The Adairs NORMANITES IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Normanites in the Spotlight, The Adairs

By: Chelsey Kraft

For Jim Adair and his children, the family business stretches over four generations.

Jim works with his son, Zach Adair, and his daughter, Ashley Adair-Garner, to carry on the enterprise his father, Jimmy Adair, began more than 70 years ago.

Shortly after leaving the military in 1946, Jimmy Adair partnered with his stepfather, Lee Biggs, to open A&B Lumber Company at 615 N Porter Ave. in Norman. That business evolved from homebuilding into land development, and from there, into Adair and Associates Real Estate, an enterprise Jimmy shared with his son, Jim.

Decades later, Jim and his children are carrying on as the third and fourth generations of the family business, a destiny all three University of Oklahoma graduates looked forward to from the time they were children.

The Adairs NORMANITES IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Jim started work with the company in 1975, just before it moved to its downtown location at 111 N Peters Ave. in 1977.

“My dad and I worked together for 35 years, and it was delightful for me to get to move to the next generation,” Jim said.

“We all feel like we’re super blessed to be able to do this,” Ashley said. “We all love coming to work, and I think that we’re unique in that a lot of families can’t even imagine working together. But we all get along great and actually have different personality types, so we complement each other, and it’s been really easy for us.”

Adair and Associates works with a variety of real estate properties all over Norman, but the primary focus is the offices and retail spaces in downtown Norman. Ashley said they love buying 100-year old buildings in the area, fixing them up and seeing them come to life again, and Jim added downtown is where their heart is.

“Downtown’s got a historical charm that you just can’t replicate,” Jim said. “Downtown’s healthy, and we’ve got great partners in the city and the county … Between the county and the banking institutions, you’ve got a built-in office market down here. That supports the restaurants, and the unique thing about the restaurants is they’re all local.”

Downtown has become an entertainment district in a lot of ways, Ashley said. Between the restaurants and breweries, there are shows at the Sooner Theatre and murals and other works of art to look at. There are multiple ways people can spend their time.

The Adair’s are active with the Norman Chamber of Commerce, Norman Downtowners Association, Norman Arts Council and the Downtown Norman Fall Fest, which Ashley started seven years ago. She said new events like the Film Fest, Mardi Gras Parade and Christmas Parade have encouraged more people to bring even more events to the area.

“New events keep emerging because everyone loves them. They’ve been popular, and I think people just enjoy being down here,” Ashley said. “It’s kind of the natural place… in Norman now.”

The Adair’s believe downtown is healthier than it’s ever been and that it’s only going to get better.

“If you drive into it every day like we do when we come to work, it’s interesting to see it change,” Zach said. “I’m rarely down here in the evening, but every time that I am, it’s packed. It feels cool, it feels like there’s stuff going on, and five, 10 years ago, it didn’t feel that way. It was quiet.”

Some of the newer businesses for which Adair & Associates serve as landlord are BIG Brew Co. and Pryor’s Pizza Kitchen. A couple of years ago, they finished the building project where Pinot’s Palette and the Whispering Willows Art Gallery are located. Ashley said that building also includes six loft apartments with a rooftop terrace. Currently, Nashbird is under construction right next door to BIG Brew Co.

Jim and his wife, Renee, have been married for 28 years. Zach and his wife, Sophia, have been married for eight years and have two sons, 5-yearold Alexander and 3-year-old Benjamin, while Ashley and her husband of 13 years, Jared, are parents to 10-yearold Hayden and 8-year-old Hadley.

The children may soon take their places as the fifth generation of the family business. When they visit the offices, the tend to fight over who gets to sit at the front desk, Zach said.

Ashley’s husband owns Garner Insurance, which has given her kids another path for potential careers.

“It’s funny because now that Jared has a business too, there’s another option for the kids. They kind of joke, ‘Well, I’m going to go work with Dad,’ and I’m like, ‘No, you have to come here,’” Ashley said with a laugh. “We’ll see what they do.”

For now, much like Jim grew up around the family business when his grandparents’ house was physically attached to his dad’s office, his grandkids are now an ever-present group at the office.

“One or more of my grandkids are in my office almost every day,” Jim said. “The kids have grown up coming to work with their parents, and that’s something a lot of people can’t enjoy in a work environment, and we’re just blessed that it does work for us.” – BSM