From left: Frank Arends, Patty LaRocco, Terry Naini and Ginger Brokaw

Three senior vice presidents from Prudential Douglas Elliman’s 26 West 17th Street office started today at Town Residential, according to their new firm. [more]

Madeline Elghanayan

Madeline Hult Elghanayan, wife of TF Cornerstone Chairman Thomas Elghanayan and a 20 year veteran of the real estate industry, joined Prudential Douglas Elliman as a senior vice president two weeks ago, the firm announced. She’s working out of the 575 Madison Avenue office.

Elghanayan last worked for the Corcoran Group, which she joined 10 years ago via the Sunshine Group when it was sold to the brokerage in 2002. [more]

From left: Stephen Ross, chairman of the Related Companies, Robby Browne, senior vice president of the Corcoran Group, Bruce Mosler, chairman of Cushman & Wakefield, Jeff Blau, president at Related, and Jack Cayre, a found of Core.

[Updated 12:50 p.m., on Feb. 2, with chart of New York City's top donors to 2011 presidential campaigns] Professionals from the residential brokerage firm the Corcoran Group were the most generous among employees of real estate companies in New York to give directly to the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and other contenders in 2011, an analysis of election finance data by The Real Deal shows (see chart of New York City’s top donors to 2011 presidential campaigns).

A total of 18 brokers and agents from the Corcoran Group gave $30,920 in 2011 to presidential candidates, the most from any industry firm, residential or commercial. They sent $20,920 to Obama and $10,000 to Romney, the records show. The top contributor from Corcoran was Robert Browne, known as Robby, a company senior vice president who donated the $5,000 maximum to Obama. [more]

From left: Donald Trump, president of the Trump Organization, Dottie Herman, president of Prudential Douglas Elliman, Elizabeth Stribling, president of Stribling & Associates, Stuart Saft, chairman of Dewey & LeBoeuf’s global real estate department, and Frederick Peters, president of Warburg Realty Partnership, and Lois Weiss, real estate columnist for the New York Post

Compiled by Lauren Elkies

In the wake of Sandy Weill’s reported $88 million sale of his 15 Central Park West penthouse, The Real Deal wanted to touch base and see if real estate executives had any last minute predictions for the New Year since speaking with the magazine for the December residential market report.

Dottie Herman, president of Prudential Douglas Elliman, and Frederick Peters, president of Warburg Realty Partnership, said to expect 2012 to be a bit of a repeat of 2011, while developer Donald Trump said “really good real estate will have excess value.” Elizabeth Stribling, president of Stribling & Associates, predicts a “continuing strong demand for new condominium offerings all over town,” while Stuart Saft, chairman of Dewey & LeBoeuf’s global real estate department, said “the euro will continue to be in trouble causing a flight to safety to the U.S. and particularly New York City, so New York City properties will trade at even lower cap rates.” Meanwhile, Citi Habitats President Gary Malin and Halstead Property Development Marketing President Stephen Kliegerman recently told amNY that 2012 would bring more development and fewer amenities to New York City’s real estate market. [more]

From left: MiMA, One Jackson Square and Jasmine Mir, senior vice president of Corcoran Sunshine who is marketing the buildingAs new residential developments begin returning to the city’s skyline, the New York Times directed its attention to the names bestowed upon them.

According to Elizabeth Hawes, the author of a historical book about city apartments, the practice began at the turn of the century as a way of “validating the decision to live in an apartment.” She added: “it was pretentious but reassuring.”

Today, names are used to sell or rent apartments and marketing teams have several factors to consider when branding buildings. First and foremost, they must consider the developer’s vision for the building. [more]

While the folks behind Streeteasy.com may be most closely associated with real estate listings and data points, they shrugged off the computer geek image last night for a holiday party at the Mondrian Soho hotel’s Mister H bar.

Sofia Song, vice president at Streeteasy, said more than 200 of the invited brokers, advertisers, clients and media guests planned to attend the event, at 9 Crosby Street between Howard and Grand streets, and the press of bodies last night seemed to bear out her tally.

Between the ruby-colored wingbacks, gilt-framed mirrors, Persian rugs and bird cages strung from the ceiling, the space evoked a cross between a boudoir and a colonial drawing room. Or, as Iman Bacodari, vice president and associate broker for the Jacky Teplitzky team at Prudential Douglas Elliman, put it, “Chinatown dumpling shop meets Spanish brothel … with a little English manor sprinkled in.” Comments

From left: One57 and Extell Development President Gary Barnett; the Touraine and Toll Brothers CEO Bob Toll; and 737 Park Avenue and Harry Macklowe

In an effort to increase control and decrease costs, big condominium developers are increasingly using their own sales teams for new projects rather than hiring outside brokerages to market the units, according to the Wall Street Journal.

For example, Extell Development, which relied on the Corcoran Group to market most of the condos it built throughout the last decade, has hired its own sales staff for its massive One57 development.

“To be frank, there is an awful lot of money in sales commissions and we want to get a piece of that ourselves,” Extell Development President Gary Barnett said. [more]

From left: Steven Kantor of Cantor Fitzgerald, the interior of unit 82 at Trump World Tower and the exterior of the builidng

Steven Kantor, executive managing director of global financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, may be trading up at Trump World Tower at 845 United Nations Plaza. The executive appears to have purchased a 2,476-square-foot condominium unit at the tower for $5 million, according to public records filed with the city last week, just a few months after he listed another unit at the building.

Kantor’s new unit, #82, was initially listed with the Corcoran Group’s Robb Saar in July for $5.35 million, according to data from Streeteasy.com and went into contract at the end of October. The three-bedroom unit is larger than Kantor and wife Mindy’s current two-bedroom apartment in the building, #75D.  [more]

From left: Jerry Minsky, senior vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman, and exterior and interior shots of 87 Cambridge Place

After only a week on the market, a 3,200-square-foot two-family townhouse in Clinton Hill is under contract for $2.16 million, the seller’s broker, Jerry Minsky, a senior vice president with Prudential Douglas Elliman, confirmed to The Real Deal, making the sale one of the most expensive residential deals on record for the Brooklyn neighborhood.

The sellers are Shelley Goldberg, a textile designer, and her husband, Tony Writer, founder of the market research firm Headspace. They signed a contract to sell the home, at 87 Cambridge Place, Oct. 15, Minsky said. [more]

Exterior and interior photos of Brewster Carriage House

The first phase of sales in the Brewster Carriage House, a six-story 19th century building in Nolita, began Wednesday night.

Five of the nine units in the building, at the corner of Broome and Mott streets, have hit the market. The available condominiums range from a 1,969-square-foot, one-bedroom, two and a half-bathroom second floor unit that is asking $2.85 million, to a 3,553-square-foot, two-bedroom, three-bathroom penthouse that is listed for $8 million, according to the website of exclusive marketers Prudential Douglas Elliman. Four more units, including a duplex with a private roof space, are being held back, the condo’s website shows. Comments