A Columbus woman has been sold on the city since her 1969 arrival.
And for much of that time, she has been selling others on the community as well.
Her life in real estate has been a labor of love for Jan Hexamer-Gardner, who retired this month as president of Century 21 Breeden Realtors, while maintaining her role as co-owner.
And what’s not to love about Columbus.
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The city’s reputation as a great place to live grew due to late industrialist and philanthropist J. Irwin Miller. The architecture program funded by his company, Cummins, has paid the world’s finest architects to design buildings across the city since 1957.
Among 70 examples of outstanding architecture in Columbus are these four, Hexamer-Gardner’s favorites, in chronological order:
First Baptist Church, 3300 Fairlawn, built in 1965, Modern design
Columbus City Hall, 123 Washington St., built in 1981, Modern design
Breeden Realtors building, 700 Washington St., built in 1995, Post-Modern design
St. Bartholomew Church, 1306 27th St., built in 2002, Modern design
The trickle-down effect of living in one of the world’s leading cities for architecture can be seen when walking or driving down residential streets, where proud homeowners have invested in their own houses and grounds.
“The quality of life in Columbus is very, very fine,” Hexamer-Gardner said. “Everyone seems to take more pride. It’s a city where volunteerism is great. And the opportunity to become acquainted and fit in is just excellent.”
With so many people moving into Columbus, they tend to be more accepting of others since they were once outsiders themselves — like she was, Hexamer-Gardner said.
The effervescent woman got her start in real estate in 1978 working for Century 21 M.E. Smith Co. in Columbus, owned by Milo Smith, who would go on to become an Indiana lawmaker.
Her role model in real estate was the late Muriel LoTurco, the market’s top salesperson.
“I always wanted to do everything like Muriel. She was the consummate professional,” Hexamer- Gardner said.
She also admired the characteristics of personal role models Dede Abts, Mary Lu Orr and the late Mary Weinland.
“Each of them possessed some fine qualities, goals and endurance over a wide variety of interests. I found each of them to be such an inspiration,” she said.
Move into ownership
Over the company’s first three decades, seven men held significant ownership stakes in Breeden Realtors, from founder and namesake Rex Breeden to current co-owner Mark Pratt. Hexamer-Gardner cracked the glass ceiling for women in 1985 at age 45, five years after joining the company.
“I had to peddle twice as fast for a while to demonstrate my worthiness in ownership. That was a fact, but that was a fact for all women,” Hexamer-Gardner said, describing the times.
She and Pratt bought out remaining partners in 1998, with her directing residential and Pratt overseeing commercial and development. Together, they own Century 21 Breeden, Breeden Inc., Breeden Investment Group and other affiliated entities.
The real estate division has shown significant growth since her arrival.
During 1980, Hexamer-Gardner’s first year with Breeden, the company sold 95 homes for an average price of $55,961, generating total sales of $5.1 million. In 2019, her final full year directing operations, the company sold 469 homes with an average sales price of $227,235, generating sales of $129.2 million.
Wowed by water
Any real estate professional will tell you that location is a significant factor in determining the value of a home. For Hexamer-Gardner personally, proximity to water has always ranked high.
She grew up in Chicago, where her father was a commercial electrical contractor, before the family moved to suburban Park Ridge.
“As a child we went to Lake Michigan all of the time. We absolutely adored the water,” Hexamer-Gardner said.
Her first home in Columbus was on Wood Lake. A few years later after going through a divorce, she moved into a second Wood Lake home — one that she had earlier sold to Cliff Gardner — coinciding with her marriage to him 27 years ago.
In time they moved to a Tipton Lake waterfront home. Since 2002 she and Cliff have lived on Harrison Lake, where they purchased a home rebuilt from the ground up by a previous owner.
“My affinity for lakeside living has been great. Water has been a huge part of my life. On vacation, we always go where there’s water,” Hexamer-Gardner said.
Her favorite international travel destinations include Amsterdam in The Netherlands; Venice, Italy; and the Amalfi Coast along the Mediterranean Sea in Italy — all water destinations.
“There are many gorgeous cities that I was just enchanted by,” especially smaller villages and cities and their landscapes, she said.
When she and Cliff travel abroad, he takes photos of unique entrances and she takes pictures of window boxes with cascading flowers.
At their Harrison Lake property, she and Cliff have an array of small gardens outdoors and a sunroom with tropical plants that brighten the home’s interior.
When she’s not nurturing or photographing nature, Hexamer-Gardner spends several hours a day on a new passion — painting abstract art.
Future housing trends
With people spending more time inside their homes due to the coronavirus pandemic, Hexamer-Gardner believes the experience will cause many to reexamine how and where they live.
After stay-at-home orders subside, pent-up demand for new housing will surface — perhaps later this year, she predicts.
“When you are forced to stay home and you have suspicions that your home is no longer right for you, those deficiencies become more ever-present in your mind,” she said. “It points out to people, life is short — let’s make the best of it.”
That’s exactly how she has lived her own life.
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Residence: Moved to Columbus in 1969, and has been living at Harrison Lake since 2002.
Hometown: Chicago.
Education: Graduated from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Ill., which Hillary Rodham Clinton and Harrison Ford later attended. Majored in business at Anderson University.
Family: Cliff Gardner, husband of 27 years; seven adult children — two each in Indiana and Connecticut, plus one each in Idaho, Pennsylvania and the United Arab Emirates.
Professional: Joined Breeder Realtors in 1980 in residential sales. Joined founder Rex Breeden, others in ownership group, leading residential division, 1985; co-owner with Mark Pratt since 1998. Leadership roles with Crossroads Association of Realtors, Columbus; Metropolitan Board of Realtors, Indianapolis; and Indiana Association of Realtors.
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Retired editor Tom Jekel writes a weekly column that appears each Sunday on The Republic’s Opinion page. Contact him by email through editorial@therepublic.com
