Prudential Palms Realty owner buys Lakewood Ranch Realty

Prudential Palms Realty owner buys Lakewood Ranch Realty

Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch has agreed to sell its subsidiary Lakewood Ranch Realty Co. to Palms Real Estate Solutions.

Details of the sale reportedly will be finalized in the coming weeks.

The deal is expected to increase Palms Real Estate Solutions' market share in the area to 27%.

“We're extremely excited about it,” the company's CEO Helen Sosso says. “It's a terrific group of agents in both offices. They are very productive. Working with SMR has been a very (good experience).”

Palms Real Estate provides management services to other real estate companies, including back office functions of accounting, marketing, training, support staff, real estate solutions, mortgage, title, relocation and international services including to Sosso's Sarasota brokerage Prudential Palms Realty.

Milt Flinn, president of Lakewood Ranch Realty, says the deal will provide his 35 agents with more technology and resources with which to work while allowing SMR to focus on its core businesses.

“We decided they could do it more efficiently than we could,” Flinn says, noting part of SMR's long-range business plan is to focus on its core businesses of real estate investment, agriculture, mining and commercial operations. “(Lakewood Ranch Realty) has been a great operation, and we enjoy it, but it's not really our business. This just wasn't in our core holdings, and when this opportunity presented itself that would enhance what tools our agents had to work with, we just thought it would be a good decision all around.”

Flinn will remain as the company's broker for the next few months but eventually will be replaced by local broker Nick Figlow. Flinn will stay on as the president of LWR Communities, which overseas SMR's brokerage and title companies.

Sosso plans to open a new Lakewood Ranch Realty Co. office on Lakewood Ranch Main Street within the next 30 days. The Market Street location will remain open for business as well.

SMR will grow its commercial real estate operations with hopes of expanding outside Lakewood Ranch's boundaries.

— by Pam Eubanks, contributor