New Title Company to Open in Florida
December 17, 2013
Longtime title insurance executive and Daniel A. Wallace, who built a successful independent title agency in Florida in the mid 1990s, is launching a new title company in 2014.
Wallace, who has more than 40 years of experience in the title industry, has partnered with Orlando finance and technology executive Nathan Chitty to form NewCastle Title Services.
Initial plans for NewCastle, which will be headquartered in Winter Park, Fla., call for six central Florida offices by the end of 2014 and 33 offices throughout the state by 2018, said Wallace, who will serve as president and CEO.
Chitty says that NewCastle will handle residential and commercial real estate closings primarily for the customers of Realtors, builders, lenders and attorneys, with Chicago Title Insurance Co. and Westcor Land Title Insurance Co. providing the underwriting. NewCastle is expected to process between 1,200 and 1,500 title orders the first year. NewCastle is expected to generate approximately 15 new jobs in its first year and about 75 jobs when its full complement of offices is operating in 2018.
Chitty and Wallace said NewCastle will utilize cloud-based technologies and Class “A” executive office space will be implemented at all closing locations as well as the corporate home office.
The new company will open 19 years after Wallace introduced GulfAtlantic Title Agency to the central Florida marketplace. Wallace said his earlier experience with GulfAtlantic has been helpful in developing the framework for NewCastle. From a single entity and a handful of employees, GulfAtlantic has 22 offices, more than 130 employees and annual revenue eclipsing $10 million when Wallace sold the company to Lawyers Title Insurance Corp. in 1994.
“In a sense, GulfAtlantic was ahead of its time because it didn’t have the ground breaking technologies we have now,” said Wallace. “With NewCastle, we are implementing many of those technologies in order to raise the level and efficiencies of our closing services. Those technologies combined with the business model we have mapped out should provide NewCastle with a distinct advantage in the marketplace.”
The first building block in NewCastle’s ambitious five-year growth plan already has been set in place. In November, Wallace and Chitty acquired 10-year-old Florida Title Insurance Agency of Kissimmee from longtime title insurance executive Connie Hall, who will remain as NewCastle’s vice president and escrow plant manager.
“Because we’re a service industry, we will continue to explore ways we can improve our services and the closing experience for our customers," Wallace said. "That's what made GulfAtlantic stand out and that's how we want to distinguish NewCastle."
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