UPDATED, 5:47 p.m., Sept. 4: Florida attorney and title company founder Jay Phillip Parker has taken over the helm of Douglas Elliman’s Florida operations, the brokerage told The Real Deal.
Parker, a founding partner at Beloff Parker Jacobs and a real estate entrepreneur, replaces Vanessa Grout, who will return to the brokerage’s parent company as an executive. New Valley LLC is the real estate arm of the publicly-traded Vector Group, the Miami-based holding company of financier and tobacco magnate, Bennett LeBow.
During Grout’s roughly three-year tenure as chief executive, Douglas Elliman’s Florida agents brokered the record-setting $47 million sale of a single-family home in Miami Beach’s Indian Creek enclave; represented bulk buys at St. Regis Bal Harbour and Midtown Miami; and secured exclusive marketing and sales work for high-profile new developments, including Argentine developer Alan Faena’s Faena District, Ian Schrager’s The Residences at Miami Beach Edition and the Disney family fund’s Palau Sunset Harbor.
“Vanessa Grout did a phenomenal job laying the foundation and growing the company into a premier brand, and Jay’s incredible wealth of business experience in Florida, New York, and abroad will further enhance the Elliman brand experience for our clients and customers,” Douglas Elliman chief executive and president Dottie Herman said in a release.
Parker, 40, began his career at the Miami law firm Gunster Yoakley. He later served as general counsel for LandTel Communications, overseeing the implementation of a fixed wireless market across Europe during a year living in New York City. He returned to Miami in 2001, where he co-founded Clear Title LLC and Titan Capital Florida LLC.
“I’ve devoted the last 15 years of my life to serving realtors and brokers, particularly Miami. As a title company, we’ve been working hand in hand with many of the Elliman agents to help get deals closed and finesse the transactions,” Parker told TRD, adding that the new role is satisfying an urge to be part of a bigger enterprise. “After so much time, the work becomes less rewarding. I didn’t wake up with a pit in my stomach wanting to make things happen.”
Tasked with expanding the 250-agent brokerage, Parker says the pit in his stomach has returned.