Sarasota to Minnesota is quite a jump, but the female half of the founding Sky Sotheby's management team has moved on to the distant and hopefully green pastures of the Twin Cities.
In a bold move from a small firm known for successful long shots, Sky Sotheby's International Realty has acquired franchise rights and will open a new Sotheby's realty brokerage in the Minneapolis market.
The Minnesota company, slated to open in October, will be the first Sotheby's real estate company in the state and is the first expansion outside of Florida for Sky Sotheby's.
Although it will retain the same name, the Minnesota assets will be in a different corporation.
Brandyn Herbold, Sky Sotheby's chief executive officer, has already moved and will lead the expansion effort in Minnesota, while President Chad Roffers will continue to lead the Florida operations.
Herbold's husband, Robert Herbold, a local physician, will maintain his Sarasota practice. The couple plans to commute between Florida and Minnesota.
Herbold and Roffers, who say they have planned the move for more than a year, remain equal partners and top managers in both companies.
"Our growth into Minnesota will broaden our footprint in the luxury real estate market," said Herbold. She added, "We chose Minneapolis because that market is ready for a high-end, full-service real estate experience like Sky Sotheby's offers."
It also left a curious blank amid the Sotheby's realty franchise map.
"We've worked hard to make our firm a model franchise for Sotheby's International Realty, and because of that, Sotheby's is giving us support to expand our brand into Minnesota," Roffers said.
The expansion will cost more than $2 million.
"The development and expansion into new markets has always been part of our original business plan, and we continue to zero in on and achieve our aggressive goals," Roffers said.
Sky operates a successful business model that is unique to Sotheby's.
"Chad and Brandyn are stars," said Mike Good, president and CEO of Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates, Inc. "They have been exemplary franchisees."
It is one of the very few Sotheby's operations that kicked off as a startup. Most franchises are established regional players with significant market share.
As the Sotheby's affiliate in Sarasota and Manatee counties, and now Minneapolis, Sky Sotheby's is banking that growth is built on "uniting talented and successful associates with a powerful brand," Roffers said.
Thirty percent of his current sales come from Sotheby's worldwide network of offices and affiliates, he said.
Sky, only three years old, has had a remarkable first few years. Despite the dismal 2006 real estate market, Roffers maintains that the company will top $400 million in closed transactions, about double last year's sales.
If Sky hits anywhere near that number, it will be one of the only growth stories among major area real estate brokerages this year.
Almost all other top firms are predicting from 25 to 50 percent declines in sales.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul market has about 3 million residents, making it about 41/2 times the size of the greater Sarasota-Manatee market, which had a 2005 population of about 672,000.
"Minneapolis is a market that really has very few independent luxury real estate firms," Good said.
Unlike Southwest Florida, the Twin Cities boast a long string of major corporations that call it home.
General Mills, Best Buy, Cargill, Target, Medtronic, 3M, Radisson Hotels, Northwest Airlines, United Health Care, US Bancorp, St. Paul Travelers and ING Reliastar are all hometown companies.
As a result, the relocation business for executives is very strong, Herbold said. Twin Cities income ranks in the top tier among the 25 largest metro areas and surpasses national levels by a wide margin.
Historically, Minneapolis-St. Paul has not been affected severely by downward national economic trends because of its diverse base of companies.
The area's population and economic growth has outpaced the nation for the past 30 years.
Residents of the Twin Cities are frequent travelers and many are dual home owners in communities throughout the Gulf Coast, said Roffers, who is a Minneapolis native.
Sky is planning on two offices in the market. One will be in Edina, southwest of Minneapolis, and the other will be in Wayzata, on the eastern edge of Lake Minnetonka.
"Because all Sky Sotheby's associates have ownership in the company, the success of the company and our clients is directly related to our employees' commitment," Herbold said.
Source: Sarasota Herald Tribune