Beverly Hills luxury brokerage The Agency has grown its West Coast footprint over the past year with nine new offices, but it took a bit of coaxing for it to open No. 10, its first Orange County outpost.
Located in Corona del Mar, the office is slated to open by Aug. 1 and is being spearheaded by real estate agent and Laguna Beach-resident Andrew McDonald.
The broker joined The Agency last year after helping grow the Malibu territory of Beach Cities Real Estate in Newport Beach.
“I told them I’m moving back to Orange County—my favorite place in the world and where I met my wife,” McDonald said. “I gave them all the numbers of all the top guys and said I can build you an office.”
Once he showed the potential impact The Agency could have in OC, he was able to get the blessing of firm co-founders Mauricio Umansky and Billy Rose.
McDonald then recruited Linda Chan, formerly of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, and veteran agent Michael Caruso, who’s served as president of the Orange County Association of Realtors.
He said one goal is to utilize the firm’s in-house marketing team to better position it and listings.
It’s not August, and the Los Angeles-based coastal brokerage is already causing waves.
“We want to help elevate the prominence of the Orange County luxury market,” he said. “It’s different than just putting something on the MLS.”
But McDonald noted that the brokerage still wants to collaborate with other agencies. After all, it’s known for its “no *holes” policy, “and I saw The Agency embodied that,” McDonald said.
The company was founded in 2014. It’s closed more than $9 billion in real estate transactions, and its agents have been involved in a number of record-breaking deals, including Umansky’s involvement in the $100 million sale of the Playboy Mansion to Hostess Brands LLC heir Daren Metropoulos.
Seeing Green
Frank “Tré Cool” Wright III of punk rock band Green Day is waving goodbye to his Newport Beach home near Lido Marina Village.
The drummer sold his 2,103-square-foot duplex off 35th Street last month for $1.83 million, just under its asking price of $1.87 million.
The upper unit has three sun decks, a great room with beamed ceilings and a master bedroom with a private deck, walk-in closet and master bathroom. The lower unit has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, as well as a family room with French doors leading to a large outdoor patio.
Built in 1978, the property has a four-car garage and an additional carport.
Wright purchased it in 2007 for $1.6 million from longtime Pacific Symphony second violinist Alice Miller-Wrate and her husband, John, according to property records.
Chris Sirianni and Tim Carr of Villa Real Estate held the listing. Carr and Dominic Tucci, also of Villa Real Estate, represented the buyer.
Wright’s bandmate, bassist Mike Dirnt, sold a 2,500-square-foot Newport Beach home in November for $3.09 million.
Double Duty
Commercial-turned-residential real estate developer Pat Patterson is shopping his latest project—a three-story, two-unit townhome on the Balboa Peninsula that hit the market last week.
The founder of Newport Beach real estate firm Sailhouse said it’s right in the middle of all the action.
“The location of this project is central to all the redevelopment that’s going on in the peninsula,” he said. “It’s a two-minute walk to Lido House Hotel, a five-minute walk to the new Lido Marina Village, and a one-minute walk to the beach.”
The traditional beach house was built with an open floor plan design. The first unit has four bedrooms and three bathrooms across 2,449 square feet. It also has a 758-square-foot rooftop deck. Its asking price is $2.59 million.
The second unit has an asking price of $1.89 million and is 1,821 square feet with three bedrooms and three bathrooms. It has a 648-square-foot rooftop deck.
Patterson purchased it in 2016 for $1.45 million in an off-market deal, according to property records. The site was home to a 600-square-foot bungalow built in 1927, Patterson said.
Sailhouse was founded in 2009 and has 15 luxury residential projects in Newport Beach, Lido Isle and Newport Peninsula in the pipeline.
Nicolai Glazer of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices has the listing.
