UPDATED, 5:50 p.m., Aug. 9: One Sotheby’s International Realty just hired a top commercial broker from Fortune International Realty.
Manny Chamizo III joined One Sotheby’s after 15 years with Fortune’s commercial division and the last five years as director, he said. Chamizo closed about $60 million in sales in 2016.
Chamizo grew Fortune’s commercial arm to nearly 170 agents, and he plans to grow One Sotheby’s 11-agent division the same way as its new global commercial director. While Fortune is “a strong player locally,” he said he was looking to work for a global company. Chamizo compared his 15-year tenure with Fortune to a marriage, adding that he was no longer “completely fulfilled.”
“Unfortunately we felt it was in the best interest of both Fortune and Manny to part ways, nonetheless we thank him for his time with our company and wish him the best in his future endeavors,” Walter Defortuna, chairman of Fortune International Realty, said in a statement.
He focuses on retail, office and land sales in Florida, and recently closed on the $3.3 million sale of the corner building at 2700 Ponce de Leon in Coral Gables, which the Mas family sold for a record $1,013 per square foot to a Peruvian restaurant developer. Chamizo also brokered the $12 million sale of the office building at 2300 West 84th Street in Hialeah.
One Sotheby’s International Realty spun its commercial division into a separate company in 2016 at the start of the slowdown in Miami’s luxury residential market and earlier this year hired former NAI Miami CEO Stephen Nostrand as its new chief operating officer and president.
On the residential side, longtime Fortune agents and top producers Allan Kleer and Fabian Garcia-Diaz left in June to join One Sotheby’s, also citing the firm’s global reach.