From left, Hogan Group’s Chester office lead Jeremy Cecchettini, CEO Mike Hogan and principal broker Alicia Chappell in the Facebook video announcing the new location. (Screenshot)
After expanding its reach to the Piedmont last year, a Richmond real estate brokerage has doubled down locally with a new office in Chester.
The Hogan Group is preparing to open its second local outpost at 9842 Lori Road, a multitenant office building across from the Chesterfield County government complex and behind the First Watch restaurant fronting Iron Bridge Road.
The 4,900-square-foot space adds to Hogan Group’s headquarters in Scott’s Addition, as well as a third office in Charlottesville that it opened last year, at a location just west of Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall.
CEO Mike Hogan, who launched the brokerage in 2019 after five years as an agent with Keller Williams, said he’s also eyeing Fredericksburg for an additional office. The brokerage also is active in the Northern Neck area.
Hogan said his team targeted Chester specifically for its housing stock, growth and recent announcements of more to come, such as VCU Health’s plan for an outpatient facility nearby and Lego Group’s planned manufacturing plant at Meadowville Technology Park.
“There’s a lot of stuff coming, and quite honestly, that part of the Richmond metro area is about the last area of affordable housing left around,” he said. “It’s one of the few places that you can get a three-bed, 2½-bath house that’s $250,000 or less, so that’s another reason for us. We’re looking at where the demand is and where the growth is, and that area was natural for us.”
Describing the move as going against trends, Hogan added, “Everybody else seems to want to go to Midlothian and compete with the 200 other brokers that are based out of there. We decided to take the opposite tack and go down here. We feel like it’s an underserved area that we can do some good in.”
Hogan Group is opening an office in the Court Square office complex off Lori Road in Chester. (Photo courtesy of Mike Hogan)
Leading the Chester office will be Jeremy Cecchettini, who Hogan said is familiar with and well known in the area.
About 15 agents are expected to be based at the office when it opens in mid-August. Hogan said they’re aiming to have as many as 40 based there by the end of the year.
Companywide, he said the Hogan Group now totals more than 100 agents – up from the 40 or so agents on the company’s roster when it set up in Scott’s Addition in 2019. The company’s headquarters is at 1707 Summit Ave.
Along with Hogan, who serves as associate broker, Hogan Group is led by principal broker and president Alicia Chappell.
Rob Heim with the group’s commercial real estate division led the search that resulted in the Lori Road space. Hogan said they leased it for five years.
Hogan said they’ve also re-upped their Scott’s Addition lease for another three years.
The company currently has 45 active and pending listings. Year-to-date sales total 517, up 28 percent over the same period last year, Hogan said. It closed 1,010 transactions in 2021.
Hogan Group joins another homegrown brokerage that’s expanding its local footprint across the river. River City Elite Properties is preparing to open its second location in the Libbie-and-Grove area.
