Douglas Elliman expands to Coral Gables

Douglas Elliman has officially expanded to Coral Gables with an office at a new mixed-use building on Sunset Drive.

The New York-based brokerage is leasing 4,040 square feet of ground-floor space at 1515 Sunset Drive, an office and retail project recently completed by Facundo Bacardi, chairman of Bacardi Limited.

The Elliman office, led by managing broker Maggie Buck, will house about 75 agents, including some from Elliman’s Coconut Grove location. It features two conference rooms, private offices and open work spaces, and was designed by Leo Daly.

Buck had been managing broker of Elliman’s Miami Beach office since September 2016 before making the move to Coral Gables, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Jay Phillip Parker, CEO of Douglas Elliman Florida, said the Gables is “well aligned with the buyer profile from Connecticut and Long Island.”

The opening brings the firm’s Florida office count to 21, which includes locations in Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Miami Beach, Palm Beach and more.

The brokerage is recruiting agents from other firms, but Parker said he’s less focused on hiring a certain number of agents and more on the quality of the agents.

Elliman agent Hilda Jacobson, who brokered the $19 million sale of Bacardi heir Hilda Maria Bacardi’s Gables mansion to Marc Anthony in June, is working out of the new Coral Gables office.

In Coral Gables, Elliman’s competitors include EWM Realty International, One Sotheby’s International Realty and Compass, the latter of which recently hired longtime EWM broker Carole Smith.