Homelife Kempenfelt-Kelly a fixture in the community
by Michelle Minnoch

A familiar site to those who travel along Yonge Street in Stroud is the house located at the corner of Yonge and the 10th Line (Victoria Street). This century home, owned by Lou and Mary Kelly since 1979, is the Homelife KempenfeltKelly office, Innisfil location.

A prominent member of the community, Lou Kelly was born and raised and Barrie. He began his real estate practice, Lou Kelly Real Estate, in the south end of the building. A hardware store was located at the bottom of the building until 1981, and then Stroud Meats

took over until 1987. When the lease ran out and with his business expanding, Lou renovated the building to accommodate his real estate practice.

In 1988, more renovations took place, and due to demand of his services, Lou Kelly purchased a real estate office in Barrie. On June 30, 1989, Lou Kelly bought a Homelife Franchise and the business he started in the late 70's, grew into Homelife Kempenfelt-Kelly Reality Ltd.

In 2000, Lou purchased 50 acres of land on Innisfil Beach Road, which is now the location of Sobey's, Scotiabank and 200 residential lots.

In 2003, Lou purchased the land across the street from his Innisfil office, the former location of the firehall. After putting money and time into his project, the space was leased to the Greater Innisfil Chamber of Commerce and Cellar Wines.

In 1997, Homelife Kempenfelt-Kelly was awarded the Business of the Year Award by the Greater Innisfil Chamber of Commerce.

In 2005, the Homelife corporate office in Toronto presented Homelife Kempenfelt-Kelly with an award for the number one office in Canada, by size.

Homelife Reality Services came into the Canadian market in 1985. With almost 250 offices across Canada, there are over 800 offices that can be found world wide.

With approximately 20 sales people working in the Innisfil location and 50 in the Barrie location, Lou Kelly says a number of his employees has been working for Kempenfelt-Kelly for 20 years.

Homelife KempenfeltKelly is a sponsor of various hockey, baseball and soccer teams within the community. The office has also raised money for Big Brothers, Little Sisters, breast cancer, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

The most recent contribution to the community was the sponsorship of the Mayor's Golf Challenge at Innisbrook Golf Course, in which $20,000 was raised for the new rec centre. Lou says although this was this first year Homelife participated, he would definitely like to do it again next year.

The Innisfil office of Homelife Kempenfelt-Kelly is located at 7886 Yonge Street (705) 436-5111; the Barrie office is located at 284 Dunlop Street West (705) 722-8191. There is also a satellitte office located on Victoria Street in Alliston.