Real estate agency ready for a new location | Business

A Southaven property company is set to move to a new location in the town at the end of this year.

Agner and Associates is currently located at 486 Church Road East in Southaven, but the agency, with Shirley Agner as broker, will move to the office complex at 5740 Getwell Road in a new building which is starting to be constructed.

“We’ll be two-thirds of the way through the building,” Agner said last Thursday morning during the groundbreaking for the building.

Agner and Associates will lease 2,585 square feet of the new building, which will be adjacent to the water tower along Getwell Road in the resort area near Snowden Grove Park. Another 1,900 square feet of the building has yet to be leased.

The agency now has 27 agents, “and we hope to grow,” Agner said of her company, which will have twice the space it currently has in its new office. “We were overcrowded six months after moving to our current location.”

Officials at Thursday’s groundbreaking event praised the agency for what it is doing and see the activity as another indication of growth for DeSoto County as a whole.

“Three years ago we issued 1,100 permits for new housing permits,” said Mark Gardner, himself involved in real estate and current chairman of the County Board of Supervisors. “The following year, we issued 1,250 permits for new homes. Last year we issued 1,392 new permits for new homes, so you can see the trend. We are seeking approximately 1,500 permits for new homes in DeSoto County. That’s 1,500 new homes that didn’t exist at the start of the year.

“Estate agents are the gateway to commerce and it’s so essential for any town, city and state to function positively,” added Carmen Kyle, executive director of the Southaven Chamber of Commerce, whose career has included time in real estate.

Agner expects to move into the new location in December this year.

Bob Bakken is editor and can be reached at 662-429-6397 ext. 240.