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Residential
South Florida

The Agency returns to Palm Beach County 

Brokerage opening in the Gardens, after shuttering its Boca Raton office years ago

Howard Elfman, Mauricio Umansky and Santiago Arana
Howard Elfman, Mauricio Umansky and Santiago Arana (Getty)
By
Jan 25, 2023, 5:50 PM

The Agency is making a comeback in Palm Beach County, years after shuttering its Boca Raton office.

The Los Angeles-based brokerage is opening a franchise office in Palm Beach Gardens, led by Agency principal Santiago Arana and CEO Mauricio Umansky, it announced Wednesday. Howard Elfman will be managing broker, and Brian Fairweather Jr. will be managing director of the office, which will temporarily be at 2000 PGA Boulevard, Suite 4440. It marks the Agency’s second franchise office in South Florida.

Umansky, who co-founded the brokerage in 2014, and Arana have each sold $4 billion in real estate over the course of their careers, according to the Agency. Arana joined the Agency as a partner in 2014. Elfman joined from Douglas Elliman in 2018, and has sold more than $1 billion in real estate over the course of his career, the company said. Fairweather left his role as chief strategy officer at Corcoran Reverie to join the Agency in December, his LinkedIn shows.

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The new office will service Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Jupiter, Tequesta, Palm Beach Gardens and North Palm Beach, according to a spokesperson for the brokerage. The Agency plans to find a permanent location in one of those communities, the spokesperson said.

Palm Beach Gardens marks the 72nd franchise for the brokerage, which continues to expand with franchises in the U.S., Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean and Europe. It has about 632 agents in California and 1,500 internationally.

The brokerage made its South Florida debut in 2018 with a Boca Raton office. Later that year, the Agency opened offices in Aventura and Coral Gables. All three offices eventually closed, and the firm moved into a temporary office in Fort Lauderdale that also later closed before opening an office in Surfside in April. The brokerage severed ties with the agents originally tapped to lead its South Florida growth.

The Agency brought in former Miami Marlins player Julian Infante earlier this month to the Surfside office, and promoted Daniel Tzinker to partner in December.

Other brokerages are tapping into northern Palm Beach County. Corcoran opened a Palm Beach Gardens office in August, when the golf-centric luxury market was still white-hot. The Palm Beach Gardens market has since cooled significantly, and single-family home sales dropped 40 percent year-over-year to 102 closings in December, according to Redfin.