From the May issue: A year ago this month, New York’s real estate community experienced one of the darker moments of the recession when Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy — one of the city’s largest and most established firms — announced it would close. However, CBHK turned out to be the only major firm that disappeared. Business, meanwhile, has steadily improved for months. “New York has had a very good rebound,” said Pamela Liebman, CEO of the Corcoran Group. [more]
From the January issue: Signs of improvement appeared at the end of the year, but 2009 will be remembered for its epic real estate downturn. In response to the maelstrom of hard times, many longtime industry veterans took the opportunity to scale back their activities rather than tackling what promise to be several more difficult years. For example, Brown Harris Stevens announced plans to take over the 28-year-old Upper East Side boutique firm started by Edward Lee Cave, a fixture of the high-end brokerage scene. And Douglas Durst stepped down as co-president of the Durst Organization, after describing his day-to-day duties as “exhausting.” (He’ll remain chairman). But as some industry leaders recede, new opportunities are being created for young players, new ideas, new buyers and innovative business models. This month, The Real Deal looked at the next generation of New York City real estate, from the people poised to reshape the industry to the strategies that will help them do it. We looked at how the offspring of some of the city’s most established real estate families — including Ivanka Trump, Jed Walentas, Justin Elghanayan and Jamie and Harrison LeFrak — are handling the downturn. Because many old real estate families were conservative during the boom and avoided overleveraging, observers say their sons and daughters are uniquely positioned to profit from distressed opportunities. More
Left to right, Barbara Fox of Fox Residential Group, Jed Garfield of Leslie J. Garfield & Co. and Michele Kleier of Gumley Haft Kleier.From the May issue: A precipitous drop in sales like Manhattan
saw in the first quarter of 2009 can be particularly challenging for
boutique real estate firms. That became painfully clear this year when
a number of small firms went out of business, including several newer
boutiques just starting to make their presence felt on the New York
City real estate industry, like JC DeNiro & Associates, Homestead
New York and New York City Dwellers. Other firms with longer track
records, like venerable Edward Lee Cave, were absorbed by larger
companies. But there are smaller firms that are still surviving, and
even thriving, in the current market, most notably the three that
ranked at the top of The Real Deal’s survey of boutique Manhattan firms
– Leslie J. Garfield & Co., Gumley Haft Kleier and Fox Residential
Group. [more]
