A local real estate firm has launched a new website, and another national firm with a local presence has opened a Hampton Roads office.
Porter Realty, a commercial brokerage founded in 1965, decided it was about time to update their old site, which was almost 10 years old.
“It was time for a redesign,” said Liz Greving, marketing director. “We wanted to modernize it and make it more informative and user friendly.”
The new site, which you can view here, was produced by Rick Whittington Consulting and has been in the works since last year, Greving said. Whittington also redesigned Thalhimer’s website in 2007.
Porter’s new site has been active for about a week and half.
Users can now more easily search and view listings using an interactive map, and the overall appearance is more contemporary than the firm’s previous site. (You can view an archived version of here.)
“We are still sort of at the beginning of the process, but we are expecting traffic to pick up,” Greving said, adding that they have already received responses through a contact form that was added to the site.
In other industry news, Jones Lang LaSalle has added a Hampton Roads office.
The Chicago-based real estate firm established its Richmond office last summer after several members of the shuttered GVA Advantis office joined the company.
The Hampton Road office will be headed by Gregg Christofferson, who was formerly the principal broker for Virginia Beach-based Continental Realty Services.
“Richmond has established a good running start and is well stabilized and has grown dramatically since its inception,” said Christofferson.
Christofferson said the two offices will work closely together.
Charlie Polk, the first broker to join the Richmond office, oversees the Richmond/Hampton Roads region for Jones Lang Lasalle, which is part of the firm’s Mid-Atlantic region.
Also at JLL, Todd Weinstein, formerly of Transwestern, will join the Richmond office specializing in multi-family property.
Al Harris covers commercial real estate. Please send news tips to Al@richmondbizsense.com.
The Business of Accessibility.
I really appreciate your reporting about accessibility. I am a person who lives with a “hidden” disability (a disability which is not obvious or readily apparent.)
From reading the many reported articles about Attorney Joel R. Zuckerman and the number of ADA legal remedy cases filed by him and the same plaintiffs, it gives the appearance of frivolous lawsuits, which so very many people despise— not only the attorneys, but now the plaintiffs too. How unfair and unjust this really is. It creates an illusion that these PWD are seeking litigation for monetary gain, but that is far from reality.
How many times do you think that Rosa Parks got on a bus before she finally came to her senses and her level of anger of the injustice which shackled her self worth became “indignant” and she refused and was arrested and even jailed? How many times do you think that hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities have been emotionally victimized being denied access after TWENTY YEARS of the ADA becoming Federal Law? It still happens as much today as it did twenty years ago. And most PWD do not want to complain, make a scene or fuss, we feel embarrassed and humiliated. When I see urine trickle down a wheel chair’s frame and pool on the floor because that person cannot access a restroom or is denied access to a restroom in a store simply because some knucklehead can say either we don’t have one, you can go two blocks down the street to the McDonalds or we don’t allow the public to use our restrooms. That’s only the tip of the iceberg Mr. Harris, believe me. I’ve seen this for twenty years and there is absolutely no way I can describe to anyone what that does to a human being’s self esteem after repeated incidents. That, to me, is cruel and inhumane. People give up and accept being victims of unjust social abuse, being treated differently and discrimination. It is REAL. That is the unseen damage which so very many PWD suffer with in silence because of the barriers and destruction of their own self esteem and their own struggle just living with a disability presents. For a perfectly healthy person without a disability the time, anguish, struggle and confusion to initiate a lawsuit is Life consuming. Imagine why so very few PWD actually speak out, or even know of the resources or have the energy to even find an attorney like Zuckerman to advocate for them? If disabled John or Jane Doe file 100 ADA lawsuits through Zuckerman themselves that doesn’t even come close to making up the difference for the thousands who just no longer have the self esteem and resolve to do it and never did. Think about it… do you think that was the first person in a wheel chair who tried to access the establishments reported? NO, the other’s just left silently or don’t come out of their caves because of the humiliation. They are just plain sick and tired and do not want to fight. They have too much else to deal with getting a shoe on or getting out of bed if they even can.
That’s the real truth. Lawsuits emotionally are not easy to initiate let alone follow through with.
Zuckerman is making his living and those being sued complain of not knowing and will often mislead be giving a million reasons why they didn’t know and try to “flip the script.” Shame on them. Life is tough. Don’t you think for one moment that there is no amount of money that can ever restore a leg, arm or ability to ambulate or even think in the event of mental disabilities.
Yes, people do get angry and some people get fed up with the constant confrontation of barriers which were supposed to be eliminated twenty years ago. Don’t you think that twenty years is long enough? Ride a mile in a wheel chair and try boarding a bus or sit there as the bus doesn’t stop and passes you in a soaking rainstorm. How long would you tolerate such injustice? I know that sometimes enough is enough and that I feel we all can understand.
My emotional plea, somewhat angrily assertive is trying to make a point. I hope that you will relate and rethink trying to paint such an illusion ever again.
Get it right the next time. It hurt me to even read what you wrote. I don’t hate you, I just want to try to dissolve another barrier of misperception. I can also understand how some resent Zuckerman’s actions. I feel that the only way to correct ADA violations is legal remedy. That gets attention and action unfortunately the confrontational approach sometimes is the only way that gets something done. Thanks again, and best wishes to you and your reporting. Take good care,
scott sylte