A Week In Business – May 27, 2022

Employee Welcomed

BERLIN – Taylor Bank has announced that Pam Bromley has joined the bank as mortgage underwriter.

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Pam Bromley

Bromley comes to Taylor Bank with more than 20 years of experience in residential mortgage lending at both large banks and community banks on the Eastern Shore, serving the last nine years at Mid-Atlantic Farm Credit.

In this role, Bromley will report directly to Douglass Cook, EVP, chief lending officer of Taylor Bank. She will be responsible for evaluating and verifying loan documentation and ensuring that all documentation complies with governmental regulations.

“We are delighted to welcome Pam to Taylor Bank and our lending team,” said Raymond Thompson, president and chief executive officer of Taylor Bank. “Her extensive experience in mortgage underwriting will be invaluable in helping us enhance residential mortgage lending processes to meet the needs of our residential loan customers.”

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Historic Highs, Lows

BERLIN – The Coastal Association of REALTORS reports $400,000 was the median sales price for homes in Worcester County last month, a historic high.

For the lower three counties combined, the median price was $325,000, which was also a historic high. At the same time, active listings and inventory stayed at historic lows. The summer is almost here and buyers looking to move to the shore are going to have a hard time finding their dream home with the lack of homes for sale.

The median home price is 14% higher than it was in April 2021 and up 6.6% from March 2022. There are currently only 382 active listings in the lower three counties, compared to 471 in April 2021 and 1,329 in April 2020, when the pandemic began.

In all three counties throughout April, new settlements were down 18.2% compared to the same time last year. Individually, new settlements throughout April were up by 17.2% in Somerset and 6.6% in Wicomico, and down 30.7% in Worcester.

New listings in April were down 21.7% compared to the same time last year in all three counties. Individually, new listings were down by 21.4% in Worcester, 23.2% in Wicomico, and 17.5% in Somerset from April of 2021.

Active listings in all three counties were down by 18.9% from April of 2021. Individually, there were 195 active listings in Worcester, 130 in Wicomico, and 57 in Somerset. The median days on market for April 2022 was seven, which was the same as 2021.

“There are only so many ways to say we don’t have enough homes to sell,” said Coastal Association of REALTORS President Grace Masten. “We have been talking about inventory for two years and it’s not getting any better. Prices are continuing to rise and fewer homes are coming to the market. Summer and early fall is our busiest time, and we are losing people who want to move to the shore to other areas of the country because we don’t have the homes to offer them. It is time to get creative with zoning and building and encourage new homes to come to the market.

She continued, “Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) in particular seem to be a very promising tool to help correct the market. We are encouraging all jurisdictions to take a good look at them and allow them in their counties or towns.”

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Accreditation Earned

SALISBURY – Catie Windsor, property manager with SVN Miller Commercial Real Estate, has earned her Accredited Residential Manager (ARM) designation.

Windsor began her career with SVN Miller Commercial in 2019 and currently manages a portfolio of  503 units and 367,000 square feet.

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Catie Windsor

Managers of any type of residential property – multifamily rental communities, condominiums, homeowners’ associations, single-family homes and mixed-use property – benefit from earning their ARM designation. Courses of study include budgeting, leasing, maintenance, risk management, resident relations, and retention. Windsor completed her course in March, which allowed her to then apply for designation approval.

The Accredited Residential Manager designation is one certification offered through the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM).

The SVN Miller Property Management team currently offers two ARM designees, four certified property manager designees, and the office is an Accredited Management Office through IREM. Only 560 firms currently hold the prestigious AMO accreditation.

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Residential Design Award

SALISBURY – Becker Morgan Group has been honored with a “2022 Best of Houzz” award in the category of residential design.

The annual awards program recognizes the most popular designs and designers on Houzz.com, a leading platform for home design and remodeling.

The winners, which represent the top 3-4% of each category, span the country and world.

“Our objective is to create unique, site-specific and aesthetically-pleasing design solutions that provide our clients with comfortable and functional homes they love to live in,” said Chris Pattey, leader of Becker Morgan Group’s Residential Studio. “It is an honor to be recognized by the Houzz community and it is exciting and gratifying to learn that our designs serve as inspiration to others.”
Houzz.com users vote for winners by visiting and saving a designer’s projects as motivation for their own plans.

This is the third consecutive year and the fourth time (2017, 2020, 2021 and 2022) Becker Morgan Group has received the honor for achievement in the Baltimore region.

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Medical Director Appointed

SALISBURY – TidalHealth is pleased to announce that Rajeev Srivastava, MD, has been appointed medical director of child and adolescent psychiatry at

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Rajeev Srivastava

TidalHealth Behavioral Health in Salisbury.

Srivastava completed his residency in psychiatry at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, La., in 2012. He later completed his fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Miss., in 2014, in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior.

Srivastava is board-certified in child and adolescent psychiatry and general psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN). He has published an impressive amount of research and held several leadership roles.

When he isn’t seeing patients, Srivastava loves to travel, walk, and spend time with his family and friends.

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Commercial Symposium

SALISBURY – Brandon Heaver, senior advisor with SVN Miller Commercial Real Estate, and Brent Miller, CCIM, CPM, executive managing director at SVN Miller, recently attended that the 2022 Commercial Symposium-Maryland.

The theme this year was “Betting on the Future.” The event is presented by Maryland REALTORS Commercial Alliance and was held at the Live! Casino & Hotel in Hanover, Md.

