Douglas Elliman Florida CEO Vanessa GroutAfter years of sitting in the shadows, Douglas Elliman Florida is taking center stage, trying to steal some
of the limelight from its New York counterpart, Prudential Douglas Elliman, also owned by Howard
Lorber’s the Vector Group.

With a new website launched today, a new Facebook page with multiple listings service capabilities, key
new hires and new offices, the Miami-based brokerage, which specializes in luxury properties throughout
South Florida, is pulling out all the stops under the leadership of Vanessa Grout, who was appointed
president and CEO in 2010 following three years as vice president of acquisitions for New Valley, the
Florida real estate division of Vector.

In the short time since she took the reins, Grout has grown the Florida company’s revenue by more than
400 percent, she told The Real Deal, and has acquired there office locations in Miami including a new
headquarters in the Herzog & de Meuron building at 1111 Lincoln Road. [more]

Prudential Douglas Elliman CEO Dottie Herman appeared on Fox Business this week (see video above) to talk about the consistently fluctuating housing market. Reports such as the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index give a view of the national as a whole, she said, but don’t’ reflect activity in unique markets such as New York. “You have to really look at your local market to determine what’s going on… Interest rates are the lowest they’ve been… the banks just really have to start lending,” she said. While national home prices are continuing to exhibit seasonal strength, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices’ data through July, Herman said she expects the housing slump to continue for another year at least.

Prudential Douglas Elliman is partnering with United Kingdom-based real estate agency and consulting firm Knight Frank Residential in a bid to promote exclusive properties among their combined international client pools and boost sales. European and other global properties should begin to appear on Elliman’s website in the coming weeks, according to Crain’s. The brokerage is already close to benefiting from the arrangement. Elliman CEO Dottie Herman said a $11.8 million, 10-room Park Avenue co-op in New York City is close to going into contract with a foreign buyer. [more]

From left: Teresa King Kinney, Dottie Herman and Pam Liebman Teresa King Kinney, CEO of Miami Realtors, has made Inman’s annual list of the most influential players in the real estate world, based on readers’ votes. Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Dottie Herman and Pamela Liebman of the Corcoran Group also made the list, which comprises 100 leaders who either work in real estate or whose work impacts the industry, including brokers, technologists, multiple listing service representatives, government officials, journalists, economists, academics and financial services executives. Other notable winners were Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow; Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s; Pete Flint, co-founder and CEO of Trulia; Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors; and Kenneth Harney, columnist for the Washington Post. TRD’s own Web editor, Lauren Elkies, was nominated in the media category, in which Curbed founder Lockhart Steele was one of the winners (Inman is an investor in Curbed.com). Click here to see the full list. TRD
[more]

Real estate industry bigwigs and other notables gathered at the brand new $60 million mansion at 3 Indian Creek — the most expensive home on the market in Miami-Dade County, during Art Basel Miami Beach week. Party attendees included Dottie Herman, president and CEO of Prudential Douglas Elliman, Rene Gonzalez, who designed the mansion, and Elliman listing brokers Oren Alexander and Julian Cohen, who are helping to market the property to New York buyers. Check out the slideshow above for some event pictures. TRD

Jay Flagg, Prudential Douglas Elliman’s longtime Southampton manager,
has been given the boot from that role after a dispute with chairman
Howard Lorber, but will stay on as a broker for now, the Post reported.
Sources said Lorber took issue with a magazine advertisement that
featured Flagg far more prominently than the Elliman brand. When
contacted by The Real Deal,
a spokesperson for Elliman said in a statement that the company “has
made it clear to its agents that all advertisements should be within
company branding standards; the advertisement run by Jay Flagg did not
conform to those standards.” Still, some unnamed Elliman agents told
the Post that a personality clash between Lorber and Flagg had been
brewing for years and that CEO Dottie Herman had approved the ad
herself before it ran. The Elliman spokesperson said “there were no
personality issues involved” in Flagg’s ousting. [Post]

[more]

Jay Flagg, Prudential Douglas Elliman’s longtime Southampton manager, has been given the boot from that role after a dispute with chairman Howard Lorber, but will stay on as a broker for now, the Post reported. Sources said Lorber took issue with a magazine advertisement that featured Flagg far more prominently than the Elliman brand. When contacted by The Real Deal, a spokesperson for Elliman said in a statement that the company “has made it clear to its agents that all advertisements should be within company branding standards; the advertisement run by Jay Flagg did not conform to those standards.” Still, some unnamed Elliman agents told the Post that a personality clash between Lorber and Flagg had been brewing for years and that CEO Dottie Herman had approved the ad herself before it ran. The Elliman spokesperson said “there were no personality issues involved” in Flagg’s ousting. [Post]

[more]

From left to right: Barack Obama, Mort Zuckerman, Amir Korangy and Darcy Stacom made the New York Observer Power 100 list.

From the New York Web site: The Real Deal’s Amir Korangy made the New York Observer’s Power
100 list of the most powerful people in New York real estate, released today. President
Barack Obama ranks first on the list, which includes politicians,
developers and brokers, followed by Stephen Ross, CEO of the Related
Companies, and Mort Zuckerman, chairman and CEO of Boston Properties.
Twelve women made the list, including Corcoran Group CEO Pamela
Liebman, Elliman CEO Dottie Herman and CB Richard Ellis Vice Chairman
Darcy Stacom. The Observer also held a poll inviting readers to vote
for the most powerful people in New York real estate, and The Real Deal’s Web editor, Lauren Elkies, was named the city’s most powerful real estate blogger. [more]