Clockwise from top left: Danny Fishman, 5 West 91st Street, 320 South Harrison Street, 38 Balaban Road and Amir Yerushalmi

Gaia Real Estate said it has partnered with Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services in a move to acquire rental properties, starting with three rental buildings in the New York area for $52.2 million. Midtown-based investment firm Gaia and Harel, the third largest insurance firm in Israel, bought a 20-story high-rise at 320 South Harrison Street in East Orange, N.J., for $30 million, and a 92-unit complex at 38 Balaban Road in Colchester, Conn., for $5.4 million. [more]

At left: Gaia managing partners Amir Yerushalmi and Danny Friedman and Park River Properties’ Lenny Sporn and Mickey Roth at their new office opening. At right: Lenny Sporn with Rabbi Yishayahu Yosef Pinto at the office.

It’s been less than three months since Prudential Douglas Elliman powerbrokers Mickey Roth and Lenny Sporn departed the firm to start their own venture, but the Roth-Sporn brand appears to be holding strong, even under their new company name, Park River Properties.

The freshly-minted firm, which organizes foreign buyers into purchase groups for bulk deals in new development condominiums in New York City, is planning a slew of international outposts for its forthcoming expansion. In addition to the existing Park River office in Tel Aviv, Israel, a branch is coming to Rome next month, Sporn said. He is hoping to open a total of five new overseas offices over the course of the year, and is eyeing Japan and India for two of them.

Park River, which launched in December as part of one-year-old Gaia Real Estate, a distressed investment firm, also moved into a permanent U.S. headquarters this week with Gaia and Gaia’s latest acquisition, Vision Property Management, at the Carnegie Hall Tower at 152 West 57th Street. Park River currently employs 15 agents in New York and also has plans to open two more Manhattan branches over the next six months. [more]