5th on the Park

A total of 41 contracts were signed at 5th on the Park, a new residential high rise on Upper Fifth Avenue, throughout 2011, the most out of any new development property in Harlem, Halstead Property Development Marketing, the exclusive sales agent for the building, announced today.

The development was closely followed in sales volume by 88 Morningside at 88 Morningside Avenue with 38 signed contracts and 2280 FDB at 2280 Frederick Douglass Boulevard with 31 contracts, which are marketed by Halstead and MNS respectively. (note: correction appended) [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]

The influx of foreign buyers into the New York City condominium market has added a new job description for brokers, according to the Wall Street Journal, as they’re increasingly managing the leasing process on behalf of overseas owners.

For these brokers, performing background checks on renters, collecting rent, paying utility bills and overseeing repairs and renovations have become as much a part of the job as selling apartments. While larger landlords outsource these duties to management companies, few such services exist for individual apartment owners, the Journal said. [more]

In some of the city’s most desireable neighborhoods, prospective buyers are eschewing bargains and hedging their bets on rentals till the market returns.

In Riverdale, an affluent residential neighborhood in the northwest portion of the Bronx, listings have skyrocketed, but sales have dropped, the New York Times reported, with available properties having increased by 80 percent over two years.

In fact, it would take approximately two years for buyers to absorb the current sales inventory in Riverdale, according to data from Streeteasy.com, more than double the time it might have taken even two years ago. [more]

Susan Bloomberg and the penthouse at One Kenmare Square

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s ex-wife, Susan Bloomberg, got the $11.5 million she wanted back in 2009 for her Soho penthouse. But the $1.5 million price hike she implemented when re-listing the apartment earlier this year proved too ambitious.

Citing city records, the New York Observer reported that an LLC named Cirrus 210 snapped up the penthouse in the glassy condominium designed by Andre Balazs at One Kenmare Square. The apartment had been on the market since July for $13 million with Arlene Weidberg, a senior vice president at Halstead Property. [more]

Sara Rotter, the former director of sales for the Gramercy, Flatiron, Chelsea and West Village offices of Citi Habitats, has joined Halstead Property as director of sales for downtown, Halstead announced today.

Rotter will be working closely with Richard Grossman, the executive director of sales for downtown.

“I am thrilled to welcome Sara to our executive team,” said Diane Ramirez, president of Halstead Property. “Sara and Richard will be the winning leadership team in the downtown market.” – Katherine Clarke [more]

William Zeckendorf, co-developer of 15 Central Park West and a co-owner of Terra Holdings, parent company of Halstead Property and Brown Harris Stevens, has gone into contract to buy a two-bedroom, 17th-floor apartment at 740 Park Avenue, a building once owned by his grandfather, for $27 million, the New York Post reported.

The 10-room apartment is owned by video game magnate Gregory Fischbach and his wife Linda, who bought the apartment in 1994 for $6.3 million. It was once owned by John D. Rockefeller, who planned to join the unit with his duplex below but never did.

Zeckendorf has been busy maneuvering his personal real estate assets of late. [more]

Fieldston LoftsHalstead Property Development Marketing has launched sales at a new 10-unit Riverdale condominium called Fieldston Lofts. The seven-story building, at 3751 Riverdale Avenue, consists of three- and four-bedroom homes that range from $899,000 for 1,849 square feet to $1.059 million for 2,164 square feet. Occupancy is set to begin in early 2012.

Each of the units in the building has private outdoor space, and shared amenities include a common roof deck, children’s play area, indoor parking and private storage. The condominium development site is owned by a Chicago-based LLC that shares an address with Builders Bank, according to public records, which picked up the site for $9.79 million in 2009. – Adam Fusfeld [more]

From the October issue: In August, art-world heavyweight Larry Gagosian paid $36.5 million for the Harkness Mansion, the Upper East Side spread that financier J. Christopher Flowers had bought for a record-breaking $53 million in 2006.
To some observers, the fate of the property illustrated the gulf between today’s residential market and the pre-crash boom. However, the art mogul’s purchase could also be a symbol for a longer-term trend affecting residential real estate: the gradual loosening of Wall Street’s grip on the city’s economy — and the growing number of New Yorkers working in education, health care, business services and creative fields.
“The first thing to understand is that this trend is several years in the making,” real estate consultant Nancy Packes said. “I do not think that this is a blip or an anomaly.” [more]

From the October issue: To tweet or not to tweet — for New York City real estate professionals, that is the question.

When using social media for business, some worry about exposing their personal lives, or putting their foot in their (digital) mouths.

But a select group of agents and executives have overcome this dilemma and emerged as the industry’s top tweeters, racking up thousands of followers at a time when the average New York City real estate broker has only around 100.

Halstead Property agent Renée Fishman (who won REBNY’s Rookie of the Year Award in 2009), for example, first logged on to Twitter in March 2009 and now has 1,349 followers. She also helps Halstead’s director of web marketing, Matthew Leone, instruct fellow agents on how to market themselves through social media. [more]