Coldwell Banker’s Tim Elmes joins Elliman to lead Fort Lauderdale push

Fort Lauderdale agent Tim Elmes has left Coldwell Banker to lead Douglas Elliman Florida’s team in Fort Lauderdale.

Elmes, who has been ranked among the top 100 sales agents nationwide by the Wall Street Journal, will be bringing his eight-member team to Douglas Elliman Florida, which launched its Miami operations last year.

“We feel that the market is coming back very strongly, and that there is going to be a sustained resurgence, the first we’ve seen since pre-2005,” Elmes told The Real Deal.

Elmes said New York and the Northeast corridor remained the primary driver of the luxury market in Fort Lauderdale, and that as the region’s concentration of wealth changes hands to the next generation, Northeasterners would increasingly look to the Gold Coast of Florida.

He said he currently has $18 million offers on two different Fort Lauderdale properties.

“We feel that with Douglas Elliman being the dominant luxury firm in the Northeast, in New York and Long Island, which is very important to us, we’re going to benefit from their referrals and their leads,” Elmes said.

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Douglas Elliman Florida has been making moves northward of late, beginning with the addition of Senada Adzem to head the company’s Boca Raton office in December.

“Tim has a lot to offer, so it was a solid negotiation on his part,” said Vanessa Grout, CEO of Douglas Elliman Florida. “He knows what it’s like to build a successful brokerage and to create value — so we had a lot of confidence in his ability to help us establish Elliman in the Fort Lauderdale market.”

Grout said given the firm’s size in New York, the Fort Lauderdale move was part of a drive to expand in secondary markets that have logical connections to New York.

“It’s only natural for us set up in Miami, and the move up to Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and Palm Beach,” she said. “Miami is a strong market, so if we can make it there we’ll certainly do well as we expand north.”

Elliman will be opening a new office in Las Olas within three months, according to Elmes.

“We wish him happiness,” Michael Murray, senior regional vice president of southeast Florida, said in an emailed statement.