Ryan Serhant and Fredrik Eklund (right) face-off in Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing New YorkMillion Dollar Listing is coming to New York City, and Bravo released the first trailer of the premier season, which documents Ryan Serhant of Nest Seekers and Fredrik Eklund and Michael Lorber of Prudential Douglas Elliman angling to close multi-million dollar deals (watch the trailer after the jump). [more]

Jeff Lewis of Bravo’s “Flipping Out,” and the foreclosed house he purchases on the show

Foreclosed homes might wreak havoc on the national housing market, but they also make for great TV, if the recent proliferation of shows centering on flipping foreclosed homes is any indication of things. According to the Wall Street Journal, four shows — including three new ones — will debut a season in the coming months that focuses on buying and profiting off foreclosed homes.

Spike TV is launching a show called “Flip Men” about a Salt Lake City pair trying to profit off foreclosed homes, A&E has a former “Survivor” contestant starring in a new show about flipping houses later this year, and DIY Network is developing a show about flipping foreclosed homes that is slated to premiere in 2012. Meanwhile, the fifth season of Bravo’s “Flipping Out,” features its star, Jeff Lewis, negotiating with lenders to buy a foreclosed house for himself. [more]

Agent Adrian Noriega has left the Corcoran Group to join the boutique brokerage Core. In 2009 and 2010, Noriega was named among the top 2 percent of agents at Corcoran in sales, Core said. Noriega will join the company as vice president, Core announced. In the past few months, Core has lost a number of its top agents. Frederik Eklund and John Gomes recently said they were joining Elliman to appear on Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing” reality show, which competes against HGTV’s “Selling New York,” a real estate brokerage-related reality show that features Core agents. Agent Caroline Grane left Core for Nest Seekers, also with plans to participate in “Million Dollar Listing.”
Core in December hired top Prudential Douglas Elliman agent Doron Zwickel. TRD

From left: Nest Seekers CEO Eddie Shapiro and new hire Caroline Grane

Boutique brokerage Nest Seekers International is planning a hiring spree on the heels of what it says was its “most profitable year ever” in 2010, CEO Eddie Shapiro announced today.

The New York City-based company — whose exclusive new development marketing contracts include the Residences at 36 Gramercy Park East, 99 John Deco Lofts and the View in Long Island City — has already hired some 15 new brokers over the past few months and is planning to take on 20 more in the months to come. TRD [more]

From left: The Novogratz clan in front of 24 Thompson Street, two interior shots and Zydrunas Ilgauskas

Jennifer Ilgauskas, wife of NBA star Zydrunas Ilgauskas, says she’s a fan of the Bravo reality show “9 by Design.”
That makes sense, since the stars of the reality show — husband-and-wife design team Bob and Cortney Novogratz — built her house, Soho’s 24 Thompson Street. “I’ve never met them, but I’d love to,” said Ilgauskas, who purchased the five-story townhouse with her husband in 2006, shortly after the Novogratzes moved out. The owners of the New York City-based design firm Sixx Design, the now-famous Novogratzes have spent the last decade renovating and flipping Manhattan properties, all while moving their brood of seven children from house to house. They built 24 Thompson Street on the site of a previously empty lot.

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Caroline Grane and Michael Lorber
Bravo’s New York City version of “Million Dollar Listing” begins shooting today, and the Post has more gossip about what is to be expected come next fall, when the show will premiere. As might be expected, the network that brought us the “Real Housewives” plans to distinguish its version of realty reality television from HGTV’s popular “Selling New York” by focusing on “strong, contrasting personalities who travel in the same circle… and who clash whenever things threaten to get too boring,” rather than on the properties themselves. In that vein, Core broker Caroline Grane has just jumped ship to Nest Seekers International to join the “Listings” cast. [more]

From left: John Gomes and Fredrik Eklund

Top Core brokers Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes are leaving the firm due to Eklund’s involvement in Bravo’s New York City edition of “Million Dollar Listing,” Core confirmed today. “Million Dollar Listing” competes with Core’s HGTV show, “Selling New York.” Eklund is a managing director at Core, while John Gomes is a senior vice president. The two had formed a team at Core.  [more]

515 East 72nd Street

The posh Miraval Living spa and the celebrity-filled Upper East Side rental-to-condominium conversion it was supposed to call home have severed ties after a feud between the developers and the operator, according to the Post. It’s unclear whether the soon-to-be-spa was kicked out or decided to split on its own — residents at 515 East 72nd Street, site of Bravo’s “Double Exposure” reality show, received letters from both Miraval and owners Zamir Equities and C&K Properties this week telling two different stories. “Due to their continual default on a contractual agreement, we can no longer manage the spa,” Miraval wrote to residents in its parting letter to residents. In the owners’ version of the feud, however, Miraval’s “refusal to agree on a spa opening date… ultimately was a breaking point,” they wrote. The luxe Arizona-based spa was announced four years ago in what was supposed to be a draw for buyers in the 365-unit building, but has long been delayed. Sales have also been slow. Building representatives said they plan to find a new spa operator and open the facility within 90 days. [Post]

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Chad Rogers

The New York City real estate industry will be getting a little bit of advice from a Beverly Hills real estate pro, with the arrival of “Million Dollar Listing” star Chad Rogers, [more]

The cast of the LA version of “Million Dollar Listing,” from left: Josh Flagg, Madison Hildebrand and Chad Rogers

Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing,” the three-season Los Angeles realty reality show, which follows the trials and tribulations of three high-end real estate agents, is finally making its way to the East Coast with a casting call for a New York City version of the series. Rumors had previously pegged New York as a likely setting for the show’s next frontier, until the real estate downturn apparently put a hold on its expansion. But with the market showing strong signs of recovery, Bravo has renewed its search for “prominent, big personality real estate agents in New York who handle the most high-profile clients, buyers, sellers and listings in town.” Anyone come to mind? Let us know in the comments which brokers you’d like to see star in the show. [Curbed] [more]