The Corcoran Group is carving out a share of the expanding South Florida market and making some changes in its ranks in the wake of an earlier change among the firm’s leadership in Brooklyn.
The brokerage behemoth created its first executive vice president position for South Florida in a move Chief Executive Officer Pam Liebman said was critical to strengthening the corporate connection with an increasingly important market.
Corcoran Chief Operating Officer Scott Durkin was appointed to the post in May, and will run the South Florida operations out of Corcoran’s Midtown headquarters.
“We’re getting very big in South Florida,” Liebman said, “and we’re looking to expand. That’s no surprise.”
Corcoran’s regional vice president for South Florida, Wade Shavell, will remain in the Palm Beach office. Liebman said having Durkin in Midtown will help with back and forth between South Florida and the corporate headquarters. Durkin oversaw Corcoran’s human resources, marketing, advertising and public relations as COO, and now he’s in charge of an enterprise centered around Palm Beach and West Palm Beach, with 125 agents and three offices.
Corcoran also announced in May the promotion of Frank Percesepe to senior vice president of its Brooklyn region. Percesepe, managing director of Corcoran’s Brooklyn Heights office since January 2001, will supervise 145 sales associates and three locations in Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope and Fort Greene. He succeeds Melinda Magnett, who had headed Corcoran’s Brooklyn division under a partnership with Brooklyn Landmark Realty, the company she founded in 1985 and that Corcoran bought 50 percent of in the late 1990s. Corcoran recently acquired Magnett’s remaining interest in her old company.