After years of eyeing the Ponte Vedra Beach area, Engel & Volkers Real Estate now has a location that calls the era home after the company opened its fifth location on the First Coast with a ribbon cutting ceremony Nov. 17.
Its newest location will be at 190 A1A N., Suite 1, and will give the world-renowned company a convenient option in a market it was already very active in.
“We’ve been trying to come to Ponte Vedra for years, ever since opening our first location in Jacksonville Beach in 2018 and then our second location in St. Johns,” said Corey Hasting, with Engel & Volker First Coast.
After searching around for the past couple of years, everything finally came together, and it did so very quickly.
“Ponte Vedra is really built for this brand, and the demographic is exactly what we sell to on a global level,” Hasting said. “To finally be here and cutting the ribbon is just a lot of emotions and excitement going on. There’s a lot of relief that we are finally here, but at the end of all it’s just a true blessing.”
Hasting is originally from Cincinnati and played college football at the University of Ohio and even spent some time in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals.
At first, his dive into the real estate world was mainly because it was a job that could work with his schedule while also trying out for other teams as he attempted to extend his playing career.
“I wanted to be able to go work out in the morning, but then show properties in the afternoon, and this was in 2014, before it was really cool to be young in real estate,” Hasting chuckled. “I was 23 years old and the youngest person in my office by 15 years.”
A couple of years later, his dive into real estate had grown to the point, where he had the opportunity to buy Engel & Volkers in the region and they wound up opening that first location in 2018.
It has been quite the ride and one that has seemed to come at such a fast progression in recent years.
“If you would have told me that we would be having this much success now, back then, a little over four years ago, I don’t know if I would have believed you,” Hasting said. “We’re a top-five brokerage in the entire Northeast Florida region out of 1,700 brokerages, and we should probably do close to about $1 billion in sales going into this year. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure that it’s real.”
At the moment, the Ponte Vedra Beach office has about 10 to 15 agents that call it there “home office,” but it’s a number that Hasting hopes to grow down the road.