The Commercial Symposium is an annual one-day educational seminar for Maryland real estate agents to learn about the hottest local commercial real estate developments and trends.  Approximately 200 agents were expected to attend.

Speakers included Craig Wolf, 2022 president, Maryland REALTORS, Lawrence Yun, chief economist, National Association of REALTORS, Larry Koch, former managing director, Columbia National and several others. Topics of discussion were diversity, equity and inclusion in commercial real estate, cost segregation, and a panel discussion of “Betting on the Future.”

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Foundation President Named

SALISBURY – The Board of Directors of TidalHealth has announced that longtime president of the TidalHealth Foundation, Denise Billing, has chosen to retire.

Billing, a 21-year veteran of the health system, will be retiring within 30 to 60 days.

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Denise Billing

At that time, Jessica Stamp Hales will assume the position of president. She joined TidalHealth on May 9 and is working closely with Billing on a smooth and seamless transition of leadership.

Billing will retire as the most successful leader of the fundraising arm of the health system, having generated more than $51 million in donations. The funds have led to the creation of new service lines, the expansion and renovation of existing services, the purchase of cutting-edge medical technology and equipment, and the creation of new patient care structures on the TidalHealth Peninsula Regional campus including the Layfield Tower, and of medical campuses in Ocean Pines, Md., and Millsboro, Del.

“We look forward to Jessica assuming this important role supporting TidalHealth, and at the same time are extremely grateful to Denise for her leadership over the last 21 years,” said Steve Leonard, Ph.D., MBA, FACHE, president and CEO of TidalHealth.

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Jessica Hales

Hales, who holds a B.S. in Marketing from the Salisbury University Perdue School of Business, joins TidalHealth from Wor-Wic Community College where she had served as the director of development and executive director of the Wor-Wic Foundation.

Previously, Hales was division director of the Eastern Shore for the March of Dimes Foundation and a marketing analyst at Atlantic General Hospital.

In her leadership role at the TidalHealth Foundation, she will be responsible for all fundraising and TidalHealth Foundation Board activities.

“I plan to build upon the outstanding work of Denise and the Foundation Board, foster collaboration through communication and identify driving opportunities we have in the community to improve our health system,” said Hales, who resides in Berlin, Md., with her husband and two sons.

Hales, a Worcester County native with a rich history of community and board service, was selected following a nationwide search.

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Real Estate Internship

REHOBOTH BEACH – Ocean Atlantic Sotheby’s International Realty (OASIR), Schell Brothers, and The Ocean Atlantic Companies have teamed up to offer a three-week real estate and construction summer internship to Cape Henlopen High School students. The internship, called “Future Leaders in Real Estate,” will provide six rising junior and senior high school students with an overview into the world of real estate sales, development and construction. Guidance counselors and administrators at Cape Henlopen worked with team members representing all three local businesses to publicize the opportunity to students, review applications, and interview prospective interns over the past 45 days.

“We are very excited to announce that our intern class this summer will consist of six excellent students at Cape who all went through the application and interview process,” said Alyssa Titus, marketing director at Schell Brothers. “We are looking forward to working with Joey DeGregory, Machi Savage, Anna Sullivan, Jeffrey Rainier, Alessandra Broussard, and Kimberly Gonzalez Roblero of Cape Henlopen High School and hopefully providing them with an educational and fun-filled behind the scenes look at the real estate and construction industry in Sussex County.”

The students will spend one week at each of the three companies, learning about real estate development, visiting construction sites and communities, designing a site plan, working on logos and marketing, and partnering with experienced real estate agents to work with clients.

“We are thrilled to be welcoming our first intern class this summer,” said Kathleen Schell of Ocean Atlantic Sotheby’s International Realty. “We hope this will be a great experience for them and provide them with both knowledge and contacts within the local industry for the future.”

The interns are looking forward to working with the companies as well.

“I feel great,” said Gonzalez, a rising senior at Cape. “Having this opportunity where I can learn how to run a company and an inside look at how the company works well with each other as a team is great.”

Broussard, a rising junior at Cape, added, “I am very excited for the opportunity and look forward to working alongside the interns learning more about the real estate industry.”

The interns will also have a chance to work with Project Kudos on community service and sit in on meetings with county and city officials.

Upon completion of the internship, each student will receive a “Future Leader in Real Estate” certificate and a $1,000 stipend for their work with the companies.

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Property Sold

SALISBURY – Meredith Mears, advisor with SVN Miller Commercial Real Estate, represented a local investment company on the purchase of Riverside Dental Center, located at 533 Riverside Drive in Salisbury, Md. In addition to the sale, Mears also secured a long-term lease for the new owner. Situated in downtown Salisbury, the property is located next to Rise Up Coffee near the traffic circle.

Originally built in the 1960s as a five-unit property available for lease, the building quickly became known as the Riverside Dental Center.  For over 30 years, a number of dentists served the Salisbury community at the site.

The building was vacant at the time of sale and will be fully renovated in the coming months to accommodate a single-tenant occupier. The building will re-open to the public in the fall of 2022.

Mears cooperated with Blair Rinnier, of Rinnier Development Company on the sale. Rinnier represented the seller in this transaction.

Mears specializes in the sale and leasing of industrial, medical, office and retail properties, as well as land development. Mears has 20-plus years of client experience including local and statewide governments, commercial property owners and investors, and privately operating companies across the globe.

In 2020, she was named a Top 100 Woman in the state of Maryland by The Daily Record for her vast contributions in business, community, and mentoring.