Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate has acquired Castelli Real Estate Services, an 80-agent firm based in Broward County. With this acquisition, Better Homes & Gardens now has a total of 250 agents in the area. According to Castelli’s website, the company plans to grow its Broward offices to more than 500 agents. Gene Whiddon III, CEO of Better Homes & Gardens, leads these expansion efforts as part of a broader trend of brokerages increasing their presence in Broward County. The company is among those set to be acquired by Compass as part of Compass’s $1.6 billion agreement with Anywhere Real Estate.
In other real estate news for South Florida, One Sotheby’s International Realty has promoted Jennifer Leong to manager of development sales in Broward. Leong joined One Sotheby’s in 2021 and heads the Opulent Group. Her new responsibilities will include expanding the firm’s new development business in the county.
Brown Harris Stevens announced additions to its teams at two Miami-area offices. In South Miami, Adriana Cifuentes, Christina Cagol, Jazmine Yancey, Juanita Gallego, Kia Kesser, and Yina Uriza have joined the brokerage. Christine Patruna and Ruslan Moncada have been added to the Miami Beach office.
Architecture firm RSP has hired Nicolas Pinzon as associate principal at its Miami office. Pinzon will focus on mixed-use projects and large-scale developments after spending 27 years at L35 Architects where he was most recently a senior partner.
In Palm Beach hospitality news, Grant Friedman has been appointed general manager of Palm House hotel. Prior to this role, Friedman worked as a consultant with GIF Hospitality and served as vice president and general manager for Acqualina Resort and Residences from 2020 to 2023.
The Palm House hotel was purchased by L+R Hotels for $39.6 million in 2019. Ian and Richard Livingstone own L+R Hotels.
