From left: Mark Ripka, the new president of brokerage services at MNS, and Andrew Barrocas, CEO of MNS

Mark Ripka, the former chief business development officer at residential brokerage Core, who left the firm in November before being replaced by Reba Miller of R.P. Miller & Associates, has landed a high-profile position at Andrew Barrocas’ MNS, he told The Real Deal.

Ripka, who departed Core last year “on mutual and good terms,” according to a spokesperson for Core, is now president of brokerage services at MNS, a role in which he will oversee resales and rentals for the whole firm and improve systems and educational curriculum for the firm’s agents. [more]

From left: Lawrence Rich, Dottie Herman and Reba Miller

Lawrence Rich, a former vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman who left the firm to take a position as senior vice president at residential brokerage Core in August, has defected to Elliman after just five months, he told The Real Deal today, because he feels it’s more “like a family.”

Rich, who joined Elliman in 2004, resigned his post at Core today. He will start work at Elliman again as of tomorrow, working out of the company’s flagship office at 575 Madison Avenue, at 56th Street [more]

After a two-month stretch at Core as a senior vice president and associate broker, Ivana Tagliamonte has gone back to Halstead Property.

She is an executive vice president at the village office, according to a press release from Halstead. A specialist in Gramercy and Downtown, Tagliamonte had the highest sales volume in the village office in 2008. Tagliamonte, who has more than a decade of real estate experience, who often works with domestic and
international clients as a certified senior relocation agent.
— Lauren Elkies [more]

From left: 1280 Fifth Avenue, 4 East 102nd Street and 1212 Fifth Avenue

A trio of Upper East Side developments will test the traditional northern boundary for luxury buildings, the Financial Times reported.

The projects — 1280 Fifth Avenue, 4 East 102nd Street and 1212 Fifth Avenue — will test the East 96th Street line Manhattanites have long considered the separation between the Upper East Side and Harlem. But the new developments offer the amenities of buildings to the south and all three were designed by “brand-name” architects. While 1280 Fifth Avenue and 4 East 102nd Street are new developments, by Brickman and Durst Fetner Residential, respectively, 1212 Fifth Avenue is a conversion.

The Robert Stern-designed 1280 Fifth, the furthest north, at 109th Street, is anchored by the African Museum of Art. [more]

From left: 1280 Fifth Avenue and Tom Postillo, Natalie Rakowski and Parul Brahmbhatt, all of Core

East Harlem’s new 116-unit tower on Central Park, 1280 Fifth Avenue, will no longer be marketed through Nancy Packes and Brown Harris Stevens Project Marketing. The developer, Brickman, has opted instead for Core, The Real Deal has learned.

“We appreciate the initial involvement and contribution from Brown Harris Stevens on the pre-development and initial marketing of 1280 Fifth Avenue,” Brickman’s principal Bruce Brickman said, though he declined to give any specifics on why the company made the switch. Nancy Packes declined to comment, citing confidentiality arrangements. [more]

From left: Shaun Osher, CEO of Core, and Reba Miller, the new managing director of sales for Core

Shaun Osher’s Core has acquired residential real estate brokerage R.P. Miller & Associates, a firm founded by industry stalwart Reba Miller in 1998, Core told The Real Deal today. Miller will take the role of managing director of sales at Core, the company said, overseeing the firm’s agents and resale business.

Osher confirmed that Miller would be bringing a few “select” members of her team at R.P. Miller & Associates to Core; “less than 10,” he said, declining to reveal their names. Susan Rubell, an agent at Miller’s namesake company based at 115 East 57th Street, said she and Lee Frankel would be joining Core, effective next week, but said she could not speak for anyone else. It was not immediately clear how many brokers R.P. Miller & Associates has in total, but the state Department of State’s website shows four licensed brokers in total.
[more]

The new owners of 93 Worth Street in Tribeca plan to convert the
commercial building into luxury condominiums, Crain’s reported. A
subsidiary of Izaki Group Investments USA bought the building for
$49.8 million, in a deal which closed yesterday. Under the plans, the 13-story property will become 90
apartments, six penthouses and 10,000 square feet of
commercial space. Eldad Blaustein, CEO of Izaki, said he already had
construction financing lined up for the conversion, which is expected
to cost $320 per square foot. [more]

From left: Catherine Harding, Susan James, Patricia Vance, Lauren Muss and Vickey Barron

Sources: Streeteasy.com and The Real Deal

Footnotes: Data is for closed deals filed with the city this week through Friday. The chart only includes sellers’ brokers, because buyers’ brokers’ names are not available in city data or listings. The data does not include deals in contract. To obtain broker information, listing information was compared with sales records filed with the city. Only deals where an individual broker and address can be identified are included. As a result, private sales, listings where an address has not been provided and new development sales by a sales center are not included.

[more]

Residential sales and rental brokerage Core launched an online listing and client management platform in collaboration with listings website Streeteasy.com today, dubbed Core Control, the brokerage announced (see video above for commentary about Core Control from the two companies’ heads).

For an undisclosed monthly fee to Streeteasy.com, the system is available free and exclusively to Core’s agents and clients to help them more easily navigate citywide listings from all firms.

Core described the platform as a comprehensive database of citywide listings from all brokerages represented on Streeteasy.com, with a few additional features added on, including the ability for Core agents to add private and public notes to a listing, link press coverage to properties and view broker-only information on listings, such as commissions and listing expiration dates.  [more]

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

[more]