New real estate brokerage sets up lounge at Boca’s Town Center mall

When Michael Ledwitz decided to launch a new luxury real estate brokerage firm in Boca Raton, he wanted to stand out among the crowd.

So this week he set up a kiosk lounge in the middle of the Town Center at Boca Raton mall, close to Saks Fifth Avenue and Tiffany & Co., where he can cater to the high-end shoppers who stroll by.

“In this marketplace, you have to do something different to compete,” Ledwitz, founder of Edge Real Estate Brokers, told The Real Deal, “and to show people you have marketing prowess.”

Indeed, marketing outside the traditional brokerage office has become the latest trend. Prestige Imports, an exotic car dealership in North Miami Beach, for example, just began selling Paramount Miami Worldcenter condos from a Turnberry International Realty office inside its Lamborghini showroom.

With 100 square feet inside Town Center at Boca Raton, at 6000 Glades Road, the Edge lounge offers shoppers a place to sit, while four 50-inch TV screens scroll images of luxury properties from Palm Beach to Miami Beach. His current listings range from $1.3 million to $5 million.

So far, Ledwitz said visitors from New York and Canada, as well as South Florida, have been stopping by and picking up brochures.

Ledwitz began his real estate career in South Florida more than 20 years ago. He founded the brokerage firm the Condo Company, which he sold in 2006. He then moved to Colorado and launched a lifestyle magazine. He sold that in 2011, and moved back to Boca Raton, where he worked for Douglas Elliman before starting Edge Real Estate Brokers two weeks ago. Its main office is at 5500 Glades Road in Boca Raton, but these days, Ledwitz spends much of his time at the mall.

“It’s a creative way of marketing,” he said. “You’re reaching the client base for luxury real estate where they are not expecting to be contacted. You’re able to reach out and touch them in a different way and make it memorable.