Baird & Warner will consolidate its area operations and add 200 real estate agents next year when it completes construction on a new 15,000-square-foot building on Aurora Avenue in Naperville.
The new office at 1528 Aurora Ave. will be nestled between the medical office building that was once the Standard Market store and a Speedway gas station, said Bill Gill, the company’s Naperville vice president and designated managing broker.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the building is scheduled for Wednesday. It will be similar in appearance to the medical facility to the east.
“There looks like there’s some consistency there so it’s not sticking out like a sore thumb,” Gill said.
The site will place all three aspects of Illinois’ largest family-owned, independent real estate services company — brokerage, mortgage and title — under one roof.
It’s “one-stop shopping” to make the process easier for clients, Gill said.
Most buyers, he said, are looking for a mortgage, and the company’s agents can help by directing them to a Baird & Warner real estate attorney and the title company in order to complete the transaction.
While many real estate offices are downsizing, Gill said, “we’re go bigger or go home.”
At just under 10,000 square feet of space, the company’s existing office at 836 W. 75th St. location became too small to accommodate all its employees, he said.
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A larger building also means they can increase their agent count from 270 to about 475, he said.
Baird & Warner will be targeting top agents and teams that currently are paying to lease offices, he said.
“We will have the ability to give them office space without charging them for (it),” he said.
Another 25 employees would work as support for the agents and in the mortgage and title departments.
The goal is to have everyone moved in and settled by the end of next year, Gill said.
Parking shouldn’t be a problem because all 475 agents won’t in the office at the same time, he said. And even when there are company meetings, not all employees can attend, he said.
Baird & Warner was established in 1855, and Naperville is now an established hub for real estate sales throughout northern Illinois, Gill said. Many of those who are based out of the Naperville location actually live and sell in downtown Chicago, he said.
“We’ve gone as far west as Earlville. We’ve sold properties up to the Wisconsin line and then as far south as Kankakee,” Gill said.
“It’s funny because everyone who lives in all those areas thinks it’s a really good idea to list with the Naperville office,” he said.
And clients and employees won’t have to go too far to grab a cup of coffee shop caffeine when there either.
A free-standing Starbucks is planned for a spot between the Baird & Warner building and the gas station, Gill said.
It’s a perk they’re already used to, he said. “Ironically, there’s a Starbucks, just to the west of us now in our current location,” he said.