Seattle's Smith Mitchell adds three from First Union in Miami.

ATLANTA -- Seattle-based Smith Mitchell Investment Group yesterday expanded its Florida office, hiring three public finance specialists from First Union Capital Markets Corp.'s Miami office.

Teressa L. Cawley, who managed the First Union office, was named senior vice president and manager of Smith Mitchell's office in West Palm Beach, Fla., according to Claudia White, a Smith Mitchell vice president.

Eugene Z. Grey and Suzanne C. Levere accompanied Cawley, who was a First Union vice president for two years, White said.

Grey, named a Smith Mitchell vice president of public finance, had been assistant vice president at First Union since January 1993. Levere, named assistant vice president, was a senior associate at First Union, where she was employed for five years.

"Given the opportunities in Florida and throughout the Southeast, we have hired these bankers to expand our presence in the region," said White. "By doing so, we hope to win more senior-managed transactions.

"The idea is also to have the personnel to cover all types of deals there," White said. The firm has to date covered a wide variety of transactions in the region, including seaport and airport issues, and health care, solid waste, housing, and transportation financings, she said.

John Evans, managing director of trading and sales at Charlotte-based First Union Capital Markets, said yesterday that the unit will maintain its Miami office despites the departures.

Evans said First Union will add to its remaining public finance staff in Miami, now reduced to one banker.

In March, First Union Capital Markets, the securities subsidiary of First Union Corp., beefed up its own public finance department by hiring the entire four-member public finance staff of Jacksonville-based Barnett Securities.

White said that with the three First Union bankers, Smith Mitchell's public finance staff in West Palm Beach now totals eight. Smith Mitchell, a woman-owned firm established in 1987, has six other branch offices.

"I saw this as an exciting opportunity and the chance to be with a young firm and a growing firm," Cawley said. The West Palm Beach office will cover the entire Southeast region, with Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina as its core states, she said.

"This expansion is evidence of our continued commitment to the Southeast," Smith Mitchell's president and founder Carolie R. Smith said in a statement. "Our goal is to enhance the resources we currently have in the region."

White said that the firm has recently been named senior managing underwriter for two Florida issues: $35 million Broward County Tourist Development Tax Refunding bonds and $6.9 million Brevard County special assessment district refunding bonds.

So far this year, Smith Mitchell has served as senior managing underwriter for an issue of $27 million Orlando, Fla., parking facilities revenue bonds.

Nationwide in 1993, Smith Mitchell served as lead manager on four deals totaling $85.7 million, according to Securities Data Co. In 1992, the firm did not serve as lead managers on any deals, according to Securities Data.

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