Former model and current Blu Realty broker Melyssa Ford
Canadian model and hip-hop personality Melyssa Ford has signed on to work with Blu Realty Group, Allhiphop.com reported. Ford, who is perhaps best-known for her appearances in hip hop videos like Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin,” and Mystikal’s “Shake Ya Ass,” completed a three month training program with Blu and has assisted in a $15 million sale on Central Park South, the website said. [more]
Blu Realty Founders
From the January issue: Boutique residential brokerage Blu Realty Group this month will launch a new international division, managing partner Vince Rocco told The Real Deal. The division, which will focus on working with clients from overseas, is staffed by four current Blu brokers — Derek Nowicki, Lizabeth Sant’Angelo, Shane Shimon and Elena Metzler. Rocco will manage the division out of the firm’s Midtown office at 1674 Broadway, and said he plans to add more Blu brokers to the team. [more]
Renderings of the project at Olympic Park E20 in London and Ray Smith of Manhattan Loft Corporation
Blu Realty Group is set to market a 248-unit combination hotel and condominium tower in East London’s Stratford City area—the first overseas marketing project for the brokerage’s newly minted international division. Blu, which launched the division this month, is acting as the U.S.-based marketer for the Skidmore, Owings and Merrill-designed tower, said Ray Smith, sales director at Manhattan Loft Corp., which is developing the building. Manhattan Loft’s in-house sales team will handle sales in London, Smith said. [more]
From left: Vince Rocco, Andy Kim, 170 East 80th Street and the six-story waterfall
Amid plans to grow townhouse and new development divisions, the boutique brokerage Blu Realty Group has landed two high-priced townhouse listings — promising to use unconventional marketing strategies to sell the properties.
Andy Kim, the firm’s co-founder, will bring a $31 million Upper East Side townhouse to the market today, and Vince Rocco, a former Halstead Property broker who now heads Blu’s Riverside Boulevard office, will list a $17.5 million gutted townhouse next month. [more]
Vince Rocco (top) and Shane Shimon of Blu Realty Group, 505 West 47th Street and its outdoor courtyard
For the second time in five years, the same Hell’s Kitchen condominium has sold out. The building’s exclusive sales agent, Blu Realty Group’s Vince Rocco, told The Real Deal a buyer closed last week on a one-bedroom apartment at 505 West 47th Street. The unit, which sold for $790,000, was the last available apartment at the 108-unit condo. [more]
Blu's Riverside office and Vince Rocco
Residential brokerage Blu Realty Group has tapped Vince Rocco, formerly a senior vice president with Halstead Property, to lead the firm’s forthcoming Riverside Boulevard office, Blu announced today. Rocco officially started at the firm yesterday, working out of the existing office at 1674 Broadway, and the new digs will open in about three weeks at 120 Riverside Boulevard, at the corner of 66th Street. [more]
“Good Morning America” newscaster Robin Roberts is in contract to sell her Upper West Side condominium, according to a source and the listing page, and will close sometime next week. The 1,586-square-foot apartment, in the Heritage at Trump Place at 240 Riverside Boulevard, was listed for $2.595 million with Dennis Colwell, a broker at the Corcoran Group, and was bought for roughly that amount. Colwell’s web page confirms the listing is in contract.
Roberts, who has co-anchored the show since 2005 after a 15-year career at ESPN, purchased the apartment, between 71st and 72nd streets, in 2005 for $2.58 million, public records show. It wasn’t immediately clear why the asking price was so similar to her purchase price six years ago as Colwell did not respond to requests for comment. — Adam Fusfeld… [more]
This fall, a one block stretch of Riverside Boulevard will suddenly become crowded
with real estate offices. First, Blu Realty Group plans a real estate office
and cafe on the boulevard, now Nest Seekers International is bringing an
office designed by Andres Escobar & Associates to Lincoln Square. The residential
brokerage said it commissioned the high-end designer to transform the raw
commercial condominium it bought at the base of the Avery into its newest office.
Escobar is known for designing the Duvet nightclub in Gramercy and the
92 Greene Street condo in Soho, among other high-profile projects.
Nest Seekers closed on the $1.4 million, approximately 1,500-square-foot space at
100 Riverside Boulevard last month and will open the office, its fourth in Manhattan,
in 30 to 60 days. The West Side office is the firm’s 10th overall; in addition to the
Manhattan locations it has one office in Long Island City, four on the East End, and one in Miami…. [more]
Alon Chadad, co-founder of Blu Realty Group, and the site of Blu’s Lincoln Square offices at 120 Riverside BoulevardVisitors won’t necessarily be looking to buy, rent or sell an apartment when they step into Blu Realty Group’s forthcoming Upper West Side office. They may just be in the mood for a cup of coffee.
The residential brokerage partnered with Tavalon Tea to bring what it believes is the first real estate office and coffee bar concept to Manhattan, the brokerage and drink purveyor both confirmed. The cafe will be called Blu Cafe by Tavalon Tea and will comprise about 500 square feet of Blu’s approximately 1,600-square-foot space, according to Blu Realty Group (note: correction appended). The cafe and office will have the same entrance with only a glass wall separating them.
As The Real Deal previously reported, the new offices, are opening at 120 Riverside Boulevard, at the corner of West 66th Street, on the ground floor of Trump Place 120. … [more]
The Real Deal made the rounds at a pair of real estate gatherings last night, including a charity event at Trump Place on the Upper West Side sponsored by Blu Realty Group, and a wine and cheese celebration party for the opening of MNS’ new Chelsea office. At Trump Place, Blu took a few minutes from helping to raise money for Toys for Hospitalized Kids to discuss their new office opening in the building’s base and introduce a few music celebrities to guests, which were largely real estate pros.
Meanwhile, TRD checked out MNS’ wine and cheese party also held last night to celebrate the opening of its new Chelsea office at 189 Eighth Avenue. Sales director Fabrizio Uberti Bona told us he recently sold an apartment for an executive at the concert and ticketing company Live Nation and after he succeeded, the client hooked him and his wife up with tickets to a Beyonce concert. – Adam Fusfeld and Miranda Neubauer… [more]
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