Stribling & Associates is set to become the exclusive broker for residential building manager Cooper Square Realty, according to an announcement from the companies today. Overseeing over 300 buildings and 60,000 apartments across the five boroughs, Cooper Square is the largest residential property management group in the city. Stribling, which has around 200 agents, focuses largely on luxury listings in Manhattan. Cooper Square and Stribling will share commissions, Crain’s reported, with Stribling brokers gaining special training on Cooper Square listings. This alliance, however, isn’t the only change in Cooper Square’s future — the company plans to create an energy conservation subsidiary that will offer insight to building owners on how to reduce energy consumption.

A New York State Supreme Court judge late last month ordered the
appointment of veteran corporate attorney Stuart Shorenstein to take
over as receiver of 34 Leonard, the troubled luxury co-op development
in Tribeca. Shorenstein, who recently joined the corporate law division at Cozen
O’Connor, was ordered Aug. 27 to collect rents and complete
construction of the property and named Cooper Square Realty as managing
agent at the building. The order also named E.W. Howell, as general
contractor of the project. “The goal is to complete the [construction of] the building,” Shorenstein told The Real Deal,
when asked about the fate of the project. “The second step is to
complete the foreclosure action. Once that is done, we’ll be in a
position to decide how to proceed.” [more]

A merger between Cooper Square Realty and Wentworth
Property Management has resulted in the largest residential property manager in
the city. Combined, the two companies manage 300 buildings with 60,000
apartment units, including the condominium portion of the Plaza at Central Park South, which was managed
by Cooper Square Realty, and Rochdale Village in Jamaica,
Queens, which was managed by Wentworth. Industry observers believe this merger will
mark the beginning of a consolidation in the property management industry,
which has been hurt by the overall real estate downturn. The new combined
management company will operate under the Cooper Square name and Jonathan Klein,
Wentworth’s former president, will become chief administrative officer of the new Cooper Square.

Tensions have reached a fever pitch at the Rector Square, the
foreclosed Battery Park City condominium, as the court-appointed
receiver and Related threaten to sue a majority of the building’s unit
owners who are refusing to pay more than $300,000 in retroactive common
charges and PILOT payments. Related, the building’s new managing agent, warned in a letter obtained
by The Real Deal that the receiver, Manhattan-based trust attorney
Michael Miller, would be forced to file suit against more than 40
delinquent unit owners if they failed to pay thousands of dollars in
newly assessed charges. [more]

Co-ops in the city have raised their maintenance charges by as much as
15 percent recently as a result of rising property taxes and operating costs.
John Janangelo, president of Bellmarc Property Management, said taxes
for some of the buildings the company manages have risen by 35 percent this year. “It comes
at the worst time,” Janangelo said, adding, “You don’t want to pass through
these huge increases because people can’t afford them, but you have no
choice.” Buildings whose property values have soared in recent years
are experiencing even bigger tax increases because the assessed values
of their buildings have gone up. David Kuperberg, president of Cooper
Square Realty, said the assessments have increased based on last year’s
market, and assessments often take a while to catch up to the current
market.