When the Centreville office of Long & Foster, Realtors was launched in 1986, Pat Lawless managed five agents in a space in the historic district that now houses a preschool. On Thursday, May 5, co-manager Lawless and the 150 agents now employed by the office took part in the grand opening of 14,000 square foot Centreville Gateway office on Redwood Square Circle.
"When we started, there were no shopping centers here other than Newgate, and no office space," Lawless remembers. Indeed, when they outgrew the historic space in 1988, Long & Foster moved to Centreville Square, the first shopping center to open with space available.
"We've grown with the population, and the population growth doesn't seem to be stopping," Lawless says.
The new offices first opened last October, but were closed again shortly after when a December freeze destroyed the pipes in the building's sprinkler system, says co-manager Don DeBragga, who joined Centreville Long & Foster in 2001. Some 7,000 gallons of water flooded the space, and it took weeks to dry the building out and fix the damage.
"The grand opening wildly exceeded our expectations," said DeBragga. The event, planned as a thank you to contractors, agents and clients, turned into a party that lasted until 1:30 a.m., he says.
The managers assisted architects as the space was planned, says DeBragga. For example, they worked to get as much light into agent's offices as possible, and toured nine real estate agency offices to get ideas about the best in everything — from computer and telephone systems to space plans.
The new offices include an education center to train agents for real estate licensing exams and ongoing education. Few offices have space for one, Lawless says. In addition, the building also houses offices of Prosperity Mortgage Company, RGS Title Company and Long & Foster Insurance, as well as Long & Foster property management.
The new Long & Foster offices are located at 6101 Redwood Square Circle, Suite 200, Centreville — across from the Centreville Multiplex Cinemas. They are built in Long & Foster's "signature" Williamsburg style, says Long & Foster spokesperson Juli Verrier.
LAWLESS'S OFFICE ISN'T the only part of Long & Foster on the move locally. In addition, the company's corporate offices, now based in Fairfax, will be relocated to a new building at the intersection of Willard Road and Route 28 in Chantilly. The five-story, 28,000-square-foot building will sit on a 39.3-acre parcel of land. The offices are expected to open in the spring of 2008.
"We've consistently grown and been consistently profitable," said company co-founder P. Wesley Foster, Jr., adding that the company is now expanding in Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia.
About 350 support staff now work at the headquarters. In all, Long & Foster employs 14,000 agents and 2,100 other employees in 218 sales offices throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.