ATLANTA - Municipal bond broker Titus & Donnelly Inc. plans to open an office in Atlanta this week.
Titus' new office, for which the firm has hired five professionals, will be headed by Roger Goodheart. Formerly vice president of institutional sales at Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Fla., Goodheart will assume the title of vice president and manager for the firm's Southeast region.
The Southeast region covers Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Goodheart said Friday that Titus decided to open an office in Atlanta because of the growing bond brokerage business in the Southeast and the city's "central location" in the region.
"We will cover the whole spectrum here, but with a special focus on bid wanteds and serial situations," he said.
There are no other municipal bond brokers in Atlanta.
Goodheart noted that he has had previous experience in the broker's broker business in Atlanta, having managed an Atlanta branch office for Garvin Independent Municipal Brokers in 1985 and 1986. The firm later became affiliated with Titus through a series of mergers.
After leaving Garvin, Goodheart became manager in Atlanta of Bank-South's dealer bank activities before joining Raymond James in 1991.
Goodheart said four brokers, all living in the Atlanta area, will join him at the new office: Edward Garvey, Michelle O'Haren, Michael Ayotte, and Sean Kealy.
Two of the new Titus employees are municipal market veterans. Garvey has been a broker at J.J. Kenny Co., Cantor Fitzgerald Fixed Income Brokers, and Harry Downs & Co. O'Haren was a trader at Bear, Stearns & Co. in Atlanta.
Titus has two other branch offices, one in Dallas and the other in San Francisco. The firm, which was established in 1971, is headquartered in New York City.
