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Long & Foster to Open New Office in Richmond’s Historic Church Hill

New Location to Serve Downtown Neighborhoods

CHANTILLY, Va., Feb. 12, 2018 – Long & Foster Real Estate, the nation’s No. 1 independent real estate brand by sales volume, will open a new office in the Church Hill neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia, this spring.

Long & Foster has leased space at 313-315 N. 24th Street. Initially, around 12 sales associates will work from the location, with plans to grow from there. Set to open in April, this will be Long & Foster’s 17th location in the greater Richmond area.

“The Church Hill area is a prime spot for a new Long & Foster office, because it’s in the middle of one of the fastest growing markets in the Richmond region,” said Brian Haug, senior vice president for real estate and mortgage. “We are always looking for opportunities to grow Long & Foster in key locations where agents can engage directly with their community and clients.”

The new office is in a mixed-use development that includes apartments, commercial space and a community center. Part of the project made use of a renovated 90-year-old former industrial building known as Nolde Garage. It sits across the street from historic St. John’s Episcopal Church, a landmark that dates to 1741 and was the site of Patrick Henry’s famous “liberty or death” challenge to the British crown.

David Gragnani will serve as the managing broker. He also oversees two other Richmond-area Long & Foster offices. David Seibert, a Long & Foster agent since 2008, has also assisted Long & Foster in establishing the new office. His team will begin operating out of the Church Hill office by April 1.

Gragnani, a lifelong Richmond resident who grew up in the nearby Fan District, said the new location will play host to educational workshops about buying, selling and owning a home for neighborhood residents. Agents are also eager to help out with the community’s many popular festivals and activities, he said. As he looks to build a team, Gragnani said he welcomes agents to contact him if they are interested in working at the Church Hill office. He can be reached at David.Gragnani@LongandFoster.com or (804) 346-4411.

“We’re committed to the neighborhood,” Gragnani said. “As far as real estate within the Richmond city limits is concerned, Church Hill is one of the most active, diverse and vibrant areas. This location will help us better serve the central and northern parts of the city.”

Seibert lives in Church Hill and knows it well. He said the new office features an urban-industrial design against a backdrop of historic architecture, thriving businesses and preserved greenspace. Downtown Richmond is only a few minutes away by car. Restaurants, microbreweries, museums and performance venues are all within walking distance.

“You can’t find a better location for someone who wants to live and work downtown,” Seibert said. “There’s a lot of energy and pride in this neighborhood. It’s a fun place to work, and it’s been a pleasure serving this community for the past 10 years.”

For more information about Long & Foster, visit LongandFoster.com.

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About Long & Foster Real Estate
Long & Foster Real Estate, the nation’s No. 1 independent brand by sales volume, is part of The Long & Foster Companies, a subsidiary of HomeServices of America, a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate. HomeServices is the nation’s second-largest real estate brokerage and one of the largest providers of integrated real estate services. Long & Foster Real Estate is the exclusive affiliate for Christie’s International Real Estate throughout select parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, and it is a founding affiliate of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, a prestigious global network of real estate professionals that includes the Luxury Portfolio International division.

Long & Foster Real Estate has over 230 offices, stretching from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Fair Haven, New Jersey, and from Martinsburg, West Virginia, to the Atlantic Ocean, and it represents more than 11,000 agents in seven Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states, plus the District of Columbia. The company, which has a productive commercial business in addition to its residential side, sold more than $31.2 billion worth of homes and helped people buy and sell homes nearly 88,000 times in 2016. Visit www.LongandFoster.com for more information.

11 comments

Jason S 02/12/2018 at 4:24 PM

As a resident who’s sensitive to the changing demographic in Church Hill, I can’t help but notice some underlying themes permeating through the whats and the whens in this news release. There are a lot of references to the historic nature and value of Church Hill, but I wonder whether the folks behind the decision truly understand the history of this community. In the big picture, that history has little to do with Patrick Henry.

Mr. Gragnani says that Long and Foster is “committed to the neighborhood,” to which I encourage us to ask ourselves: “In what way?”. Participating in “festivals and activities” may not be what our community needs in return for buying and selling our properties through this company. Will Long and Foster commit to engaging and helping the disadvantaged parts of our community? If so, we should fully support them. If not, we should help them better understand our community’s needs.

Mr. Seibert mentions that “There’s a lot of energy and pride in this neighborhood.” I can only assume that as a resident in Church Hill he knows from whence that pride swells.

I challenge you, Long and Foster agents and management, to focus as much on how you can truly serve this community than how this community may serve you.

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mary 02/12/2018 at 4:39 PM

Oh, Dave (Seibert)…you live in Union Hill, not Church Hill.

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Dave Seibert 02/12/2018 at 8:23 PM

@ Mary. Touché I knew you were going to tag me for that East End faux pas. 🙂

@Jason. Thanks for the questions, thoughts and final charge. I think they were good ones!

