Deborah Kearns of RIS Media published an article about Peter Niederman and his Kentwood Real Estate brokerage. As you may recall, Kentwood Real Estate acquired Denver.com in 2012 for an undisclosed seven figure purchase price. The domain name was sold by Boulevards, a company that owns many large city .com domain names.
Judging by Peter’s comments in the RIS Media article, it seems that things are going well for Kentwood and Denver.com. In the article, Peter recalled that some people thought he was “crazy” for spending seven figures on the domain name, but the purchase has “paid off” for him and his company.
I reached out to Peter to ask about the article, and he let me know his company has acquired quite a few excellent domain names in addition to Denver.com. Kentwood Real Estate also owns DenverRealEstate.com, DenverHomes.com, HomesinDenver.com, Boulder.com, and FortCollins.com. “I love the idea of branding, great domains and real estate go hand in hand… They are priceless,” he told me.
Peter has also received the accolades of colleagues in the real estate business. Earlier this year, he was “recognized as one of the 200 most powerful people in residential real estate for 2014/15 by the Swanepoel Power 200 (SP200), an annual list of the most powerful real estate leaders in North America,” according to a press release I saw on LuxuryRealEstate.com.
When I wrote about the Denver.com acquisition, I mentioned that I thought this would be a win/win for both parties. One might think Kentwood is the bigger winner in the deal considering how happy the CEO is three years after the deal. I think Dan Pulcrano, CEO of Boulevards, can use the Denver.com success story to help sell the idea to real estate agents in other markets as well. Boulevards still owns great assets like Seattle.com, SanFrancisco.com, LosAngeles.com, Philadelphia.com, and many others. Having someone like Peter Niederman touting the benefits of owning a city .com domain name is a strong endorsement of the model, and could lead to even bigger deals for his company.
Thanks to Sahar Sarid for sharing a link to the article.
Both Neiderman and Pulcrano are top-notch businessmen and this is no doubt a win-win for both and for their respective industries.
Page views are up 110% over 2012, when the Denver.com transaction occurred. It’s been a great collaboration and I credit the combination of Peter’s high profile in the Denver market along with Boulevards’ new city guide technology platform for improving its performance. Thanks for the commentary on what has proved to be a model example of centralized efficiencies aligned with strong local ownership presence.
For a million dollar+ development, that Adsense ad at the top sure looks pretty tacky. Denver.com sure is a killer brand though.
Isn’t this banner on the top of the multi million dollar TMZ.com empire Adsense?
https://www.domaininvesting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Screen-Shot-2015-04-15-at-4.18.47-PM.png
Just because TMZ does it, doesn’t mean they should.
Point is that seems to be standard. Boston.com does it, too.
They are in the business to make money and it wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t making money.
The name NeedhamRealEstate.com just went up in value I’m sure-especially if you add my DoverListings.com and NeedhamListings.com to it.lol. Great post and a great deal by two obviously bright guys.
Geo sites are a smart fit for local real estate. Glad to hear this worked our for both parties.
and now it sits empty and blank owned by Geocentric