Some of the best business ideas start with trusted relationships. For Andy Mills, it was a conversation over beers with Mike Fitzpatrick, a fellow development board member he had worked with for seven years at Children’s Hospital, that led to launching Elford Realty, now one of Columbus’s most respected commercial real estate firms. As a commercial real estate brokerage, Elford Realty helps businesses with their real estate needs – whether it’s finding a new office location, securing retail, flex or medical space for expansion, or advising on property investments. What makes them unique is their independent approach with a small, collaborative team that avoids internal competition, their connection to Elford’s broader ecosystem of construction, property management and development companies, and their commitment to always prioritizing the client’s best interests in every decision. This approach is demonstrated in projects like the White Castle headquarters redevelopment, where they guided the entire process from site selection to ongoing property management. In this interview, Mills shares how he launched his business after spending 11 years learning from industry veterans Frank Kass and Jack Lucks at Continental Real Estate, the challenges of entrepreneurship, where he sees Columbus’s real estate market in 2035 amid major developments like Intel and Honda, and some of his favorite restaurants and pockets of the city he recommends to visitors.
Q: How did you start Elford Realty? What led to this venture?
A: I started my career at Continental Real Estate Companies, founded by Frank Kass and Jack Lucks, where I spent my first 11 years. They were looking to transition their business as they got later in their careers. After determining that acquiring their existing business wasn’t viable – they had some large players outside of the market that were probably willing to pay a different number than me – I started exploring my options.
I’ve always enjoyed the real estate sales process on the commercial side. Obviously, anybody who’s a commission-based salesperson has a risk appetite. You’re entrepreneurial because you’re essentially running your own business. But for me, there was this desire to do more than just own my own business – I wanted to create my own commercial brokerage group based on how I ran my business with like-minded people.
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The catalyst was really three long-standing companies making a transition of their ownership. The question became: do you want to stay to be part of that with some larger firm you have no relationship with, or do you want to do something different? I went to Mike Fitzpatrick, who owned our development company at the time and had just started taking a role in his family’s fifth-generation construction business, Elford Inc.
I said to him, “Hey Mike, I’m looking to start my own thing, and I’d love to try to identify five or six key clients to make sure I’ve got some footing.” We spent an hour together over two beers, and by the end of it, we basically agreed to become partners to grow the brokerage and be part of the management and development side at Elford as well. That conversation happened in the fall of 2014. I left Continental shortly after Thanksgiving and spent December in brainstorming meetings, setting up the groundwork. We launched officially to the market in January 2015.
Q: What did Mike Fitzpatrick bring to the partnership?
A: Mike and I met through the development board at Children’s Hospital, where we were volunteering. I had spent seven or eight years getting to work side by side with him. We were chair and co-chairs together of certain charitable events for the hospital. What he brought was a like-minded philosophy to the business world and how we approach people and do business. If you treat others the way you want to be treated and do what’s in their best interest, eventually it works out for you as well.
What makes our partnership unique is how we approach the integration of services. When it can all work together, that’s fantastic. And when it doesn’t, that’s fine. The hat we’re wearing for our clients is trying to find what’s in their best interest, whether that involves our affiliated companies or not.
Q: What were the early challenges of starting the business?
A: There are lots of sleepless nights for any entrepreneur when you get started. Maybe it’s worse if you already have been in the business because you know too much to keep you up and worry about things. The challenge wasn’t just the first year – it was the first couple years of helping the market understand that we were a separate entity affiliated with the Elford brand, which has been in the market since 1910.
As Mike taught me, you’ve got to find somebody to grow with who’s going to make a statement to the market. The first person we brought on was Kristy Daniel. Kristy had been in commercial real estate for almost 20 years and was working as a director of real estate for a large corporation. Timing is everything – we found her at a point when she was ready to potentially go back to something more entrepreneurial. We brought her on as a principal in the company, and that made a pretty big impact almost instantly. When we brought Kristy on board, it was a great market indicator that we were trying to get really high-quality people to provide commercial brokerage services to clients.
Q: Can you explain what Elford Realty does? What types of services do you provide to clients?
A: We’re a commercial real estate brokerage that helps businesses with their real estate strategies. Any business owner, tenant, or property owner is essentially a prospect. We help companies that are growing, which can be challenging because you’ve got this balance – owners want long-term reassurance and term, while businesses want maximum flexibility to grow and not be pigeonholed.
