Illustrated Buys Two Realty Firms Adding 47 Brokers

PGA National specializes in country club and golf course communities and handles approximately 70% of all sales at the 5,000-home PGA National golf course community in Palm Beach Gardens. Other properties include PGA National Ballen Isles, Ibis Golf and Country Club, Mirasol, Ironhorse and Old Palm. Adams tells GlobeSt.com this acquisition adds 40 realtors to Illustrated and closed $200 million in sales in 2004.

Old Port Cove adds seven realtors to the staff and closed about $50 million in 2004. "We're in an expansion mode and bought seven or eight companies recently," Adams says. Illustrated has more than 20 offices in Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties and an office in Naples.

Adams declined to disclose the individual prices or the aggregate cost of these companies. "The price was approximately five times their annual earnings," he says. Calls to PGA National and Old Port Cove were not returned by deadline. While single-family homes account for the largest proportion of Illustrated's sales, Adams says, "the condo and townhouse portion is growing and now represent about 35% of all. Home prices," he says, "have risen 30% across South Florida this year, following a 25% rise the year before."