From left: Trump Organization Chairman and President Donald Trump, Naftali Group CEO Miki Naftali and Jones Lang LaSalle President of New York operations Peter Riguardi

September marks The Real Deal’s 100th magazine issue (to be posted online tomorrow). In it, we will be bringing you some of the stories that made the biggest impact on us and on the market. In the meantime, here is what some industry execs have to say about The Real Deal’s magazine milestone as well as about what The Real Deal has meant to them in the publication’s eight-year existence. For example, Donald Trump, chairman and president of the Trump Organization, said: “The Real Deal has become more comprehensive in its coverage of the real estate industry in New York City and it has also become a valuable source of information. The Real Deal has done a terrific job.” Compiled by Lauren Elkies

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Bond New York has launched a Chinese-language section on its website in an effort to attract Asian investors and buyers, Crain’s reported. It is also embarking on a Web marketing campaign to identify the brokerage and the wider New York market to Chinese-speaking buyers overseas.
Bond is not the first brokerage to target foreign buyers. Marketing firm Prodigy Network allows visitors to switch its website to Spanish from English. The Corcoran Group’s site lets clients search for agents who speak a total of 29 foreign languages and Halstead, meanwhile, lists speakers of 19 languages. [more]

Manhattan-based real estate brokerage BP Vance will no longer rent and sell apartments to and for individuals, founder and attorney Adam Leitman Bailey told The Real Deal today. The company will exclusively focus on brokering deals for its existing corporate client base, starting next month.

This change in focus is about playing to the company’s big income clients and comes as a result of the demand for experts to navigate pre-foreclosures and other distressed property opportunities, according to Bailey, who started the company in 1997, naming it after his grandparents Bob and Paula Vance. “It’s a matter of math,” Bailey said. “If you’re making a lot of money one way, you may as well stick to that formula.” [more]

Stuart Elliott

From the May issue: The Real Deal is firing up the klieg lights and rolling out the red carpet.
This month will see the premiere of our first full-length documentary feature film. Called “Building Stories,” it’s a look at the most prolific architect in New York City, Costas Kondylis, who has added an incredible 86 towers to the skyline here but is a relative unknown to the average man on the street.
The film, which features interviews with real estate bigwigs like Donald Trump, Larry Silverstein, Richard Meier, Aby Rosen and many others, will be screened as part of an invite-only event May 11 at the Morgan Library in Midtown. Later this month, check out our website for more information about the film’s public release date. [more]

Douglas Heddings of the Heddings Property Group at Charles Rutenberg Realty; Tamir Shemesh at Prudential Douglas Elliman; Michael Signet at Bond New York Real Estate; Fabienne Lecole at the Corcoran Group; Leigh Zaph at Manhattan Homes; Shebrelle Hunter-Green at the Corcoran Group; and Rena Goldstein at Halstead Property

The Real Deal asked a number of residential real estate agents what the strangest thing is that they’ve seen at an open house. The responses ran the gamut from breast feeding to naked people to a dog taking a house tour. Here is a sampling of what the agents have encountered:

Douglas Heddings, associate broker and founder of the Heddings Property Group at Charles Rutenberg Realty: How about a five-year old breast feeding? Here are some less shocking examples: A drying rack full of panties in a living room, a toilet seat that was taped closed so that open house attendees could not use the facilities, of course the [Upper West Side] robbery [of an open house Heddings was hosting] that was highly publicized and a spray painted wall saying “monkey nipple” on a teenager’s bedroom wall, which the seller refused to remove. Click here for more. Compiled by Lauren Elkies
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Last Wednesday, Bond New York held a party to celebrate the opening of
their new offices at 64 West 21st Street. The three-floor townhouse,
which features a deck area and backyard space, is the company’s sixth
Manhattan location and will house its new commercial sales and leasing
division. The celebrations included a tour of Bond’s new digs and
karaoke in the empty basement, which will eventually serve as a
conference room. TRD

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In the wake of Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy’s closure, many of the
firm’s former agents have joined the competition rather than staying
within the Realogy family. Halstead Property nabbed 27 former
CBHK agents, while its sister company, Brown Harris Stevens, hired
four, according to spokespeople at the two companies. Meanwhile,
Prudential Douglas Elliman snagged 22 agents from the
independently-owned Coldwell Banker franchise, founded in 1988. Charles
Rutenberg Realty in New york also hired several agents. That alone
represents roughly a quarter of the agents at CBHK, which had 214
agents at the time it closed. That means that at the most, only 73
percent of CBHK’s agents went to Realogy brands the Corcoran Group and
Sotheby’s International Realty. more

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Bond launches commercial division
Before working with a commercial broker, I ask them whether [they] know the following terms: LIBOR, cap rate expansion/compression [and] DHCR. If they aren’t familiar with all three — then I [would] move on. Too many brokers think you can apply a dollar-per-square-foot price to anything just like it’s a cookie-cutter condo. Comments

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