Southern Title, a Daytona Beach, Fla.-based title insurance company, opened its sixth office in Jacksonville, Fla. The company has two locations in Daytona Beach as well as one each in Deltona, Ormond Beach and Winter Garden.
Prior to 2008, Southern Title had 17 offices in Florida, including Jacksonville and St. Augustine. The number was trimmed during the Great Recession, but the company is expanding again now that the local housing market is recovering.
The company also is exploring new offices this year in central Orlando, Gainesville and Tampa, according to Southern Title President Shelley Stewart.
Kylene Knight, a title insurance veteran of more than 20 years in the Duval County area, is the manager of the new Southern Title office in Jacksonville, which will serve northern St. Johns, Duval and Nassau counties.
The principal owners of Southern Title, founded in 1995, are Mori Hosseini, chairman and CEO of ICI Homes, and local entrepreneur L. Gale Lemerand, chairman of Stonewood Holdings.