After losing three of its top agents to realty reality television, Core has managed to snag Doron Zwickel, the number-two ranked agent at Prudential Douglas Elliman, based on number of transactions, according to a statement from Core.

The new staffer is welcome news as the company has seen a handful of high-profile defections recently. Last month, high-performers Frederik Eklund and John Gomes announced they were leaving the company to participate in Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing” reality show as Elliman agents, which will compete against HGTV’s “Selling New York,” also a real estate brokerage-related reality show. Both used to be on the latter show. Three days ago, agent Caroline Grane left Core for Nest Seekers, with plans to participate in “Million Dollar Listing” as well.

Shaun Osher, CEO of Core, said that Zwickel’s expertise was a key motivator in hiring him, and cited a “culture of transparency and integrity.” [more]

From the April issue: Positive signs in the market are attracting the attention of the many New Yorkers who wanted to sell their apartments, but took them off the market last year in the midst of the recession. With the market now showing signs of improvement, many of these homeowners are considering relisting their homes. “Sellers feel the market is stronger than it was last year,” said Kyle Blackmon, a vice president at Brown Harris Stevens. Their decisions could have far-reaching consequences for the Manhattan market in the coming months. Inventory has declined for the past few quarters (see “The inventory squeeze”), which has helped to create urgency in the market and prevent further price drops. But a large number of units reentering the market at once could reverse some of that progress. [more]

From left: Shaun Osher, head of Core Group, the site at 158 Madison Avenue and the exterior of the building at 158 Madison Avenue (building photo source: PropertyShark)

Shaun Osher’s Core Group Marketing won a 17-month battle for a $113,800 termination fee it said it was owed after being fired in 2008 as the exclusive sales and marketing agent on a stalled condominium project at 158 Madison Avenue.
The ruling may be hollow, however, because investors in the vacant, T-shaped parcel that has frontage on Madison Avenue and 32nd and 33rd streets, are fighting a private lender seeking to recover $33 million from a loan that is in default on the property.
In October 2008, Core residential real estate brokerage sued the property owner, an affiliate of John Rice and Joseph Ingrassia’s Capstone Business Credit for the termination fee, calculated at $27,777 per month as laid out in a written agreement from when it was hired in November 2007 until it was fired in March 2008.
State Supreme Court Justice Marcy Friedman sided with Core against the ownership entity, 158 Madison Ave Associates, awarding the $113,800 fee plus interest and legal expenses, the ruling published March 25 shows.
The amount of money was just a fraction of the potential $4 million that Core could have earned had the project gone forward, the decision says. [more]

Shaun Osher, founder of boutique brokerage and advisory firm Core, recently sat down with Studley’s Woody Heller to discuss where the commercial brokerage industry is headed. Heller, who is Studley’s executive managing director and head of the capital transactions group, said he believes the Internet has transformed the role of a broker and made the job more interesting and challenging. “The brokerage paradigm, for a long time period, had been about accessing information, and I think the whole value proposition changed. I don’t think I, as a broker, am being paid to provide general information to a buyer. If someone wants general information we’ll just give it to them…we don’t charge for that. It’s not difficult, it’s not relevant,” he said. The value of a broker today, Heller said, lies in his ability to navigate through that information to arrive at a successful transaction.

Sales at the low end of the market have picked up since the doldrums of
this fall’s financial crisis, which caused real estate activity to
grind to a virtual halt, but the luxury market still shows little
improvement, according to Core Group Marketing’s Real Time Report for
the second quarter of 2009, released today. The report, which pools data from Core’s database, shows real-time
residential market trends throughout a three-month period. The firm’s
data showed 582 contracts signed in May, the most of any month in 2009
to date and the fifth straight month of increased apartment sales in
Manhattan. For example, the brokerage had 82 contracts for studios
signed in May, up from 58 in April and 53 in March. [more]

Dottie Herman’s Elliman replaces Kelly Kennedy Mack’s Corcoran Sunshine as marketing agent at Arris Lofts.

Two more developments have pulled sales-team switcheroos in a tough real estate climate. Prudential Douglas Elliman has now taken over as the sales and
marketing agent at Arris Lofts, a 237-unit condominium in Long Island
City. Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group previously marketed the
project. Meanwhile, the 330-unit William Beaver House in the Financial District has
changed sales teams yet again. After a disagreement with the
development team of Andre Balazs and SDS Investments, Core Group
Marketing is no longer the co-exclusive sales agent at the project, according to Core CEO Shaun
Osher. Prodigy International, a brokerage with offices in New York,
Miami, Panama, Mexico and Spain, previously handled sales at the development alongside Core, but is now the sole sales and marketing agent,
according to Rodrigo Nino, the president of Prodigy. [more]

In the high-flying days of the recent real estate boom, small condo
developments seemed like small potatoes in comparison to mammoth
projects like Miraval Living (410 units), Manhattan House (580 units)
and 15 Central Park West (405 units). But the tables have now turned. With financing now dependent on the
percentage of units sold, tiny projects — especially those priced to
sell — have a major advantage over their bigger counterparts. Case in point: Mason Fisk, the 26-unit project in Williamsburg which developer Justin Meshberg told The Real Deal is now 99 percent sold after going on the market in early March.

[more]

Shaun Osher (Source: New York House Magazine) and the Jasper

Core Group Marketing claims in court papers filed this week that the
developers of the stalled condominium conversion project Jasper are
personally liable for half a million dollars after an exclusive
marketing contract was terminated last fall. The sales and marketing firm led by CEO Shaun Osher alleges that
developers Harry Jeremias, Francisco Pujol and Henry Orlinsky owe the
firm a $500,000 termination fee after the marketing agreement was ended
in November 2008, court papers filed in Manhattan State Supreme Court
April 20 say. Development companies the Harch Group, led by Jeremias, and PHH Realty,
a partnership of Jeremias, Pujol and Orlinsky, joined forces to build
an 80-unit condo in a converted office building in Murray Hill at 114
East 32nd Street, between Park Avenue South and Lexington Avenue. [more]