by Kevin Cody
In 1948, Realtor Pat Anderson built a 715 square foot office on a triangular shaped lot at the northwest corner of Pier and Monterey avenues in downtown Hermosa Beach. It looked like any other peaked-roof beach cottage, except for being trapezoidal to accommodate parking.
Anderson served two terms on the Hermosa Beach City Council.
But his most important civic contribution may have been qualifying Hermosa for funds to build a new pier by proposing a fog horn on the end of the pier. The fog horn satisfied the State requirement that the pier serve all of the people of California, Anderson told an Easy Reader reporter in an early ‘70s interview.
Shortly after opening the office, Anderson invited Hermosa Realtor Betty Ryan to join him.
Anderson-Ryan Realty was the most successful real estate company in Hermosa Beach through the early 1970s, when small offices were overshadowed by multi-office brokerages with hundreds of networking agents.
After Anderson retired in the mid 1980s, Ryan brought in Realtor Dan Ericson, who would buy the oddly shaped office from Ryan in 2000.
When Ericson retired in 2020, David Caskey became the fourth Realtor to own the ‘40s-era office.
Last week, Caskey held an open house to celebrate the building’s year-long renovation by architect Ryan Nolton and builder Mike Boyd. The renovation cost more than it would have cost to build a new office.
But its value is in its intangibles, Caskey explained to his open house guests.
“It’s a cornerstone of old Hermosa,” he said.
Caskey worked at Shorewood Realtors for 25 years, before it imploded 10 years ago under the stewardship of a new, out of state owner.
After leaving Shorewood, Caskey opened his own office and recently affiliated with eXp Realty. The international, cloud-based brokerage manages back-end business services, freeing up local brokers, like Caskey, to focus on sales and mentoring.
The Caskey Real Estate Group and partner brokerage The Klapper Group, have over 100 agents.
Caskey is maintaining his 10,000 square foot office in Manhattan Beach. He plans to use the Pier and Monterey office, with its charm and downtown Hermosa location, as a meeting place for his agents and their clients, and for civic groups.
The Mira Costa High Snow Board Club recently met there.
“I think of it as a tiny community center,” he said. ER
My favorite, & very special person,..an extraordinary realtor. All the continued success for you.