Kliethermes Homes & Remodeling

35 Years

Dan Kliethermes built his business from the ground up 35 years ago and went from being a builder who wanted to be his own boss to the owner of Kliethermes Homes & Remodeling.

Starting out, he worked for several companies before deciding he wanted to be his own boss. “I just took the leap and started working for a Realtor here in town,” Kliethermes says.

Kliethermes first built an office building; and that led to a referral to build another office building, along with a lot of small projects in between. Then one day while watching a work crew build a house, he got the idea that he might be good at that too.

Kliethermes Homes “& Remodeling opened for business in 1976 constructing “spec houses” — houses that don’t yet have a buyer. But as business grew, he began building custom houses as well as purchasing, designing and building subdivisions. To date, they have built more than 300 houses and worked on more than 1,500 remodeling jobs. Collaborating with other developers, their work can be seen in the subdivisions of West Creek, West Pointe and Avalon, as well as the Village of Cherry Hill, which is both commercial and residential.

Since the beginning, Kleithermes has focused on teaching himself to be a better business owner. Often, it meant making changes; but in basic terms it came down to putting the right people in the right jobs. “It was studying a lot, reading a lot of books and going to a lot of conventions so that I knew how to run a business.”

Many of Columbia’s civic organizations have benefited from the generosity of Kliethermes Homes over the years, most notably Habitat from Humanity, a group the company has assisted with hundreds of projects. In terms of services, the company handles essentially all interior and exterior projects. “The reality of what we offer our clients is an in-depth process that allows them to go through the process and make small decisions that leads into one large decision.”

Timeline:

1976 – Opens business

1982 – Builds first home in Meadowbrook West (at 21 percent interest)

1990 – Develops first subdivision: West Creek

1999 – Builds first commercial office building and develops first planned community: The Village of Cherry Hill

2000– Expanded the remodeling division to full time and full service

2011 – Broke ground in November for new office at the corner of Chapel Hill and Corona Roads in the Village of Cherry Hill