From left: Mary Ann Tighe, MaryAnne Gilmartin, Pamela Liebman and Dottie Herman

Brokering Conde Nast’s relocation to 1 World Trade Center earned CB Richard Ellis’ Mary Ann Tighe the top spot on this year’s Crain’s list of the 50 most powerful women in New York City. Tighe, who is also the first female to lead the Real Estate Board of New York, came in third on the list last year, but that was before the $2 billion Conde lease, which is widely considered a catalyst for the Financial District’s rebirth. Earlier this month, when Tighe became the first female recipient of the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate’s Urban Leadership Award, James Kuhn, president of Newmark Knight Frank, said the lease “might turn out to be the biggest transformational deal in [his] lifetime.” More powerful New York females after the jump. [more]

From left: Howard Lorber, Dottie Herman and Ilan Bracha

From the January issue:
[Updated 1:30 p.m. with comments from Prudential Douglas Elliman CEO Dottie Herman] For years, Texas-based real estate franchise company Keller Williams Realty has wanted to get into the lucrative Manhattan market. The question was how. Now, the fast-growing company is betting that it’s finally found the right partner for the job, in the form of Manhattan superbroker Ilan Bracha, a managing director at Prudential Douglas Elliman and head of the powerhouse Bracha Group, the top-ranked team at Elliman in terms of gross commission income. This month, Bracha is launching the first Manhattan franchise of Keller Williams. [more]

From left: Elliman’s Dottie Herman, Holmes & Kennedy’s William Holmes and the Chappaqua office

Prudential Douglas Elliman has made its first foray into Westchester County with the acquisition of the 135-agent firm Prudential Holmes & Kennedy. A 40-year-old company, Holmes & Kennedy serves Westchester and Putnam Counties with six offices, located in Armonk, Bedford, Chappaqua, Katonah, Pleasantville and Somers. The new acquisition will bring Elliman’s total to more than 60 offices in New York City and Long Island, including the Hamptons. [more]

Coming off of a dismal year in real estate, Prudential Douglas Elliman’s business has tripled in 2010, Dottie Herman, president and CEO of the brokerage, told the New York Times. Elliman, which just opened an office in Williamsburg, is planning to open another in New Jersey to service its growing number of projects there, like the Residences at Liberty National. Meanwhile, the brokerage’s long-awaited, million-dollar website, currently online in beta form, is slated to be “up and running” the week after Labor Day, Herman said. “I wouldn’t want to say we’re in a sellers’ market, but people feel we’ve hit bottom. We’re getting close to where it’s pretty neutral,” she added. [NYT]

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From left: Mary Ann Tighe, Pamela Liebman, Dottie Herman, and Darcy Stacom

In a town where one’s address often means more than one’s name, it
should come as no surprise that some of the most influential players
come from the real estate industry in Crain’s list of New York’s 50
most powerful women. Freshly-minted REBNY Chair Mary Ann Tighe of CB Richard Ellis came in third, while Pamela Liebman, the Corcoran Group’s CEO, ranked 38th, and rival Dottie
Herman of Prudential Douglas Elliman was right behind at No. 39. Darcy
Stacom, vice chairman of CBRE, came in at No. 50. JPMorgan executive Heidi Miller nabbed the number one spot, with Deputy Mayor Patricia Harris coming in second. Other household names like PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi (No. 4) and iconic Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour (No. 21) also made the list, along with public officials like City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (No. 13), Senator Kristen Gillibrand (No. 20) and City Planning Commission chair Amanda Burden (No. 33). The paper also ranked the top companies to work for: Kimpton Hotels got high marks at No. 9, as did Silverstein Properties (No. 22) and Studley (No. 26). [Crain’s] and [Crain's] [more]