New Real Estate Company Holds Its Own

NEW REAL ESTATE COMPANY HOLDS ITS OWN

By ONOFRIO CASTIGLIA | The Winchester Star May 2, 2017

WINCHESTER — With decades of combined experience in local real estate, a small group of real estate agents have decided to go into business for themselves.

Greenfield & Craun Commercial is only about 10 weeks old but is already the second-largest listing company in the area, according to founder Gillian Greenfield. Its affiliate, Greenfield & Behr Residential, is also doing well.

Greenfield approached her associates Randy Craun and Lisa Behr about forming the respective companies late last year. At the time they all worked with city-based OakCrest Commercial Real Estate.

“It’s the same business I’ve been doing for 17 years but with a different logo,” Greenfield said.

Greenfield and Behr said the break was amicable.

Greenfield said it’s “been about a decade” since the last significant real estate startup in the area. The pace of development in the area and the numerous large employers planning to move and expand here were a part of the decision to start a new business. “We’re very lucky to be, at such a young age, seeing Winchester on such a cusp of development.”

Greenfield called the real estate market in the Winchester area “outstanding.” The expansion of Navy Federal Credit Union and the arrival of companies like Amazon, which is building a distribution center in Clear Brook, and Procter & Gamble, which is building a manufacturing plant in Berkeley County, W.Va., could speed completion of transportation projects and bring new residents to the region, Greenfield said.

But even as things are now, business is good.

The three principals brought a number of clients with them to their new enterprise.

“Our past clients — that’s why we’re here,” Behr said.

In the last two months the company logos have appeared on a plethora of old industrial and commercial buildings, houses and developable land.

“I see us being the premier commercial real estate agency in the area, without a doubt,” Craun said.

The plan is to have five agents working for the commercial company by the end of the year; the residential company will have four.

The two ventures are housed at 14 E. Piccadilly St., which Craun purchased as an investment last year for $575,000. An old Western Auto supply store with FBI offices upstairs, the 15,500-square-foot building is being renovated into headquarters for Greenfield & Craun and Greenfield & Behr.

Craun said the company knew it wanted to be downtown.

“I used to come here as a kid, when it was Western Auto.”

Craun has been working in local real estate since 1988.

Behr said she’s been offered a lot of jobs during her 17 years with OakCrest, but the chance to be a principal at a new company was “a chance to do something different.”

Greenfield called Behr “one of the top sales people in their field.”

Behr, who specializes in corporate relocations, was instrumental in bringing The Village at Orchard Ridge to Frederick County. Behr, chairperson for The Village at Orchard Ridge board of directors, said she anticipates a rise in retirees moving to the area from Northern Virginia.

Simultaneously, she said, the rise in local employment could mean more company executives and young families will be looking for homes.

“The dual careers that come are almost requiring commercial and residential real estate,” Behr said. “The anticipated growth for this area is huge.”