History

Jim Havens' early involvement in real estate development began when he started working as a laborer in his step-father's construction company at age 11. By 14, he was operating heavy equipment and had become a mason's tender. At 16 he became a brick layer, and then put himself through college by working on large commercial construction projects. It was during those years that he became familiar with many of the major contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and the development process in Ohio.

In 1978 while he was in law school, Jim gained practical legal experience by working as a law clerk and title searcher for a firm that specialized in savings and loan representation. After his acceptance into the bar, Havens opened his own practice, choosing to focus on three practice areas: litigation, business, and land management.

In 1994, in response to his clients' increasing need for highly qualified and timely title insurance services, he formed Cardinal Title Agency. Since then, Cardinal Title has closed over $1.5 billion dollars of transactions in the last four years.

Following that, in 1992, Havens began forming several commercial real estate development partnerships. Through this variety of arrangements, he has developed, owned, and managed office buildings, office warehouse projects, and medical facilities.

Jim's continued involvement in an increasing number of commercial real estate and construction concerns has positioned Havens Limited to provide an array of specialized services to real estate companies, developers, brokers, title insurance companies, and construction firms.

Early in his career, Robert Weiler asked Jim to lecture on various real estate topics at Capital University Law School. Since that time he has lectured extensively to all of central Ohio's professional real estate organizations and affiliates.

Recently Jim served as the Education Chair of the Central Ohio NAIOP Chapter. Working with Tony Sanders, the Galbreath Chair of the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business MBA Program, he helped select a line-up of prominent real estate experts who served as course instructors during his three-year tenure—Jeffrey Palmquist, Tim Norris, Robert Weiler, Jon Rolwing, Tracy Allen, Donald Roberts, George Stecz, Don Hunter, Michael Young, David Pontia, Don Casto, Frank Kass, Robert Schottenstein, and Havens himself.

In 1989, when Havens and his family moved to Granville in Licking County, he was asked to serve on the Granville Township Board of Zoning Appeals. After two years on the BZA, he began serving on the Zoning Commission. In 1996, Jim was appointed to fill the unexpired term of a resigning township trustee, and served three consecutive terms in that post. During his tenure, Granville Township became the first township in Ohio to pass an open space acquisition levy. Through a combination of levy proceeds, combined with money from its General Fund, Granville Township has acquired more than 281 acres of open and recreational land, spending more than $4.7 million dollars on the program.