Sotheby's International Realty opens in Westmount

The guest list included Robert MacDougall, president of Sotheby's International Realty Quebec, and Allan Gotlieb, Canada's ambassador to the United States from 1981 to 1989, who is now chairman of Sotheby's Canada.

According to Liza Kaufman, managing director of the Westmount locale, Sotheby's has been active in Westmount for about a month and since then has been incredibly successful. "The response from the community has been outstanding," she said. "We also have and are starting to build an incredible team."

Among the seasoned real-estate professionals who now work at the Sotheby's Westmount office are Joseph Montanaro, Anna-Maria Retsinas, Susan Lloyd-Leduc, Tina Baer, Cyrille Girard, Karen Karpman, Hélène St-Laurent, Carl Fontaine-Remillard and Louise Remillard.

Sotheby's started as a brokerage house in 1744. In the 1970s, they founded their real-estate division. Two years ago, the company started a major international expansion. That's when Sotheby's entered the Canadian real-estate market. Sotheby's now has about a dozen real-estate offices across Canada and 400 world-wide. "We are true partners with out world-wide associates," said Kaufman, noting that the relationship has enabled her to sell homes in Montreal as easily as in Hong Kong, Moscow or London. "I have been making deals like that all over the world since I started," she said. "We can really cover the world now. We are truly an international company."

According to Karpman, the Sotheby's name is recognizable to many international clients when they're shopping for a home. Two weeks ago, she had a customer who had been in Montreal only 48 hours from Russia, and he purchased a penthouse worth close to $2 million, largely, she maintains, because of the Sotheby's name. "It makes a huge difference," she said.

Besides Westmount and Old Montreal, Sotheby's has an office in Mont Tremblant. They plan eventually to have satellite offices all over Quebec. MacDougall, who, according to the Sotheby's web site is a principal and partner in the Quebec operations, has been mandated to build the Montreal office into a market leader. "Westmount's a critical market to Quebec and we want to be the pre-eminent broker in Westmount," he said. "Sotheby's has got a strong brand name and it sends a strong message to the market place."

Gotlieb, who was Canada's ambassador in Washington during the Ronald Reagan era, flew in from Toronto for the opening last Tuesday. "I got here in spite of the weather, but here I am," he said.