Within hours of a fire gutting RealtyUSA’s Oneonta headquarters, the regional vice president was vowing it will rise again at 447 Main St.
“We like the location,” said RealtyUSA’s Thad DeMulder. “Traffic count on that road is one of the highest in Oneonta. And it has pretty good parking.”
The building, which DeMulder said he owned jointly with RealtyUSA President Merle Whitehead, caught fire at 11:30 p.m. Thursday, March 3.
After firefighters left the scene, the fire rekindled and broke out again at 4:30 a.m., and that was when most of the damage occurred, DeMulder said.
Fire officials told the realty executive it appeared that one of two young men who lived on the top story of the white, be-pillared former home had tossed a cigaret onto the back porch, starting the blaze.
At first, the company’s 20 Oneonta agents were working out of RealtyUSA offices on Route 28, Hartwick Seminary, and the Sidney office, but a temporary locations was being sought for them in the city.
The office manager, Realtor Brad Vohs and DeMulder planned to meet with the sales agents and staff at Morey’s Restaurant Wednesday morning, March 9, to discuss options.
Most of the current files and some computers were salvaged from the building, but the structure, purchased for $300,000 in 2006, is a “tear-down,” DeMulder said.
The phone number remains the same for customers seeking to contact the agency.
The building was just down the street from 540 Main, where Hartwick professor Norma Hutman died in a blaze last month.
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