Just weeks after some blockbuster dealmaking in Palm Beach, Ryan Serhant is opening an office on the island.
Serhant signed a lease for an office at 324 Royal Palm Way in Palm Beach, the firm’s Palm Beach agent Gary Pohrer confirmed. The move comes two years after Serhant expanded to Florida with offices in Delray Beach and Miami.
The New York City-based celebrity superbroker has unleashed a blitz of activity on the island in recent months. He is the buyer’s representative in a $350 million-plus oceanfront assemblage on the island. In May, he recruited top agent Pohrer from Douglas Elliman, and in the past week the pair have landed two trophy listings: the lakefront estate at 1460 North Lake Way asking $95 million, and the oceanfront Manalapan mansion at 1460 South Ocean Boulevard asking $64.5 million.
Between the office, the recruiting and the listings, Serhant is planting his flag in a notoriously competitive, insular market, one where other firms have struggled to find footing.
The majority of successful dealmaking in Palm Beach’s ultra-luxury market is done by a small, tight-knit circle of agents backed by local brokerages, or earlier arrivals like Elliman and the Corcoran Group.
“It’s small, it’s tight, it’s organized –– it’s very, very organized. The players in that market are very protective of their territory,” Elliman’s Florida CEO Jay Parker told The Real Deal last year.
Longtime players have reason to be territorial. Palm Beach emerged from the pandemic with a magnetic pull. Off the charts price growth, record-shattering nine-figure sales and a steady stream of billionaire buyers made the island the white whale for brokerage heads. Firms like Compass, the Agency, Cervera Real Estate and Hilton & Hilton have all opened Palm Beach offices in recent years, but have struggled to find success in the upper echelons of the market.
Market insiders agree a crucial step to brokerage success in Palm Beach is to land a top agent. Agents say the newcomer firms have courted top earners largely to little avail. Pohrer is a rare member of the island’s major dealmakers to make a switch. While he chalked up the move to the appeal of Serhant’s brand and marketing apparatus, turbulence at Elliman precipitated a wave of agent exits this year. Top Manhattan agent Holly Parker, “Million Dollar Listing” star Tracy Tutor and an Aspen team that closed nearly $200 million in annual volume were among the brokerage’s high-profile departures.
Still, a top agent, a lease and two listings alone do not make a top Palm Beach brokerage. The island’s biggest players consistently close north of $200 million per year, and even more including off-market sales. Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate was the top-ranked island agent in TRD’s 2025 Palm Beach County broker ranking, with $549.3 million in on-market sales.
Longtime island brokers have been skeptical of the staying power of outsiders in their market. Top Corcoran Group agent Dana Koch told TRD last year, “Just because you make it in another market doesn’t mean you’re going to make it here.”
Serhant had an advantage few newcomer brokerages do. While new to Palm Beach as a brokerage, he was not new to the island as an agent. In 2021, Serhant and Elliman’s Chris Leavitt teamed up to represent Tiger Global Management co-founder Scott Schleifer in his $122.7 million purchase of an oceanfront estate.
Despite that early success, Serhant chose not to start his Florida expansion in Palm Beach. At TRD’s New York Forum in May, he said his early focus was on feeder markets, like Delray Beach, calling it the “Walmart approach.”
Now he’s expanded to Orlando and Naples as well, and is piloting a private listings network in the Sunshine State.
“Markets do not dictate your income. They dictate your strategy,” Serhant said at the forum. “You stick to your goals. You don’t negotiate goals, but you can pivot strategy.”
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