Officials at the Cape Cod & Islands Association of Realtors had a goal when building a new headquarters: ensuring that the facility would be used by more rank and file association members than the previous office. If last week’s ceremonial opening of the new building was any indication, they will achieve that goal.

More than 600 association members and affiliates attended the event, which introduced the Realtors to their new home and showed off the latest in technology for the Cape Cod real estate community.

Having long since outgrown its former headquarters at 450 Station Ave. in South Yarmouth, the CCIAR broke ground earlier this year on a new facility just a few miles west, off Route 6 on Mid-Tech Drive in Yarmouth. Six months later – two months ahead of schedule and under budget – the project was completed. Originally estimated to cost about $1.1 million, land acquisition and construction costs came in at slightly less than $1 million, according to CCIAR officials.

Rather than just being a building where association members send in their dues and occasionally stop buy to pick up offer-to-purchase forms, CCIAR Executive Vice President Henry J. DiGiacomo said he wants Realtors to think of the new headquarters almost as a second home.

“I’d like to emphasize that this is not just an office building, this is a member service center,” he said. “That was the impetus behind this whole project.”

DiGiacomo said one of the biggest benefits of the new 8,000-square-foot facility – more than twice the size of the association’s former headquarters – is the videoconferencing services available in the building’s 3,000-square-foot conference and meeting space.

Before, members on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard had to travel to the mainland to attend education courses and other meetings. Now, with the new technology, members can remain on their respective islands and still attend and interact at meetings through the use of cameras and televisions.

“We can hold classes simultaneously on the mainland as well as Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket,” said Tina LeBeau, technology planner for the CCIAR. “[The island members] are subject to airline and boat schedules and the weather, as well as tourism trends. They kept asking us ‘What can you do about this?’ Well, this is it.”

LeBeau and DiGiacomo said the Cape association is the first local association in the state to offer the videoconferencing technology at its headquarters.

In addition to being wired for videoconferencing, the new headquarters is also completely wired for Internet access. However, LeBeau said the association also is ready for changes in technology in the future. “We’re wired for Internet and videoconferencing, but we didn’t put in a lot of wires in the walls because we know the age of wireless is coming,” she said. And for those technologies that still require wires, the building was designed with easy access to the attic and wall space if and when wiring upgrades need to be made.

DiGiacomo said the building’s conference center space also provides members a benefit by giving them a single place to go for meetings. Because the old headquarters was small, the association had to rent meeting space in locations around the Cape in order to host continuing education seminars or other association meetings. Now, those meetings will be held in the CCIAR building just off the Cape’s only major highway, Route 6, in a centrally located spot.

The new headquarters will also feature a computer training room with about five workstations, DiGiacomo said. “Members will be able to come here and learn about how to use the Internet and how to use different computer programs,” he said.

In addition to the large meeting space, a smaller conference room is also available for member use.

The headquarters also has a large basement for storage. The National Association of Realtors requires that the local association keep copies of certain categories of records dating back to the board’s inception in 1926. Because of a lack of space in the previous building, the CCIAR had to rent off-site space for records storage before moving to the new building.

‘More Visible’
To help pay for the building, the association plans on renting out the conference space to other businesses or organizations in the community that need space to hold their events on the Cape, where there is currently a dearth of available conference space. “This will be a significant source of non-dues revenue for the association,” said Richard F. Martin, 2000 president of the organization.

Having outside organizations use the center will also help make the community more aware of the Cape & Islands Realtor association, LeBeau said. “This will help us make ourselves more visible,” she said.

To reflect members’ concerns about the environmental impact of new construction on the Cape, DiGiacomo said the new headquarters, built by McShane Construction of Osterville, is energy efficient. The office wing of the new building was designed to take full advantage of natural lighting. In addition to exterior windows, many of the offices feature large windows looking into a central hallway to allow daylight to flow there as well. Most of the lighting fixtures in the building feature energy-efficient bulbs.

The landscaping around the building features several trees and other plantings, but no grass. According to Douglas R. Payson of Kinlin Grover GMAC Real Estate in Orleans, former president of the association and landscape designer for the headquarters, that was done so no pesticides or fertilizers would have to be used to maintain a lawn. “It’s environmentally friendly and fits into the surrounding landscape,” he said.

Unlike its split-level predecessor, the new headquarters is a single-level building that is fully wheelchair accessible.

“What’s so special is that this is a home for people who sell homes,” said Fred Meyer, 2000 president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. “Essentially, it’s a home for homeownership.”

Officials at the Cape association have been exploring the possibility of building a new headquarters in one form or another for about the past 10 years. “It’s been a long road for the association to get to 22 Mid-Tech Drive,” Martin said.