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In the spring of 1888, when twenty-year-old Alester Garden Furman collected his first insurance premium and set up a partnership in a crowded office in the old Record Building, he launched a 120-year Greenville real estate tradition.
He dropped out of the university named for his great-grandfather (Furman University) in order to study at a business college and read law. With partner J. R. Mitchell, he started an insurance agency and began to broker properties, and purchase land for development with his father, Charles M. Furman, and cousin, Harry Haynsworth.
Mitchell & Furman did a brisk walk-in trade until the Silver Panic of 1893 stalled business, closed mills, and ended the partnership. Furman immediately started a new company with a college friend, W. J. Thackston.
Starting in 1895, he became expert in finding, assembling, and procuring options for textile mill sites. In 1903, Furman went into business for himself. In addition to developing Paris Mountain, he brokered land and buildings, expanded his insurance business, and sold “gilt-edged” mill stocks and bonds.
In 1914, his son, Alester G. Furman, Jr., joined the business after graduating from Furman University. After war with Germany was declared, the younger man, now a partner, joined the army, returning to Greenville in the spring of 1919. In the early 1920, the firm’s name changed to the Alester G. Furman Company, and it became a charter member of the Greenville Board of Realtors.
During the difficult years of the Great Depression, Alester Furman, Jr., took over the firm’s management. Starting in 1939, and then continuing after World War II, the Company earned a wide regional reputation by working with textile mills from Delaware to Mississippi to dismantle mill villages, eventually selling more than 26,000 houses.
Alester G. Furman, III, joined the Company in 1946 and became chief executive officer when his father retired in 1961. By 1969, when its name changed to The Furman Co., 59 employees worked in four related firms, a life insurance brokerage, a general insurance agency, Furman Securities, and Furman Realty, headed by Junius Garrison.
In the 1970s, Junius Garrison became president, and the Company returned to its roots in real estate, selling its securities business to Frost, Johnson & Read, and its insurance business to Marsh-McLennan. In 1986, Garrison purchased all outstanding stock in the company and appointed Steve Navarro, a young Californian, as executive vice president.
The new leaders knew that acquisitions, mergers, and globalization were changing the real estate industry. In-depth, accurate, and immediately retrievable information was essential. As a result, they immediately began the Furman Space Report. Today the Furman Report, available to clients both quarterly and annually, is the most quoted source used by local industry.
When Garrison, then 75, died suddenly in April 2000, Steve Navarro became chief executive officer, and he and his experienced management team prepared for the future by establishing five distinct but inter-related limited liability companies under the corporate umbrella. The Furman Co., Insurance Agency, LLC provides personal, business, and financial planning services for clients. The Furman Co., Development, LLC identifies land to fit corporate clients’ needs and constructs or rehabilitates structures. Commercial Real Estate, a separate division, offers enhanced asset management through The Furman Co., Facilities, LLC and investment services as well as retail, office, and industrial brokerage through the Furman Co. Commercial, LLC.
In 2000, in order to access national and international commercial research and management services, The Furman Co. affiliated with Grubb & Ellis, the nation’s fifth largest commercial real estate brokerage company. New technology, the ability to put its brokers in direct collaboration with national brokers, together with more sophisticated research and data collection, allowed The Furman Co. to advise investors and major corporations about changing markets and development opportunities. In 2001 the Company sold its long-established residential real estate business in order to concentrate its focus on commercial real estate.
Early 2010 became another stepping stone for The Furman Co. In order to further expand the strength of it's commercial real estate services, The Furman Co. realigned it's commercial real estate division and is now leveraged through affiliation with international brokerage, and currently a proud affiliate with CB Richard Ellis, Inc. (CBRE). CBRE is the world's premier, full-service real estate services company with over 450 offices across the world and employ's approximately 35,000 people. Operating globally, CBRE holds a leadership position in virtually all of the world's key business centres. To obtain more information about CBRE please visit our commercial division website at www.cbre.com/greenville.
The Furman Co. has evolved into a full service firm with divisions that specialize in commercial real estate brokerage through CBRE The Furman Co., real estate development, investment advisory services, asset and risk management, and personal and commercial insurance services.
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