Alicia Cervera, Sr.
CARY, NC: Monica Smiley, publisher and CEO of Enterprising Women magazine (www.enterprisingwomen.com), presented Alicia Cervera, Sr., founder of Cervera Real Estate in Miami, FL, with the magazine’s 2010 Enterprising Women Latina Success Award during the 2010 Enterprising Women of the Year Awards Celebration, March 17-19 in Miami.
“Alicia Cervera, Sr. has built a remarkable real estate business in South Florida and branded the Cervera name, with three generations of women growing this billion-dollar business. Her hard work and entrepreneurial skills partnering and collaborating with the Miami business community have contributed to her amazing success. Enterprising Women is proud to recognize such a successful business leader with its first Latina Success Award,” Monica Smiley said.
Cervera is a legend in South Florida real estate. Cervera Real Estate, which she founded four decades ago, now employs more than 150 agents that have sold and closed more than $1 billion worth of properties the last three years, despite the downturn in the market.
A veteran of the Miami real estate scene, Cervera began working as a broker soon after arriving from Cuba in the 1960s with two young children. She soon became the top-selling agent at the firm, and within two years, she opened her own company, serving as secretary, salesperson and bookkeeper all in one.
Her first major client was Harry Helmsley, who was building the Palace of Brickell a residential project in a commercial area of Miami. While working on the project, Cervera saw that the waterfront Brickell neighborhood had the potential to become a popular location for tourists seeking second homes. When zoning changes began to occur in the neighborhood, she purchased a $95,000 lot, selling a portion of her own stock holdings, securing a small loan, and pawning her engagement ring to put together the down payment. She was successful in her efforts to have the lot rezoned from single family to multiple residence use, and the die had been cast. During the course of the next two decades, she represented dozens of luxury projects that transformed Brickell from an area of commercial establishments into a high-end residential neighborhood and the center of Miami’s financial district.
Over the years, Cervera has revived other South Florida neighborhoods — such as South Beach, downtown Miami, and the Miami River area — in much the same way. Recently, she has concentrated her efforts on helping developers who are burdened with failing projects in South Florida create marketing plans that will maximize their profits and sales velocity.
About Enterprising Women
Enterprising Women magazine (www.enterprisingwomen.com), headquartered in Cary, NC, is the nation’s only women-owned magazine published exclusively for women business owners that chronicles the growing political, economic and social influence and power of entrepreneurial women. The magazine provides a friendly meeting place, a public forum, and a national stage for the critical issues confronting women’s businesses and daily lives from the unique perspectives and experiences of entrepreneurial women. Each spring, the magazine hosts its renowned Enterprising Women of the Year Awards Celebration, an annual tribute to the top women entrepreneurs in North America.
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Page last updated: 04/14/10
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