Don’t tell Corcoran Group CEO and president Pam Liebman the South Florida housing market is slowing. It is, according to the numbers and anecdotal evidence ceaselessly repeated by local and New York media. However, the region remains popular with New York City buyers and investors, Liebman says.
The Corcoran Group in early May opened its fifth South Florida office, this one in downtown Palm Beach Gardens. The firm has three other offices in Palm Beach and another in Delray Beach. Liebman also told The Real Deal that Corcoran might also open in development-flush Miami.
“I wouldn’t rule Miami out,” Liebman said. “If the right opportunity came along, we would take it. I buy into the whole sixth borough thing. [South Florida] is our winter suburbs.”
The newest Corcoran branch is a 4,000-square-foot office headquartering 45 agents and managed by broker Dianne West. With the new office, Corcoran brings its number of Palm Beach-area agents to 150.
If it expanded into Miami, Corcoran would be the first large Manhattan-based brokerage to do so. (A Douglas Elliman Florida, based in Miami, is partly owned by the same company that owns Prudential Douglas Elliman, but has no other affiliation with the Manhattan-based firm.) A spokesperson for Prudential Douglas Elliman said in May the brokerage would not comment on any plans for expansion into Miami.