A former architect has joined a South Florida new development team for the New York-based brokerage featured in the Netflix series "Owning Manhattan."
Alvaro Garcia of Serhant represents 29 Indian Creek, a 20-unit, luxury condo development in Miami Beach. He most recently worked at the eXp brokerage and Douglas Elliman before that.
Serhant "combines technology, narrative, and a massive online presence to shift the needle," he said in an email. "It's not just a license hang, it's an ecosystem for growth."
Garcia was raised in South America and earned an architecture degree from Universidad José María Vargas, according to his LinkedIn profile. He landed his first job in 2000 at RVL Architects in Miami and also worked for the Kobi Karp architecture firm. He sold real estate part-time from 2004 until 2009, when he launched a full-time career in home sales.
He has held sales and management roles at such South Florida developments as Aston Martin Residences, Palazzo del Sol, 900 Biscayne Bay and the Trump Ocean Club. At the Trump project, he managed more than $300 million in sales in a year, with total sales eclipsing $500 million, according to Serhant.
Buyers passing up older listings
While home listings are flooding the market in Florida and other states across the Southeast, "properly positioned" new projects in premium locations such as Miami Beach, Brickell and downtown Miami still resonate, particularly with cash buyers and foreign investors, Garcia explained.
Luxury buyers are passing on older inventory for turnkey, distinctive homes in smaller buildings, he said. In addition, new condos across Florida are especially attractive because they aren't subject to a new state safety law governing condo buildings at least 30 years old.
"So though greater consumer choice is a good thing, new projects that provide genuine value in terms of design, location, and exclusivity still hold their own," he said. "Things are changing in the market, but quality remains paramount."
Serhant's new development division handles sales and marketing for Mercedes-Benz Places Miami, the German carmaker's first residential project in North America.
The brokerage, founded by agent Ryan Serhant in 2020, says it has over 1,000 agents and 100 full-time employees. It expanded nationally in 2023 and now covers nine states: Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.