By JAMES FINK
jfink@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1611

The two founding members of the region's lone Keller Williams Realty New York office have left to form their own agency, but the office remains open with new leadership.

Veteran real estate brokers Ann Edwards and Connie Gerbush formed Realty Edge Inc., an Amherst-firm that will handle residential and commercial transactions. Longtime Keller Williams agents Gail Leithner and Christina Gorski took over that franchise. Edwards brought the franchise to the Buffalo market in 2004.

Keller Williams is the region's 11th-largest residential real estate firm, based on 2009 transactions, or sides. It handled 288 sides last year and has 60 agents.

Realty Edge has five agents and more than 20 listings, all gathered in recent weeks.

"We've had a pretty good running start," Gerbush said.

Edwards said the decision to leave Keller Williams was "a friendly one."

"I just wanted to take that same pioneering spirit that drove me to bring Keller Williams here to the next level," she said.

"We're not slowing down," Leithner added. She expects to have 150 agents working for the Keller Williams franchise within a year.

"I see the vision in front of me and I see a good future," she said.

Edwards and Gerbush said their agency is geared toward the "independent agent," adding that Realty Edge has all the technical bells and whistles as larger offices.

The company maintains a small office on Maple Road in Amherst.

"Our firm offers another option for that independent agent who has their own book of business," Edwards said.