Keyes acquires Bluffs Real Estate and Investment Properties in Jupiter

The Keyes Company is growing – again.

Keyes’ Platinum Properties closed on the acquisition of Jupiter-based Bluffs Real Estate and Investment Properties less than a week after announcing it purchased two South Florida offices of Greenwood Village, Colorado-based Shorewood Real Estate.

Bluffs is active in Palm Beach and Martin counties and will keep its office at 4050 South U.S. Highway 1 under the Platinum brand, according to a press release. The 25-agent brokerage, led by owner Gail Lamborn, closed $25 million in sales volume last year.

Keys CEO Mike Pappas is planning on buying more firms as smaller brokerages struggle with “tightening margins.”

Illustrated Properties Real Estate merged with Keyes last year, bringing the combined company’s total agent count in Palm Beach County to more than 1,100 agents. In Florida, Keyes has 58 offices and more than 3,000 agents, making it one of the largest independent residential brokerages in the region.

Last week, the firm added 40 agents in Aventura and Palm Beach when it acquired Shorewood’s two Florida offices.

Now is the time for mergers and acquisitions, brokers say. One Sotheby’s International Realty recently bought two brokerages in Aventura: Turnberry International Realty and One Miami Group Brokers. In January, Brown Harris Stevens picked up Avatar Real Estate Services after entering the Miami market with its acquisition of Zilbert International Realty in 2015. – Katherine Kallergis