Realogy announced Tuesday it will acquire Warburg Realty, one of the oldest and most prominent residential real estate brokerages in New York City and rebrand Warburg under the Coldwell Banker name.
Corporate affiliation is a decided identity shift for Warburg, a family business started in 1896 whose current CEO is Frederick Warburg Peters. Warburg Realty presently has two brick and mortar offices – both which will be kept, and 120 affiliated real estate agents, according to the press release announcing the deal.
The deal provides inroads to the New York City luxury market for Coldwell Banker, a significant player in west Los Angeles and Aspen, Colorado but a shop with little presence in Manhattan. Coldwell Banker is a subsidiary of Realogy, which does have a major Big Apple presence partly through its Corcoran brand.
“The new powerhouse Coldwell Banker Warburg will be fully rebranded in January of 2022, following filing with the state,” a press release states.
Messages left Tuesday with Peters were not immediately returned. The CEO has shepherded the brokerage’s growth the past three decades, and he has also been an outspoken critic of recent market entrants Zillow and Compass.
In a statement for the press release, Peters declared, “Throughout my 40-year-career in residential real estate, I have worked to elevate the integrity and professionalism of our industry. Working with the Coldwell Banker brand, I am giving Warburg agents the finest tools to create even more value for our clients and customers.”
A Coldwell Banker spokesperson declined to say how much it cost to acquire Warburg, and the company said it has no immediate plans to launch further luxury-focused subsidiaries.
The press release echoes Peters’ assertion that Coldwell Banker may help Warburg with resources.
“While Warburg has maintained a cutting-edge profile and constantly adapted to an ever-changing industry,” the release reads. “The addition of the Coldwell Banker brand’s cutting-edge suite of marketing, education and state of the art technology will enable the firm to even more effectively spread its wings.”
