TUPELO – Prudential 1st Real Estate officially opened its Tupelo office Wednesday.

The company, a new franchise in Tupelo, has a two-story building on Tom Watson Drive, next to Scruggs Farm, Lawn & Garden Home Improvement Warehouse.

Mitchell Scruggs owns the Scruggs store and the Prudential 1st franchise.

The new business came about last year, Scruggs told the audience at Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, when he heard that a franchise might be available.

“I own a lot of real estate and I’m buying and selling it all the time,” he said. “I’ve built and sold homes over the years. Real estate has always interested me.”

Tracy Berry, a broker at Prudential 1st who runs the operations, said Scruggs met with the previous franchise’s agents at Prudential-Magnolia Realty to offer them a job during the “whirlwind” last year.

“We did not lose one agent during that transition,” she said. “We have a great group of agents. If it wouldn’t have been for every one of the agents that we have, we wouldn’t have been able to start a new company. They stuck with it.”

Prudential 1st started with 39 agents and now has 43. The company does commercial, residential, investment and multi-family sales. It also has an office in New Albany.

The company will showcase its roughly 30,000-square-foot office tonight during an open house from 6 to 8.

Berry, who has been in the office since July 1, said the real estate industry has been “going really good.”

“It’s not as great as it once was, but it’s not as bad as it was a year and a half ago. It’s picked up a good bit.”

Contact Carlie Kollath at (662) 678-1598 or carlie.kollath@djournal.com.

Prudential 1st Real Estate

Address: 3543 Tom Watson Drive

Phone: (662) 841-1122

Owner: Mitchell Scruggs

Website: www.prudential1strealestate.com