Merrick Manor hires Berkshire EWM to take over sales

Developer said 100 units are left for sale

Henry Torres and Merrick Manor
Henry Torres and Merrick Manor

Merrick Manor hired Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty to take over sales, a luxury condo building in Coral Gables, The Real Deal has learned.

Merrick Manor developer Henry Torres said that The Agency was handling sales and marketing from May to October 2019. After The Agency, a Los Angeles-based brokerage, left the project, Torres brought sales in-house until he selected EWM.

Originally, One Sotheby’s International Realty led sales of the 10-story, 227-unit development at 301 Altara Avenue. Torres’ Astor Companies launched sales in 2013, but the project was on hold and relaunched sales in early 2017, hiring One Sotheby’s a few months later.

The building, near the Shops at Merrick Park, was delivered last summer, amid a general slowdown in new development condo sales in the Miami market.

It’s 60 percent sold with about 100 units remaining. Prices for remaining units start at just under $400,000, and units range from 574 square feet to more than 3,400 square feet.

Torres was candid about his decision to change companies. “I really think that having [EWM] on board is a tremendous benefit to the company. I think they’re going to get us to the finish line where other companies have failed,” Torres said, blaming himself “for not making the best selection.”

“I think The Agency is a good company. I think their timing was a little off for Miami. … I made the choice of using them because of their experiences in the California area,” Torres said. “I thought they could bring that to Miami, but they fell short.”

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The Agency expanded to South Florida in October 2018, opening its first office in Boca Raton.

Patrick O’Connell, senior vice president at EWM, will lead the sales team along with Maria Kakouris Somoza, Nadjalisse Rodriguez and Zenaida Figuero.

EWM President and CEO Ron Shuffield led the brokerage’s rebanding from EWM Realty International to the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices network in June of last year.

EWM plans to boost Merrick Manor’s exposure to the broker community and local buyer pool, Torres said.

Manny Chamizo III, global commercial director at One Sotheby’s International Realty, is marketing nearly 20,000 square feet of Class A ground-floor retail and restaurant space in the building.

Merrick Manor’s interiors were designed by Interiors by Steven G. and the building includes a lobby lounge, business center, club lounge and news cafe, fitness center, resort-style pool and package lockers.