Elliman’s Harlem shake up lets firm expand in hot ‘hood

After seven years on West 117th Street in Harlem, Douglas Elliman is moving into a new office at Frederick Douglass Boulevard and West 114th Street, Crain’s reported.

The new digs, located at 2112 Frederick Douglass Boulevard, are 30 percent larger than its previous office, and boast room for 28 brokers and a conference room, an accoutrement the former facilities lacked.

“We’re right in the heart of things,” John Lawrence, an Elliman executive vice president and co-manager of the Harlem office, told Crain’s. “When we first decided to Open On Frederick Douglass Boulevard, it was a real gamble, before it became restaurant row, but now it’s amazing to see how the neighborhood has changed, and I think we’ve been an important part of that.”

Dottie Herman, CEO of Elliman, told Crain’s that while many once questioned whether Harlem would continue to grow, she always believed in the neighborhood. The appeal, she said, is obvious.

“You’ve got beautiful buildings, you’re close to the park and the colleges,” she told Crain’s. “And the prices. I wouldn’t say it’s cheaper, but they’re more reasonable than the rest of Manhattan.”

Elliman isn’t the only brokerage expanding northward at the moment. Halstead Property, for one, recently added a new office in Washington Heights by purchasing the assets of Stein-Perry Real Estate, a residential brokerage based in the neighborhood. [Crain’s] — Julie Strickland