New York City’s own Prudential Douglas Elliman was named the number one brokerage in the nationwide Prudential Real Estate Affiliates network this week, Elliman CEO Dottie Herman announced following a ceremony in San Diego, Calif. The company’s Manhattan offices and agents took home a litany of awards and honors, including, for the eighth year in a row, the top office by gross commission income. Elliman’s 575 Madison Avenue office held onto that title (it was also fifth by number of units), besting some 1,940 other Prudential network offices nationwide. It was followed by Elliman’s 26 West 17th Street office at No. 2 and 1995 Broadway at No. 3. And, among individual agents, no surprise here: “stratospheric” superbroker Dolly Lenz was the top producer by gross commission income out of some 62,000 agents in the Prudential network. TRD [more]

HGTV’s new realty reality show, “Selling New York,” premiers tonight at 9 p.m., promising to showcase the “top of the real estate food chain.” The show follows Gumley Haft Kleier’s Michele Kleier and her broker daughters, Samantha Kleier Forbes and Sabrina Kleier Morgenstern, as well as Core’s Shaun Osher, among other brokers from each firm as they maneuver their way through some of the city’s most high-end real estate transactions. In honor of the debut, The Real Deal did some digging to find out which of the city’s prized properties are slated to be featured this season. Among them: a four-bedroom loft at the Chelsea Mercantile listed for $22.45 million, the 25 Murray Street loft for which former Giants star Michael Strahan is asking $1.85 million, a $17 million landmarked townhouse at 109 East 69th Street, and a 2,295-square-foot spread at highly-anticipated One Brooklyn Bridge Park (see slide show of many of the homes above). Click here for more information about the residences expected to appear in the upcoming season.
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From left: Christine Blackburn, Lior Barak, Ilan Bracha and Dolly Lenz

Dolly Lenz, the Bracha Group and the Barak/Blackburn Group won top awards at Prudential Douglas Elliman’s annual awards ceremony held at Cipriani tonight (see full awards list after the jump). Lenz received the individual award based on transactions and gross commission income, while the Bracha Group, led by Ilan Bracha, won the award for the top team by GCI. Bracha himself also received the 2009 award for the most sales exclusives in Manhattan. Other top groups by GCI were the Leonard Steinberg Team (number 2), the Jacky Teplitzky Team (number 3), the Tamir Shemesh Group (number 5) and the DeNiro Group (number 8). The Kotler Group, which secured the 7th spot, was also acknowledged for closing the most rental transactions in Manhattan. The top team in terms of transactions was Barak/Blackburn Group, led by Christine Blackburn and Lior Barak. Groups who won based on sales transactions included the Doron Zwickel Team (number 2), the Bracha Group (number 3), the Jacky Teplitzky Team (number 4) and the Tamir Shemesh Group (number 7). On the commercial side, Faith Hope Consolo won the top retail and commercial award by highest GCI. TRD [more]