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Most of Keith Roberts' time lately is spent developing the 82-acre Brookline Business Park. With residential real estate in a slump, his Empire Realtors is focusing on commercial projects.
Most of Keith Roberts' time lately is spent developing the 82-acre Brookline Business Park. With residential real estate in a slump, his Empire Realtors is focusing on commercial projects.

Business Spotlight: Empire Realtors

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Empire Realtors

Owner: Keith Roberts

Founded: 1993

Address: 307 West St., Nixa, MO 65714

Phone: (417) 725-3995

Fax: (417) 725-8400

Web: www.empirerealtors.com

Employees: 6

Keith Roberts is not one for sitting in an office all day.

The owner and founder of Nixa-based Empire Realtors spent five years in commercial real estate management with what is now Eisenberg Co., where he was at one point managing 600,000 square feet of retail space in three states.

But Roberts says he was eager to get back into the building and development side of real estate, where he had worked since graduating in 1983 from Missouri State University.

“I wanted to get back outside, where I didn’t have to wear a tie, I only had to shave once a week and I could get my hands dirty,” he says.

In late 1992, Roberts started Empire Building and Development to build homes in Christian County. Empire Realtors opened in 1993, after he earned a broker’s license, to sell those homes.

“Things in the beginning – like with any small business – were hand to mouth,” he said. “We were just happy to feed everybody.”

After building about 30 homes and a few commercial projects in Nixa and Ozark during the next seven years, Empire Realtors, which celebrated its 15th anniversary in April, switched strictly to brokering real estate deals in 2000 and now focuses on land development.

Population explosion

Having been in Christian County for 15 years, Roberts says he’s seen the area’s population explosion firsthand.

“When I moved to Nixa in 1988, it had about 2,200 people,” Roberts says. “We were ahead of the curve. We knew what was coming, and that’s why we came back here. I’ve been lucky enough to see things before they happened.”

Sharon Whitehill Gray, president of the Nixa Area Chamber of Commerce, said the population has grown from about 4,600 in the city limits 15 years ago to an estimated 18,000 today. While surveys show that the first wave of new residents has moved to the area because of its schools, Gray expects the movement to continue for another reason.

“With a more mobile population, now we have people who are retiring and moving here because their children and grandchildren are here,” Gray said. “I never would have predicted that.”

That past, current and future growth is part of what led Roberts to get involved in 1997 with the formation of the Ozarks Regional Economic Partnership, a program of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce that promotes regional business development in a 10-county area.

Roberts served as OREP chairman in 2002 and 2003 and is still involved.

“(Roberts is) one of those guys who’s easy to get along with; he can talk to people in a variety of settings about a variety of issues,” says Allen Kunkel, former manager of regional development for OREP. “He’s very good about bringing regional issues to the table and talking through them.”

Roberts also was involved in the consolidation efforts in Republic and Brookline; he was a member of the Republic Board of Aldermen from 2005 until his term expired earlier this year.

Changing with the times

Empire Realtors has not gone unscathed from the recent market slump. The company has felt the sting in residential real estate caused by the national credit crunch and subprime mortgage crisis, Roberts notes.

The company employs six agents this year compared to 13 last year, due to several employees opening their own real estate company and to Roberts’ own shift away from residential real estate. About 85 percent of the company’s business is now commercial.

The biggest manifestation of that shift is the Brookline Business Park, an 82-acre development at Highway MM and Farm Road 144 in Brookline. Roberts says the $8 million park, which now takes up the majority of his time, is part of the company’s focus on keeping up with what customers want.

“Commercial real estate developments like this are where people want to be right now,” Roberts says. “There’s no point in selling what people aren’t buying.”

Infrastructure at the park should be in place by October, and Roberts estimates the property will be completely sold within 24 to 30 months.

Roberts thinks that better times are ahead for the residential market as well; he estimates that the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009 will spell the beginning of a turnaround, adding that he is currently looking for someone to serve as office manager and residential broker.

In the end, Roberts says that regardless of whether his agents are selling commercial, industrial or residential property, their focus should not change.

“I always tell agents to treat people right and don’t worry about your commission,” he says. “If you do your job right – which is customer service, making sure the customer is taken care of – you’ll have more commission than you know how to spend.”

Community Involvement

Owner Keith Roberts attributes much of Empire Realtors’ success to the growth of the Springfield metropolitan area, and his résumé shows his involvement.

Nixa Area Chamber of Commerce

• Board of Directors, 1996–2000

• Member of the Year, 1996

• Vice president, 1997

• President, 1998

• Citizen of the Year, 1999

• Economic Development Committee chair, 1999–2001

Ozarks Regional Economic Partnership

• Executive Board of Directors, 1997–2005

• Chairman, 2002–03

Republic Board of Aldermen

• Member, 2005–08[[In-content Ad]]

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