« Back to Homeplace Front

« Back to Homeplace Archives Front

Realtor of the Year

By Cindy Hodnett
HomePlace Writer

Over the course of his career, Paul McGill has been involved with several notable projects that have helped shape the historic "face" of Winston-Salem.

The owner of McGill Realty and an active member of the Winston-Salem Regional Association of Realtors, McGill was named the 2007 Realtor of the Year by WSRAR at the January meeting, and his personal philosophy on real-estate success incorporates many of the business practices he adopted long ago.

"To be successful as a Realtor, you have to be an advocate for the community, our business and the homeowner," McGill said. "You have to be a positive mapmaker for change and a positive energy in the real-estate community. It takes education, hard work and dedication to your clients — both buyers and sellers."

McGill's rise to the forefront of the real-estate industry took some interesting turns along the way, and in retrospect, he can see how each experience enabled him to move forward professionally. After graduating with a degree in landscape gardening and working as the superintendent of an estate in northern Virginia in the mid-1970s, McGill accepted a newly created position as the superintendent of gardens for Reynolda Gardens of Wake Forest University. At the time, Reynolda was a 120-acre estate with 4 acres of formal gardens and 116 acres of open space and natural wooded areas, and McGill moved into what was once the Reynolds daughters' playhouse to begin overseeing restoration efforts. After the restoration of Reynolda's formal gardens and greenhouses was complete, McGill turned his attention to Reynolda Village and its mix of abandoned and deteriorating buildings. McGill proposed a mixed retail renovation of the space to Wake Forest administration, and after a review, a team was assembled to explore the potential of the project. Shortly thereafter, Edwin Bouldin Architects was hired to create a master plan for the village, and McGill was hired as manager of Reynolda Village.

"The treasurer of WFU, John Williard, told me that if I would get a building rented, he would give me the money to do the renovation," McGill said. "So we renovated one building at a time. And in 1979, I got my real-estate license and formed McGill Realty, which helped me tremendously in the renting of properties at Reynolda."

Two years later, McGill was once again called on to help renovate a historic Winston-Salem property.

"After the fire at Graylyn in 1981, there was much research and discussion about the fate of the grand building," he said. "After much exploration, a team was again assembled, and in addition to my existing duties, I was also asked to be operations officer of the restoration of Graylyn estate with the goal to turn it into a world-class conference center.

"I left WFU in 1984 after completing the restoration of Reynolda Gardens, the renovation and adaptive reuse of Reynolda Village, and its positioning as a historic property and the completion of Graylyn as a renowned conference center."

Today, McGill has an active real-estate career and also serves on the board of directors for the Association of Realtors. Over the years, he has also served on committees at the local, state and national levels of the Association of Realtors, and he continues to be active in many community organizations. When not working, he enjoys "wandering the trails of the Blue Ridge mountains" and spending time with his wife and two children. McGill has a busy calendar, but he said that he enjoys all of the activities and believes the Triad real-estate market will continue to grow in years to come.

"We are in a vibrant, growing area of North Carolina, and we have a tremendous quality of life that I believe will continue to attract strong business development and people to our area," he said. "People want to live and work in a place like this, and we have a lot to offer. We are not a boom-and-bust market like the resort areas, and we have steady upward growth that speaks well for our economic health as a region and a community."