate powerhouses Fowler Real Estate Better Homes and Gardens and Wheeler Realty is spawning rapid change.The new company last month opened an office in Loveland, a move followed by its recent acquisition of Greeley˜s Wheeler Realty Co.
There˜s more to come.
Offices in Louisville, Estes Park and Windsor are expected to open next year. And a Longmont acquisition is almost final. A Nederland office also is in place.
"We now have 250 sales associates with mergers and acquisitions this year," said Bill Neal of Fort Collins˜ Wheeler Realty. "We˜re more and more convinced that this is a regional market."
Already, the Greeley Wheeler office has changed its name to Fowler Real Estate Better Homes and Gardens, and the new Loveland office sports the same name. By the beginning of next year, an announcement will be made on a title that will be common to all the new offices. Indications are that the entire network could bear the Fowler name, one that˜s been well-known in Boulder for years.
As for changing the name of Greeley˜s Wheeler Realty Co. — a well-recognized label in Northern Colorado — Neal noted that the Greeley commercial arm, Wheeler Management Group Inc., will continue to bear the Wheeler name.
"There˜s no question that the name means Ôreal estate,˜" Neal said.
The Fowler/Wheeler merger, which took place early this year, has made the new company the largest in Northern Colorado in terms of sales associates, Neal said.
John Donley, sales manager of the Greeley office, said he has 17 agents now, five of whom were part of the former Wheeler Realty Co.
"There˜s a lot of emotion tied to the Wheeler name," Donley acknowledged. "But this community has undergone a lot of change and will undergo a lot more."