William Hartner
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William Hartner Broker Owner |
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Billy Hartner has been a successful businessman in the East Portland Metro Area for over twenty-five years. Since the beginning Billy has been great at just about everything to which he has committed himself. Billy has been like the Forest Gump of East County in so much as his timing. Over the years, he has personally witnessed and influenced the significant growth the area has realized. Together with Marcus Fullard-Leo and Brinkley Schedeen, Billy owns a local real estate company named Village Realty, Inc. His contributions to the company have been an integral part of its success. In 1987, Billy established his first Restaurant “Ashley’s” in the old abandoned area of Gresham on Main Street. Ashley’s was a gathering place for the who’s who of the old-school, blue, bloods and helped Billy forge relationship which would be vital to his success as a local business man. Billy has always been a promoter even in the early days of Ashley’s. At Ashley’s he had the names of influential regulars’ families engraved on gold plates at their favorite tables. Ashley’s eventually bought Heidi’s Swiss Village (in Boring, Oregon) and saved it from the wrecking ball. Over the years Ashley’s has restored, and added an A&W and a Chevron Station. Bringing new life to the area. Billy has also been responsible for revitalizing many other beautiful historic area properties. Through his efforts, time, and financial contributions Billy has been responsible for forming the Gresham’s original “Downtown Owners Group;” putting the Historical Society in Gresham’s Carnegie Building; re-locating the oldest home in the East Portland Metro Area, the Shattuck House, to Gresham’s Main Street;” getting the Funding for the re-vitalization of historic downtown Gresham; designing the banners that are on the light poles and the state of Oregon signs, which direct cars on Hwy 26; saving the Gresham library by spearheading a Citizen’s march from Gresham to the library headquarters in Portland to create awareness in the community. Billy has also been integral in the formation of many of the events that define the East County community including the Gresham’s Farmer’s Market and Gresham’s annual “Rock Around the Block” hot rod show, which in its Inaugural year was a seven day event that was promoted in a 20-page insert in the Gresham Outlook and boasted carnival rides. In 2002, Billy & Marcus started East Winds Newspaper to service the Reynolds School District, which surprisingly was not adequately served and fairly represented by any local paper even though its demographic reach included as many as 225,000 people. At the end of its first 12 months of publication, the paper was estimated to have a readership of 40,000 people per month. By the end of its second year in publication the paper was brokered to the Gresham Outlook who still prints it and serves the Reynolds School District as was originally intended. Through this relationship with the Outlook, Billy has become a regular writer of the paper, weekly publishing 2 articles, one about the upcoming NASCAR races and another about influential local area car enthusiasts. In 2001, Billy & Marcus purchased Village Realty from the developers for which Marcus has started the company. They have endeavored and succeeded at the complex task of building a successful brokerage firm that has the ability to help clients ranging from the first time buyer to the mega-rich commercial investor. The local connections and promotional skills Billy has brought to Village Realty have been and continue to be a paramount factor in the company’s success.