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]

From left: Devlin McNiff East Hampton office, Stuart Epstein, owner of Devlin McNiff, and Diane
Ramirez, president of Halstead Property

Halstead Property is expanding into the Hamptons by joining with the local firm Devlin McNiff, Halstead announced today. The new company will be known as Devlin McNiff Halstead Property. This will be Halstead’s only presence in the Hamptons.

Devlin McNiff Halstead Property will be based at 3 North Main Street in East Hampton, the 2,500-square-foot current home of Devlin McNiff and will continue to run under the direction of husband-and-wife team Stuart and Lynn Epstein.

Because of Halstead’s status as a privately held company, Diane Ramirez, president of Halstead Property, said she could not disclose details about the deal. There was a transfer of equity, Stuart Epstein said, but it was not an 100 percent acquisition. — Miranda Neubauer Comments

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From the September issue:This summer, real estate broker Amelia Gewirtz snail-mailed a thick sheath of papers to everyone on her contact list, including all of her former clients. But the missive wasn’t a market report. In fact, it wasn’t real estate-related at all — it was a printed list of free upcoming New York City events.

“Life can be hard, and I want to pass something on that makes me smile,” said Gewirtz, a Halstead Property executive vice president, who last year sent out a sample of music from the band she sings in, “Parents with Angst.”

Real estate brokers know it’s crucial to maintain strong client relationships, and in the past, many kept in touch by sending out market reports or the occasional postcard. These days, however, more and more brokers are sending mass communiqués on subjects not at all related to real estate — from recipes to YouTube videos — in order to get clients’ attention and connect on a more personal level. [more]

Alchemy President Ken Horn and Griffin Court

The Griffin Court Condominium in Hell’s Kitchen is seeing a surprising surge in sales, according to the property’s developer Alchemy Properties, which is marketing the building with Halstead Property.

Sales went from 15 percent sold to 50 percent sold with the closing of 20 units in the last two months.  – Miranda Neubauer [more]

Renderings of 109 Gold Street

Gold & York, the developers behind 109 Gold Street in Dumbo, have tapped Halstead Property Marketing Development to replace Prudential Douglas Elliman as the exclusive marketers of the 33-unit condominium.

Sales for some of the units launched last November, according to Streeteasy.com, and were listed by Elliman’s Mordechai Werde and Michael Ettelson. However, the site shows no sales closed.

Halstead was officially tapped to replace the Elliman team June 24, and began marketing the building July 5. The developer made the switch because sales were not going as expected, and because of Halstead’s success at the nearby Kirkman Lofts, a spokeperson for Halstead said. – Adam Fusfeld [more]

From left: Halstead Property President Diane Ramirez, Eileen Spinola of REBNY and Secretary of State Cesar Perales

The little-known 15-member New York State Board of Real
Estate that helps craft regulations for the industry and hears
public complaints about brokerage licensing has a mandate to
meet at least three times per year yet has not held a meeting in
more than 24 months.

The quasi-governmental body, which includes appointed
members such as Diane Ramirez, president of
Halstead Property, and Eileen Spinola, a senior vice president
for the Real Estate Board of New York, last met in June
2009, before either Ramirez or Spinola began their two-year
terms. Other members include real estate brokers from the
Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and upstate as well as corporate
representatives. The governor, and majority and minority
leaders in the State Senate and Assembly appoint the members.
There are currently two vacant positions. [more]

Susan Bloomberg and the penthouse at One Kenmare Square

The Mayor’s ex must really believe in the recovery of luxury real estate prices in New York City.
After a one-and-a-half-year hiatus, Susan Bloomberg’s One Kenmare Square penthouse has returned to the market with a new broker and a $1.5 million price bump.

The former wife of Mayor Mike Bloomberg, whose primary residence is a 26-acre horse farm in North Salem, N.Y., is now asking $13 million for her 4,472-square-foot spread, which comprises the entire top floor of the 210 Lafayette Street condominium and has some 4,031 square feet of outdoor space. The “double penthouse,” as the listing by Halstead Property broker Arlene Weidberg describes it, is actually two units for which Bloomberg paid roughly $10.3 million in 2006. Together, they have five bedrooms, a private rooftop, and two of pretty much everything else: kitchens, terraces, fireplaces and powder rooms.  [more]