Movers & Shakers: Erin Sykes Launches Side-backed Brokerage

Agents made brokerage moves in the latest roundup of South Florida real estate hiring news.

Erin Sykes left Nest Seekers to launch Sykes Properties, a Side-backed brokerage, according to a press release. Sykes regularly closes more than $100 million in annual sales, and has been an agent and chief economist with Nest Seekers for more than eight years. At Sykes Properties, she will serve markets in Florida, New York and New Jersey, as she splits her time between West Palm Beach and the Hamptons, the release shows.

Side launched in 2017 as a white-label platform offering agents services to launch their own firms. Its most high profile team has been Tal and Oren Alexander’s Official, which rapidly expanded across luxury markets until numerous sexual assault allegations against the brothers disrupted their business this summer.

Christopher Jude is joining Phil Gutman’s Gutman Development Marketing, according to a press release. He was previously the in-house sales executive for five years at 57 Ocean in Miami Beach with Fortune International Realty, according to LinkedIn. Gutman launched his Miami-based development marketing firm in May and owns his own brokerage, PGutman LLC.

The Luxury Team has jumped from Compass to the Agency, a press release shows. Led by Steven Seigel and Kelly Charles, the team also includes Beth Hendler and David Simonetta. They specialize in luxury condo sales in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, and have sold more than $100 million this year, according to the release.

The Design Center of the Americas (DCOTA) in Dania Beach hired Jonathan Hopp as director of design services, according to a press release. A longtime interior designer, Hopp is the head of his own firm, Jonathan Hopp Interior Design. In his new role with DCOTA, Hopp will work with showrooms, lead its Shop the Building Program, manage the DCOTA Select Showroom and serve as a liaison between the design center and the South Florida design community, the release shows.