Philip Freedman leaves Cervera to head Compass Florida’s new development division

Philip Freedman and Justin D'Adamo
Philip Freedman and Justin D'Adamo

Compass is beefing up its newly launched new development division with a new hire, tapping Philip Freedman to helm Compass Development in Florida.

Freedman left Cervera Real Estate, where he most recently led sales for Terra Group’s Grove at Grand Bay in Coconut Grove. He joined Compass Florida as it launched its development division with its first project, 6080 Collins, a condo-hotel in Mid-Miami Beach. Compass took over the 70-unit project from Douglas Elliman in April at about 60 percent presold and has one additional unit under contract.

The tech-oriented brokerage plans to take over presales of projects that are struggling in the slow market, and as well as launch new projects, Justin D’Adamo, senior managing director of Compass, told The Real Deal. The goal is to combine Compass’s application, which analyzes where buyers are coming from, what they’re interested and how to reach similar people worldwide, with Freedman’s international reach to bring in sales, D’Adamo said. “Many of the buyers in Miami are not local to Miami,” he added.

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Compass has 108 agents in Florida after opening an office in South Beach in 2015. Earlier this year, it brought on heavyweight Ben Moss.

“While everyone else is complaining about the market, we’re starting to see [deals] taking place and the opportunity to present Compass in a whole new light,” Freedman said. “I think it’s time to get some new blood in here. It’s time for something fresh.”

Compass said it has prospects for exclusive South Florida projects, but declined to name them. Last year, the startup firm launched its West Coast new development platform after poaching two members of the Agency’s new development team, Hana Cha and Morgan Ball.  It’s also been active in New York, where as of March 2016 it had the exclusives on $1.53 billion worth of new development inventory.