As a real estate brokerage we specialize in marketing, negotiating and managing residential real estate transactions. That’s what we do. BUT as agents and as a company we serve our communities one person at a time as they make big personal decisions that will impact their lives for years to come.

The needs of every client are different. Especially in the east end. In my experience the best salespeople are great listeners and as a company I think we’d love to hear from the community. I know our company has already been in contact with City officials about some things we can possibly do to assist local schools so we are very open to input and listening to the community needs.

As for me. My first experiences in the east end began in the late 90’s when I attended a church in Creighton Court and volunteered with the after school program for kids. It didn’t take long for me to realize how much I loved the area and the people here nor did it take long for me to realize that I was terrible at teaching kids. They can’t sit still and neither can I. ?So I am thankful that through real estate I have been able to serve the community through things I’m actually good at. For example: Did you know that there are exemptions for real estate taxes available in the City for the elderly and disabled? A lot of people don’t know that and it’s a huge way to help someone stay in their home amid rising property taxes. Now I don’t get paid to know that information specifically but I know it because when someone calls me and is curious about their housing options I’d love to be able to help them accomplish whatever real estate goal they have. For some people that means not selling. For others that means helping them find someone to fix something on their house that is broken. Others still need to sell and want to maximize their potential profit.

Hopefully we’ll be in the new office by April 1st. Fingers crossed. We’d love to keep the conversation going. Feel free to stop by anytime we look open or give us a call.

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Rachel Woolwine Davis 02/13/2018 at 7:37 AM

Why would someone give this a sad face?

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Queen Mum 02/13/2018 at 9:06 AM

Nothing was mentioned about restoration. I hope
that this company will instruct their clients on
the historic nature of what they are about to purchase and what you can and can’t do to your home, about CAR. If I wanted ‘urban/industrial,’ I would have lived in a housing development. To
me owing a home in this neighborhood is owning and preserving history. It makes me sad to see some of the things that are happening.

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Jason S 02/13/2018 at 10:05 AM

Thanks for the follow up, Dave. I commend you the efforts you’re already making to assist local schools.

I understand, at least from the outside looking in, what a real estate brokerage does. You’re in the business of buying and selling real estate. I also understand that for Long and Foster, as well as the individual buyers and sellers, that the process is transactional.

My point is that for a community like Church Hill, steeped in a deep history of proud culture and institutional neglect, how business owners and operators conduct their business matters. If Long and Foster were coming into this market with the position that they’re in it for the profit, then so be it. That would be a very different discussion.

“BUT”, as you say, you’re talking about being “committed to the neighborhood” and “serving” the community, which is absolutely fantastic. The challenge then, is to as you said – listen to and act upon the community needs. Thank you for taking the approach of being good stewards for Church Hill. We respect that you’re interested in bearing that standard. Please know that how you invest your efforts in the community matters to us, and you certainly will gain some great allies in the community if you are true to your words of having an impact beyond negotiating the sale of properties.

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crd 02/13/2018 at 1:09 PM

@1 and @6 thank you, keep on it. Personally I agree with you. And I don’t think that “our company has already been in contact with City officials about some things we can possibly do to assist local schools”, while sounding positive, is necessarily a good way to give back to the community. You might want to check with CHAT and have a number of employees volunteer in other ways to make an impact.

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MJR 02/14/2018 at 10:08 AM

Is anybody else disappointed with this development from Josh builder? The site was a rather large plot with a cool historic building in the Nolde Garage. So much potential.

The end result was the Nolde Garage getting parsed into strange irregularly shaped sections with the only tenant being a real estate office in that space. The apartments are primarily the most boring vinyl siding I’ve even seen, bland brick work and an incredibly odd configuration where there are tons of entry doors on the first floor of the residential section yet no regular windows.

Architecturally the thing is so out of place and clearly not compatible in any way with the surrounding build stock. I’m glad Boho is there and its good to have a few more renters in the neighborhood but there was potential for SOOO MUCH MORE out of this site.

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Kay9 02/14/2018 at 4:35 PM

@8…Yes, it’s hideous. It’s an example of a developer who is out to make a fast buck while completely disrespecting the surrounding community.

It looks and feels cheap. Completely disappointing.

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Dubois2 02/17/2018 at 11:13 AM

@7
Your call to NOT engage with local schools in favor of giving time to CHAT is pretty raw.

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L 02/19/2018 at 9:32 AM

@9 / Kay9 – What I find frustrating with a lot of the new buildings in this neighborhood (and this is a good example of it) is that, more often than not, the fixtures, finishes, and materials used aren’t necessarily cheap, but the design and/or execution are so poor that they might as well be. I don’t think the building your talking about is the most egregious example, but it still looks pretty lame.

Reply

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