“New normal”: Elliman’s Michael Lorber Team expands to Palm Beach

The boss’ son is setting up shop in Douglas Elliman’s Palm Beach office. 

The Michael Lorber Team, led by Michael Lorber and Alexander Boriskin, is expanding to the barrier island, according to a press release. Lorber, son of Douglas Elliman Chairman Howard Lorber, and Boriskin founded the team six years ago in New York City, later expanding to the Hamptons. Since then, the team has closed more than $2 billion in deals, the release shows. 

Agents Chris Callahan and Liz Callahan moved from Brown Harris Stevens to join the team in Palm Beach, alongside Adam Hofer and new agent Nathaniel Falcone. Hofer, who is also one of the team’s top Hamptons agents, is heading the expansion, Lorber said.

They also join some of Palm Beach’s top agents in Elliman’s Royal Poinciana Plaza office. Elliman’s Chris Leavitt and Ashley McIntosh of the Leavitt McIntosh Team placed second for on-market Palm Beach County deals closed in The Real Deal’s December ranking, with fellow Palm Beach Elliman agent Gary Pohrer placing eighth.

New York City, the Hamptons and Palm Beach have always been hyper-connected luxury real estate markets, but the pandemic supercharged the link. South Florida agents and developers now regularly travel to the Hamptons to connect with clients and market properties, while players from the Northeast eye expansion in the Sunshine State. 

“It’s really the golden triangle of real estate,” Lorber said. “You don’t sell people one home, you sell them three.”

He would know. Lorber dropped $7.4 million on a Park Avenue co-op earlier this month, sold a Hamptons house for $5 million in 2021, and owns a Palm Beach house he bought for $1.3 million in 2012, records show. 

Hofer pointed to the inverse busy seasons of the Hamptons and Palm Beach as a strength in dealing with both markets. 

“It is kind of the new normal to be set up in the Hamptons and South Florida,” Hofer said. 

Palm Beach, always a favorite tony enclave of the wealthy, has seen astronomical price growth in recent years. Record-breaking deals are now commonplace, and single-family homes rarely trade for less than $5 million. 

“[Palm Beach] used to be a snobby place. Now it has a reputation for being just so expensive that you’re priced out of it,” Lorber said, while emphasizing that plenty of homes on the market don’t cost $50 million. “That’s not true. Palm Beach is affordable and it’s a great lifestyle.”

Lorber also pointed to the slew of luxury condo development just over the bridge in West Palm Beach as providing appealing options for New Yorkers and older island residents looking to downsize.