COLDWELL BANKER ANCHOR REAL ESTATE 1975– 2008
Ginny McClennan became a real estate agent in 1975 with Lombard Real Estate at 218 Washington Street in Hart. In 1978, McClennan and Lloyd Failing bought Lombard out and changed the name to West Shore Real Estate. A few years later, Failing sold his shares to McClennan.
McClennan wanted another office in Pentwater so she opened one in 1983 as Anchor Real Estate in the back room of Gales Insurance Company at 144 Hancock. Lila Free joined the company as an owner that year and was the best real estate agent in the area. It took them two years to move to the remodeled old theater, now the Hancock Building at 215 S. Hancock. As the staff and business grew, they bought additional office space and opened a front office.
With the growth of the Hart and Pentwater offices, Free and McClennan took Steve Bruce into the company as an equal partner and in 1988 changed the name to “Coldwell Banker Anchor Real Estate”. Lila Free sold her shares in 1995. McClennan sold in 1998 and is still working at the company. The Hart office moved to the remodeled “Buildings Plus” building in 2002. Bruce continued with full ownership until he sold 1/4 of the company to Dodie Stark in 2006. Stark joined the company as office manager in 1992.
In 2008, Bruce sold the remainder of his shares to Dodie Stark, Paul Anderson and Gary Dunham and is still working at the company. Dunham joined the company in 2001 and Anderson in 2003. The new ownership and growth prompted a third office to be opened in Silver Lake in the Dunetown Mall in the Summer of 2008.
The company has 20 agents --9 of them are Associate Brokers--making Coldwell Banker Anchor Real Estate Oceana County's leading real estate company.
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