Town & Country opens two new offices

Judi Desiderio, Town & Country CEO, and images of the Montauk waterfront

East End brokerage Town & Country Real Estate is opening a new Montauk office and expanding its Bridgehampton digs to a larger space, the company announced today.

Town & Country CEO and Founder Judi Desiderio said she hopes to open the new Montauk outpost, located in a storefront at 764 Main Street, in time for St. Patrick’s Day. The 1,000-square-foot space, formerly occupied by an antiques store, brings Town & Country’s total to eight offices in the Hamptons and North Fork, she said.

“It’s a perfect time for us to grow,” she said. “We’ve had terrific agents in Montauk working out of East Hampton, but Montauk is really its own market. People who want Montauk will not accept anything but Montauk.”

The picturesque ocean-side fishing and surfing village has made waves recently as the site of Ponzi-schemer Bernard Madoff’s former summer home, which now belongs to Steven Roth, chairman of Vornado Realty Trust.

Town & Country has already received a warm welcome from Montauk, said Desiderio. “The moment people heard we were opening up, we’ve had inquiries to the point where we can’t even handle them.”

Meanwhile, the company, had outgrown its old Bridgehampton office, and is moving to a 2,000-square-foot space at 2415 Main Street, she said.

“We’ve been busting at the seams,” she said. “We’ve got great people knocking on the door, and when you don’t have anywhere to put them, it’s time to grow.”

The rapidly growing, five-year old company has hired around 45 new agents over the past year and a half, she said, bringing the total to more than 100.

In the midst of the downturn, “agents are moving around,” Desiderio said, adding that she believes agents feel they get more support and instruction at locally-owned Town & Country than at more corporate firms.

“Our agents are all busy and making money, and I don’t know if other agencies can say that,” she said.

She said in the next year, she hopes to double the size of each of the company’s offices, starting with East Hampton, Southampton and Westhampton Beach.

“For a solid company that has no debt, this is a great time for expansion,” she said.