995 Fifth Avenue, the 16th floor unit and Nikki Field, a SVP at Sotheby's International Realty

A sprawling 16th-floor cond-op at Extell Development’s 995 Fifth Avenue, the last remaining sponsor unit at the historic building, has returned to the market with a new broker after a four-month hiatus, according to Streeteasy.com.

The 8,360-square-foot unit, at the former Stanhope Hotel, failed to sell after almost two years on the market with Michele Kleier and Samantha Kleier Forbes of Gumley Haft Kleier, asking $27.5 million, but now the listing has changed hands. [more]

158 East 61st Street and Emeril Legasse

One celebrity chef is betting the onset of the spring season will have prospective luxury property buyers on the hunt for a sizzling-hot bargain.

Star chef and television personality Emeril Lagasse is planning to reduce the asking price of his Lenox Hill townhouse by a cool $1.5 million, or 10 percent, to “take advantage of the spring market,” “Selling New York” brokers Michele Kleier and daughter Sabrina Kleier Morgenstern, who are listing the property, told The Real Deal today. [more]

From left: Shelley O’Keefe of the Corcoran Group, Soho Mews at 311 West Broadway, Corcoran Sunshine’s Joanie Achumacher and Kirk Henckels of Stribling & Associates

Two years ago the holiday season was a dark time for New York City’s residential real estate brokers. This holiday season is quite a departure. Appointments are up, housing supply is down and brokers are planning to work through the holidays, making sure to be available for international buyers who will be in town and may just want to pick up a multi-million dollar Manhattan apartment as part of a holiday shopping spree.

The bleak days of 2009 have not yet fully faded from memory. “Nothing compares to that,” said Shelley O’Keefe, a senior vice president at the Corcoran Group and head of on-site sales for Soho Mews condominium, at 311 West Broadway, of the 2009 holiday season, shortly after Soho Mews premiered. But things are more than looking up this year.
[more]

Barbara Fox, president and founder of Fox Residential Group, threw open the doors to her East 79th Street co-op last night (or, rather, the elevator that opened onto the apartment), welcoming 200 colleagues, friends and industry players to celebrate the holiday season. With barely room to move between a book-lined den (which housed the bar) and the living room (where a three-piece band played Christmas carols), some guests took refuge on a balcony that wrapped nearly all the way around Fox’s penthouse. Others sampled h’ors d’oeuvres like pigs in a blanket. Noted revelers included Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal Realty Services, and Michele Kleier, president of Gumley Haft Kleier and a star of “Selling New York.” -- Leigh Kamping-Carder

Brown Harris Stevens’ Carol Cohen and 737 Park Avenue

The lawsuit filed against former Corcoran Group star broker and now Brown Harris Stevens senior vice president Carol Cohen, which led to her reported dismissal from Corcoran at the close of 2010, has been thrown out, according to documents filed by the New York state Supreme court earlier this month.

The lawsuit, filed by Katz 737 Corp., the landlord at Cohen and her husband Lester Cohen’s apartment building, in 2010, alleges that the couple had repeatedly lied about their income on state forms in order to prevent a rent increase at their $3,060 per month apartment at 737 Park Avenue, between 71st and 72nd streets. The landlord claimed that they had reported their combined income as being less than $175,000 per year to avoid a rent hike at the unit, which they had lived in since 1989.

The dismissal rendered those claims insufficient to prosecute. [more]

The penthouse triplex at 1 Main Street in Dumbo

The now somewhat famous Clock Tower triplex penthouse by developer
David Walentas at 1 Main Street in Dumbo has been chosen as Esquire
magazine’s bachelor pad, the magazine said today. The unit will be
host to various celebrity and charity events throughout the fall and the magazine’s annual design showcase. This will
be the first time the bachelor pad has come to Brooklyn.

“The Esquire Apartment concept was conceived in New York in 2003,”
noted Jack Essig, senior vice president, group publishing director and chief revenue officer of Esquire. “Although we create our house every other year in Los
Angeles, this is the first time we’ve taken our New York project to a
location outside of Manhattan. We really challenge ourselves every
year to find a new prime neighborhood and a building that represents
the essence of the magazine.” — Katherine Clarke [more]

The Kleier klan dropped in on “Live with Regis and Kelly” this morning to teach departing host Regis Philbin the tricks of the real estate trade. Where to start? Your typical New York City apartment, of course: Michele Kleier’s $27.5 million listing on the 16th floor of the former Stanhope hotel. Watch the clip above as the matriarch of the self-described “First Family of Real Estate” shows him the ropes of New York City showings. Among her tips: don’t say “entryway,” say “gallery;” “den” is a dirty word — it’s a library here; and we never, ever say “his and hers” anymore (this is New York, after all). Regis flubbed the “his and hers” bit on his first-ever showing, but Kleier said she thinks he’s “trainable” — good news in case he ever needs any cash post-retirement.

Karen Heyman and Alan Heyman, Sotheby’s International Realty

From the July issue: The business of selling Brooklyn real estate has changed drastically in recent years. When Brooklyn native Karen Heyman first started selling Dumbo lofts in the 1990s, Manhattan residents refused to take the subway there. “I used to have to send my driver over the bridge to pick people up,” recalled Heyman, now a senior vice president at Sotheby’s International Realty. Today, “those same people are now on their third or fourth Dumbo apartment.” Brooklyn brokers have seen their business (and wallets) expand exponentially over the past decade, as a trickle, and then a flood, of resettling Manhattanites ventured across the East River. In particular, agents have benefited hugely from the condo boom of the mid-2000s, which greatly upped Brooklyn sales prices (downturn notwithstanding). [more]

The penthouse triplex at 1 Main Street in Dumbo

David Walentas’ famous Clock Tower triplex in Dumbo has been pulled from the rental market less than a week after making headlines as the priciest apartment up for lease in Brooklyn.

The 7,000-square-foot spread, which is still listed for sale for $23.5 million, had been asking $50,000 per month. The Post reported yesterday that listing broker and “Selling New York” star Michele Kleier, of Gumley Haft Kleier, was seeking a renter to sign a two-year lease with an option to buy, but she confirmed to The Real Deal this morning that time has already run out for that opportunity. She declined to comment further on her reasoning, but once again, if you want views of the New York Harbor and Brooklyn Bridge through those 14-foot glass-faced clocks, you’re going to have to buy them. [more]

From left to right: Sabrina Kleier Morgenstern, Michele Kleier and (a pregnant) Samantha Kleier Forbes.

From the May issue: In the current landscape of Manhattan’s boutique real estate firms, it’s all about the haves and the have-nots: those who have reality TV shows, and those who have not.

As real estate junkies know, boutique brokerages Core and Gumley Haft Kleier last year began starring in HGTV’s “Selling New York.” The hit reality show follows brokers as they shepherd wide-eyed clients through cavernous lofts, and badger obstinate sellers into dropping their prices.

Both firms, which were relatively unknown outside of New York before the show, say the exposure has paid off financially. The impact of the hit show seems particularly dramatic for Gumley Haft Kleier, a family-run firm headed by Uptown superbroker Michele Kleier and her husband, Ian, along with their daughters, Samantha Kleier Forbes and Sabrina Kleier Morgenstern. This year, it shot up to No. 3 on The Real Deal’s ranking of top boutique firms, from No. 6 last year. Core took the No. 2 spot and Leslie J. Garfield & Co. ranked No. 1, a spot it’s held since The Real Deal began ranking boutiques in 2009. [more]