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Article Excerpt
Byline: PATRICIA RICHARDSON
Baird & Warner Inc.'s local roots run deep, even though its founders' family trees can be traced back to the East Coast.
The precursor to the area's best-known residential real estate brokerage began in 1855 when transplanted New Englander Lucius Olmsted made a $5,000 loan on undeveloped property on Washington Street. Two years later, Mr. Olmsted was joined by a partner, Lyman Baird, who also had moved to Chicago from the East.
Over the years, the firm first known as L. D. Olmsted & Co. and later as Baird & Bradley, channeled millions of dollars from Eastern investors into the developing city and negotiated such high-profile deals as the purchase of land for Union Station and rights of way for the city's new elevated train system.
In 1871, the firm's presence proved vital to Chicago. When public property records were destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire, the Baird family's ledgers-which were kept in a fireproof safe-helped city officials verify property ownership. In addition to preserving the books, the company encouraged out-of-state investors to put up money to help pay for the city's reconstruction.
"We've always had a very strong connection with the city, and that goes back in all sorts of ways over the generations,'' says Stephen W. Baird, president and CEO of the family-owned enterprise.
Today, with nearly 1,500 sales associates in 35 Chicago-area offices and a reported $5 billion in transactions in 2002, Baird & Warner is the largest independent real estate firm in Illinois. Its nearly 150-year history also makes it the nation's oldest privately held real estate brokerage.
Although Baird & Warner now is best-known for residential real estate brokerage services, the firm has strongly influenced the way the entire real estate industry, and the Chicago area itself, have developed.
Still, it faces the same challenges that confront other independently owned companies in ultra-competitive sectors: increased competition from...
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