Crossman & Company Earns Regions Top CoStar Power Broker Awards

ORLANDO, Fla. --- Crossman & Company, the Orlando based commercial real estate company that ranks as one of the largest retail property management, leasing and development companies in the Southeast, recently earned seven of the top CoStar Power Broker awards.

John Crossman, president of Crossman & Company, said CoStar named Crossman & Company one of the Central Florida region’s top leasing firm and the region’s top retail leasing brokers.

Six associates at Crossman & Company also earned CoStar Power Broker awards: Ashley Thornburg; Courtney Kowalchuk, vice president of leasing; Daniel Germano, senior associate; Katherine Rush; Justin Greider, vice president and director of leasing; and Whitaker Leonhardt.

About Crossman & Company:

Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, Crossman & Company is a commercial real estate brokerage firm that specializes in the retail industry. Currently their portfolio under leasing and/or management exceeds 150 shopping centers throughout the Southeast US. Founded in 1990, Crossman & Company focuses solely on landlord representation and serves clients including Publix, PREIT, and GE. Please visit www.crossmanco.com, or call 407-423-5400 for more information.

First Green Bank of Eustis’ Chief Financial Officer Melissa Atkins is finalist for CFO of the year award

EUSTIS, Fla. – Melissa Atkins, chief financial officer at First Green Bank of Eustis, was recently named a finalist for the CFO of the year award by Orlando Business Journal, the weekly business publication that serves the Central Florida region.

Kenneth E. LaRoe, chairman and chief executive officer of First Green Bank, said Atkins was a member of the senior management team who founded First Green Bank in 2008 and ranks as one of the region’s most knowledgeable financial officers.

Atkins attended Campbell University in North Carolina and worked her way up the ranks at Florida Choice Bank – LaRoe’s former bank which was also in Lake County – from 2000-2008, prior to the establishment of First Green Bank.

“Melissa is a highly skilled, dedicated financial officer whose integrity, knowledge and judgment are a tremendous asset to First Green Bank,” LaRoe said.

Atkins and First Green Bank colleagues plan to participate in the CFO of the Year awards ceremonies in Orlando in June, and LaRoe said he thinks Atkins has earned the top honors.

“She has played a major role in the success that we have achieved in this market since we opened in 2008,” LaRoe said. “I don’t know of a more qualified chief financial officer in the Central Florida area,” he said.

First Green Bank is one of the first of its kind in the U.S. to focus on positive environmental and social responsibility while operating as a traditional community bank.

First Green Bank has facilities in Eustis and Clermont and plans to open a new 11,000+ square foot LEED Platinum-registered headquarters facility in Mount Dora in June.

Lennar’s Central Florida Division Awards $47,500 in Prizes to Top 10 Area Realtors

TAMPA- Lennar’s Central Florida Division, which builds new single-family homes and town homes priced from the $100s to the $400s in more than 30 Lennar communities in the Tampa Bay, Orlando and Space Coast regions, recently awarded $47,500 in prizes to 10 of the Central Florida region’s top Realtors competing in a Lennar Loves Realtors sales contest from May 1 through Nov. 30.

Mark Metheny, president of Lennar’s Central Florida Division, said the 10 contest winners posted sales and closings that totaled more than $11.7 million during the contest.
Janith Overstreet of Lithia, an associate at New Homes Specialist, won the top prize---a $10,000 shopping spree through the Lennar Loves Realtors Wish Book, an online catalogue of more than 3,000 luxury items that range from luggage to house wares to furnishings, jewelry and travel.

Overstreet’s sales and closings during the contest period totaled $2,750,549, Metheny said.
Miguel Beltran of Charles Rutenberg Realty in Clearwater, Danny Christian of REMAX Paramount Properties in Lakeland and Flaviano Bullian of Union II Realty and Investments in Orlando earned $5,000 shopping sprees with sales and closings that totaled $2,222,513, $1,298,893 and $1,120,503 respectively.

Metheny said $3,500 award winners included Philippa Liddel of IPG Realty in Clermont, with $982,666 in sales and closings; Luisa Mizgorski of Tampa For You Realty with $805,797; Suanne Vagnini of New Homes Specialist in Valrico, with $772,441; Patrick Washburn of Sunstate Guaranteed Realty in Lakeland, with $582,802; Stuart Hurry of NuHome Finders in Lakeland, with $627,992; and Tammy Keller of Charles Rutenberg Realty in Clearwater, with $617,116.

For more information contact: Francine Miller, Director of Sales and Marketing, Lennar Central Florida, 727-479-1747; Mark Metheny, Lennar Division President-Central Florida, 727-479-1700