We guide clients through the entire real estate process. Sometimes that’s getting them out of existing leases and backfilling that space, other times it’s finding additional space in different submarkets that meet their needs. If a client wants to build or renovate, we help them understand the preliminary budget, explore financing options, and make introductions to the right legal teams, architects, and contractors. Our team focuses on office, industrial, medical, retail and land.
What makes us unique is our connection to the broader Elford ecosystem – construction, development, and property management companies – while maintaining our independence. Most of our clients – about 99% – are third-party clients not affiliated with any of our projects. We always wear our brokerage hat first and focus on what’s in the best interest of the client.
Q: The White Castle headquarters redevelopment was a major project for Columbus. Can you tell us about your involvement?
A: The White Castle headquarters redevelopment stands out as one of our signature projects where all of Elford’s companies worked together seamlessly. Our development company worked with the White Castle family to reimagine their headquarters, structuring it in a way that was advantageous for them while creating additional third-party leasing opportunities. Our construction company built it, our brokerage team handled the leasing, and our management company oversees the operations. We’re now partners in the real estate with White Castle and continue to manage and lease the property today.
Q: Can you share a story of how an early business relationship has evolved over the years?
A: The Superior Group was one of our first clients, and they’ve been a key relationship. They had a small office on Dublin Road where they were jam-packed, plus they were in multiple locations. We had found them a sublease as a short-term solution, but they needed a long-term solution for their growth.
This led to an exciting opportunity with the White Castle headquarters redevelopment project. Superior Group committed to be the main anchor tenant in the new office building we built as part of the White Castle campus. We’ve also been fortunate to help them with multiple industrial leases as well.
Q: What’s your vision for Elford Realty’s growth?
A: Our model is that we’re not going to grow just to grow – we’ll grow with the right people. We have a strong philosophy of trying to avoid conflicts of interest, which isn’t always possible with a large team of independent contractors competing for the same business. We’re currently at seven people, and I don’t envision us being more than probably 10-12 on our true brokerage side. Our property management side will continue to grow as we add personnel.
We’re at a stable point where we all work collaboratively in an open environment, hear each other’s conversations, and there’s no internal competition or conflicts, which is pretty unique in our business. We truly function from a team perspective.
Q: Having a pulse on the local real estate market, where do you see Columbus going in the next 10 years?
A: The growth we’ve seen in the last 10 years since the last downturn has been remarkable. Recent announcements with Amgen, Intel and the Honda LG plant are very large wins – not just for Ohio but across the country. Cities we aspire to be would have loved to have gotten these users.
Columbus has great fundamentals: we’re the capital city, we have a great education base, great workforce, we’re still fairly affordable, and we have a diverse workforce of employers. I get multiple calls weekly from out-of-town groups looking to figure out how they can get into Columbus for additional development, which shows we’re on the right trajectory.
Q: What about the housing challenges in Columbus?
A: The real challenge lies in housing needs. Can all municipalities in the Columbus region align on how we continue to build and allow for more housing stock? We’re not keeping up with residential demand across all product types – affordable options, high-end options, and everything in between.
The City of Columbus has provided some incentives. In December 2023, City Council passed legislation for a citywide Community Reinvestment Act that gives a 15-year, 100% tax abatement on improvements for multifamily developments that meet certain affordability criteria. The challenge is that many sites in Columbus require vertical construction with parking structures and podiums, which isn’t very cost-effective right now due to high interest rates. It really takes all municipalities throughout Central Ohio coming to the table to solve this challenge.
Q: For visitors to Columbus, what restaurant and activity would you recommend?
A: Lindey’s is my safest choice, especially Lindey’s patio – it’s one of the most consistent and best dining experiences you’ll get. The Short North is a fun, vibrant area that really impresses people from big cities. I recommend staying in the Short North, going to a baseball, hockey, or Crew game, having happy hour on a rooftop at the Hilton, and dinner at any place along Short North. Walking to a game and experiencing that whole atmosphere is a pretty unique experience for a lot of visitors.
Q: As someone who took the leap to start his own business, what advice would you share with other entrepreneurs?
A: I try to follow the philosophy of controlling the things you can control. There are lots of sleepless nights for any entrepreneur when you get started. When you face challenges or uncertainties, focus on the elements you can actually influence rather than worrying about factors beyond your control. Taking a personal investment in your clients while maintaining this perspective has served us well, even when market conditions create unexpected obstacles.
