Compass is acquiring @properties and Christie’s International Real Estate. The deal, worth $444 million, blindsided local Christie’s affiliates across the U.S.
This included Edgardo Defortuna, owner of Fortune Christie’s International Real Estate, one of the largest brokerage partnerships that Christie’s has had since @properties signed a long-term branding deal with Christie’s in late 2021.
Like other brokerage owners, Defortuna told me on Tuesday afternoon he was “still waiting for someone to call” to notify him about the acquisition, a day after it was announced a day earlier.
“We’re all caught very much by surprise,” he said.
Even so, Defortuna doesn’t expect much will change once the deal closes next year. He owns his firm, and it has exclusivity in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
Thad Wong, co-founder and co-CEO of @properties and Christie’s, didn’t respond to my requests for comment.
Defortuna compared Compass’ move to Anywhere Real Estate, which encompasses a group of major brands that include Sotheby’s International Realty, Corcoran Group, Coldwell Banker and Century 21. Compass agents won’t belong to Christie’s and vice versa. Each brand is its own thing.
But the acquisition is another sign of more consolidation in a tough industry with razor-thin margins. To succeed, you have to keep growing. This is true in Florida, where the Keyes Company is the largest independent firm in the state.
At The Real Deal’s South Florida Forum in November, Beth Butler, Compass’ senior regional director of operations and marketing, said “there’s no one way to succeed, but the one common denominator across the board is growth.”
Butler, speaking on a panel with Keyes owner Mike Pappas, recalled one of Mike’s father’s sayings. “If you’re not growing,” Ted Pappas would say, “You’re dying.”
What we’re thinking about: What are your juiciest or most interesting takeaways from Miami Art Week? Send me a note at kk@therealdeal.com.
CLOSING TIME
Residential: An entity linked to health care mogul Frederick Howe paid $31.1 million for two units in Fort Partners’ newly completed oceanfront condo project, Seaway at the Surf Club in Surfside. Nadim Ashi’s Fort Partners sold units 701 and 305 at 9149 Collins Avenue.
Commercial: The University of Miami paid $68 million for an assemblage of land at 150 and 1000 Northwest 14th Street in Miami, near its Allapattah medical school campus. The deals include a strip mall with medical offices, a parking lot and a former bank building in the Miami Health District, which is anchored by the 153-acre UM/Jackson Memorial Medical Center complex.
NEW TO THE MARKET
A very cool, tropical estate in Coconut Grove hit the market for $55.5 million with Douglas Elliman’s Lourdes Alatriste. The three-story, eight-bedroom mansion at 3310 Devon Court in the Hughes Cove community includes a saltwater pool, pond, a yoga pavilion, outdoor soaking tub, a 40-foot dock and a tennis court. The 8,355-square-foot home sits on a 0.9-acre lot. Property records show an LLC managed by Anastasios Parafestas owns the property. He’s a managing member at Boston-based Spinnaker Capital.
A thing we’ve learned
NASA is working on a launch to the moon in January as part of its Artemis mission. Ten NASA science and technology instruments will be delivered to a vast basin on the moon’s near side if successful. NASA would use Firefly Aerospace’s “Blue Ghost” lander, according to WFTV.
Elsewhere in Florida
- The manufacturer of the Orlando FreeFall ride was ordered to pay the parents of a 14-year-old boy who died in 2022 $310 million. The boy, Tyre Sampson, was allowed to board the ride despite exceeding its weight restrictions, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
- A couple in North Port recently featured on “60 Minutes” after their insurance company paid out a small fraction of what they were owed under their policy is suing their insurer. Virginia and Jeff Rapkin are hoping to turn the litigation into a class action lawsuit, the Miami Herald reports. They’re alleging that Tampa-based Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Co. committed criminal fraud, based on insurance adjusters’ claims that insurers have manipulated assessments to reject or lowball claims.
- State Sen. Gayle Harrell of Stuart filed a bill that will ban adding golf courses, tennis courts, pickleball courts and ball fields to state parks, according to the News Service of Florida. The proposed legislation is a response to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration’s controversial proposal earlier this year to redevelop portions of state parks.