In The Press.

Posted online March 10, 2002 | 11:00 pm

Galen Pellham hasn't been in real estate long, but he's already making his mark. In 2000, he was recognized as the top producer and closer among all of the residential and commercial agents who work at Carol Jones Realtors and CJR Commercial Group.

Real estate is the latest undertaking for Pellham, who spent more than 29 years working as an architect.

After graduation from the University of Arkansas, Pellham worked as an apprentice for local Springfield architect Richard P. Stahl, who is now deceased.

After completing his apprenticeship, Pellham started his own architectural firm, Pellham Architects, which was founded on April Fools' Day in 1977. Engineer Larry Phillips and Architect Jerry Hagerman later became partners in the firm, and the company's name was changed to Pellham-Phillips-Hagerman Architects and Engineers.

Although he loved architecture, Pellham always had an interest in real estate. In fact, when his wife Marleen began looking for a new career, he encouraged her to become a Realtor, which she did and joined CJR Commercial Group.

Eventually, Pellham realized he wanted to work as a Realtor, and in 1998, he earned his real estate broker's license, sold his interest in Pellham-Phillips-Hagerman and joined his wife Marleen at CJR Commercial Group. |ret||ret||tab|

"There are so many opportunities in real estate," he said. "When you work as an architect, you design a building, and then you're done. You can only build a building once. Real estate is different. You can sell vacant land, a building or lease it. The opportunities are unlimited because you can sell or lease the same building many, many times."

A family affair

Three members of the Pellham family work in the real estate industry, which inspired Galen Pellham to form two family-run realty companies: Pellham Group Realtors and Pellham Develop-ment LLC. He also owns a third company, Pellham and Associates, which provides architectural services to real estate clients.

Galen and Marleen Pellham and their three children, Melanie Pellham, Christopher Pellham and Ame Nebeck, all sit on the board of directors of Pellham Group Realtors, which is affiliated with CJR Commercial Group.

Galen Pellham handles office, warehouse and land sales. Marleen Pellham leases office and retail space.

Melanie Pellham, a licensed real estate agent, is the company's jack-of-all-trades. In addition to her administrative du-ties, she's responsible for promoting each property listed with Pellham Group Real-tors.

To maximize a property's exposure, she takes a photo of the property and then designs a flyer filled with information about the property.

These flyers are mailed to other commercial Realtors in Springfield and southwest Missouri as well as to potential buyers.

She also posts in-formation about the property on several Web sites.

Melanie Pellham also assists in managing two buildings, the RiverRock Building and the 1111 Building, which are both in Springfield. The 1111 Building is cleaned and maintained by the Pellhams' son Christopher, a student at Ozarks Technical Com-munity College who also started a cleaning company, The Perfectionists LLC.

Development and design

Galen Pellham has branched out into residential and commercial real estate development. His development projects are handled through Pellham Develop-ment LLC

"Because I worked as an architect, I can look at a piece of raw real estate and see all of the different ways it can be used," Pellham said. "I've helped clients develop a site plan, with a conceptual de-sign of the building tailored to that site."

All architectural work is done through Pellham and Associates. To date, the firm has provided architectural conceptual designs for Springfield's Second Baptist Church, Pointe Royale Club House and Branson City Limits in Branson and Farm Country U.S.A. in Ozark.

Putting it all together

Pellham's architectural experience has helped him in his career as a Realtor. So has his commitment to continuing education. He completed the four, one-week courses required to receive a certified commercial investment manager CCIM designation.

Pellham uses his CCIM training to analyze properties for clients and advise them on the different strategies to them.

"Earning my CCIM designation has given me the background I need to advise clients on whether it would be more cost effective for them to lease or purchase," he said. "I also can advise them about whether they should refinance their property, sell it or start looking for something bigger and better based upon financial projections."

Regardless of whether he's acting as a CCIM, Realtor, architect or small-business owner, Pellham said he always enjoys his work satisfaction.

"I think one of the reasons I've come this far is because real estate just doesn't feel like work to me," he said. "I do real estate work in my leisure time, I enjoy it so much. I really get a sense of personal satisfaction out of helping my clients. I can't imagine doing anything else."

ERIC OLSON, EDITORIAL VP-EXTERNAL RELATIONS

Posted online September 22, 2023 | 3:16 pm

Andy’s Frozen Custard is among the most well-known business names grown from Springfield and southwest Missouri.

Lesser known is Galen Pellham’s role in developing nearly 20 corporate stores in new markets and assisting a franchisee to expand its footprint. His under-the-radar work for the dessert chain began eight years ago. Pellham says he was retained to find investors to fund Andy’s planned corporate stores.

“This involved an investor providing funds to purchase the land, construct the building and site improvements, soft costs and closing costs, which may total $2 million,” he says. “Having an investor fund the store and lease-back would save Andy’s paying a 20% down payment – up to $400,000 – per store.”

Pellham says he developed detailed pro forma financial statements showing the upfront costs and return on investment after a five-year term, and the financial strategy paid off for the corporation. His efforts funded several stores each in the Chicago, Dallas and Kansas City markets, and one in Springdale, Arkansas. The investors he secured, he says, have included a single mom, real estate investment trusts and family members pooling money together. Pellham even became an investor.

He says this type of creative work for clients stems from his first career as an architect. His livelihood has been nearly equally split between 25 years in architecture and now 23 years in commercial real estate. He co-founded Pellham-Phillips-Hagermen Architects and Engineers Inc., which is responsible for designing the city of Springfield’s Busch Municipal Building, James River Church and the John Q. Hammons office building among its projects.

“My training and experience as an architect have given me a much better understanding of planning and zoning issues, highest and best use of a property, building codes and regulations, the architectural and engineering design and construction of various types of commercial properties,” he says.

Pellham also credits his certified commercial investment manager designation he earned for helping him think outside the box for his clients at Murney Commercial. The coursework trains in financial, market and investment analysis skills, as well as helping users make prudent decisions.

In 2022, Pellham says he had $25.3 million in listings and sales contracts among his 35 closed transactions.

Pellham started his real estate career with Carol Jones Realtors in 2000 and later founded Pellham Commercial Realtors, which he merged with Murney.

His work has earned him a couple awards from the Greater Springfield Board of Realtors: the Platinum Metal Award of Excellence in 2022 for a high volume of transactions and the Gold Medal Award in 2012 for closing $8 million-$16 million in transactions for three straight years. Pellham says he also is often annually listed as a Co-Star Power Broker.

Pellham has served as a board director for Springfield Little Theatre and the Springfield Regional Arts Council – for which he had a term as president – and his architecture firm designed the Landers Theatre renovation for its 75th anniversary, as well as involvement in the design and construction of the Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts.