William Raveis Real Estate, Mortgage & Insurance, which is headquartered in Shelton, has acquired Fenton & Lang, a Florida-based, family-owned brokerage focused on luxury properties.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. It is the second acquisition for the Raveis firm in Florida in a three-month span.
Fenton & Lang has two Florida offices and deals with properties in the areas of Jupiter Island and Hobe Sound. Both offices will now operate under the Raveis luxury brand.
William Raveis, chairman and CEO of WRRE, who founded the company 47 years ago, said Jupiter Island “further connects the dots” between its footprint in the Northeast and the luxury communities of southern Florida.
“Slowly but surely we’re conquering the luxury market, one luxury community at a time,” Raveis said.
This latest acquisition marks WRRE’s entry into the Jupiter Island and Hobe Sound market, and it brings the number of Raveis offices in Florida to 16. It also has offices in the areas of Naples, Palm Beach and Sarasota.
Fenton & Lang, co-owned by siblings Adrian Reed and Lia Reed Bohannon, is known for selling and renting luxury seaside properties. Adrian Reed said he was impressed with WRRE, as the companies are run in a similar fashion.
“As a family-owned and run company, they make decisions like Lia and I do: we come together as a family, talk it through and make the best possible choices,” Reed said, in an announcement. “We share a supportive culture, and we look forward to building on that within the Raveis footprint.”
The siblings’ grandparents were active in preserving the area and creating the Hobe Sound Wildlife Refuge in the 1950s. The area attracts buyers because of its privacy and waterfront, while it is near golf courses and towns such as Jupiter.
Raveis said his strategy for entering new markets is to look for small, independently-owned, boutique firms, which are often family-run.
“We are seeking out small brokerages with large impacts on the community and that command the luxury market,” Raveis said.
WRRE has some 4,300 agents in 136 offices across eight states, including Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Maine and Vermont.
The company projects that it will produce a record $20 billion in sales for 2021, up 20 percent from 2020. Since expanding its reach to Florida, the company reports it is on track to close nearly $4 billion in sales in that state alone.
Contact Michelle Tuccitto Sullo at msullo@newhavenbiz.com.
