Croley Insurance's building project utilizes the Habitat ReStore

It's a sheer lack of space that's driving Croley Insurance and Financial Inc. to change locations, said Tom Croley, co-owner of the business that's been in operation since 1945. He's been in charge of the firm for more than 20 years.

Croley Insurance's new offices will be at 3705 E. Battlefield Road, which, until recently, was the site of an old farmhouse. At 4,600 square feet, the new construction will nearly double the 2,500-square-foot offices the firm has occupied for 12 years at 3130 S. Fremont Ave., Croley said.

The firm's 13 employees handle individual life and health insurance, property and casualty lines, retirement planning as well as employee-benefit products. Roughly 70 percent of its revenues come from commercial sales, Croley said.

Rural rezoning

The one-acre-plus parcel Croley has selected is now zoned for office space, according to Les Schulz, associate architect with Sam A. Winn & Associates Architects PC. Everything else in the immediate area will be "planned development for retail and commercial."

Croley's new location is designed to have seven offices, a conference and reception room and additional open office spaces, Schulz said. Plans call for 17 parking spaces.

Project completion "has slipped a little bit" due to issues involving utilities, rocky grading problems and asbestos removal, Schulz said. "We're actually a month behind." He said a realistic finish date would be spring 2003.

Habitat ReStore

Before construction begins, however, there's a house to bring down; that's where the Habitat ReStore comes into play. The local affiliate of Habitat For Humanity of Springfield seeks out properties destined for destruction. Its purpose is two-fold: to build funds for future new Habitat projects and to keep solid construction waste out of landfills.

If they can get to a property before it's demolished, ReStore employees and volunteers will salvage usable materials, transport them to ReStore's 17,000-square-foot warehouse at 4535 W. Chestnut Expwy., and resell them to the general public at 25 percent to 50 percent of retail value, said Terry Collum, a volunteer who coordinates construction recycling.

Haste takes waste

Often the window of opportunity is only a day or two. "Nine times out of 10, someone says, just like the Croleys, the wrecking ball's coming,'" said Dennis Radford-Kapp, Habitat ReStore manager. When this happens, it's a matter of assembling a rapid-response crew and getting to work.

The Habitat ReStore, which has been open for about 2 1/2 years, had 2001 revenues of about $162,000, said Radford-Kapp. It brings in $12,000 to $15,000 a month and has an on-hand inventory worth more than $200,000, he added.

Beginning in 2002, the ReStore is using a $125,000 Missouri Department of Natural Resources' target grant designed to increase its own operating efficiency and expand its services to surrounding counties.

"I think it's an opportunity that an awful lot of business owners have ... I hated that we couldn't get them in there any earlier," said Andrea Croley, co-owner.