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Compass opens first South Florida office
Former One Sotheby's exec Beth Butler to run Miami Beach operation
From the South Florida website: Compass has launched its first office in South Florida, aiming to capitalize on referrals from its New York City home turf, The Real Deal has learned.
The brokerage’s new office, on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, will concentrate on “middle- and high-end” residential properties from Coral Gables to Fort Lauderdale, Compass CEO Robert Reffkin told TRD.
“Miami is one of the most important real estate markets in the world,” Reffkin said in a statement. “We are referring more of our clients there than to any other region, so we want to refer them to our own agents, not just to any agents.”
Former One Sotheby’s International Realty executive Beth Butler will run the office, serving as president. The firm also hired a marketing director, and will open the office with about five agents, with a goal to increase to 100 eventually, Reffkin said. He declined to provide the address on Lincoln Road.
Compass, which has a total of 300 agents overall, also plans to set up a separate development marketing division in Miami, Reffkin said.
The firm was sued in March by the Corcoran Group, which had been hemorrhaging agents to Compass, for allegedly “brazenly and intentionally” raiding key Corcoran offices. In April, Compass accused Corcoran, in counterclaims filed in New York Supreme Court, of launching a smear campaign against its former agents, and in doing so, hurting their business and delivering a “thinly veiled threat” to others considering a move to Compass.
Formerly called Urban Compass, the real estate brokerage dropped the “Urban” earlier this year, after launching in 2013 and raising more than $70 million in funding.
Its first foray outside of New York City came in November, when it opened its office in Washington, D.C., after acquiring Lindsay Reishman Real Estate, the sixth largest brokerage in the city at the time. Since then, the D.C. operation has grown to more than 80 agents.
The firm said it currently holds $1 billion in exclusive listings, $2.5 billion in its new development pipeline and has more than 15,000 sales and rental listings displayed on the website.