James Ferrari, the founder of Benjamin James Real Estate, said he is reinvigorating the ailing company with an injection of capital and a radically altered business plan he claims would give three-quarters of the company’s profits to charity.
A former male model, Ferrari left the 16-year-old company in the hands of top executive Douglas Wagner for the past few years while he focused on other pursuits, like philanthropy, music and his media company, Ferrari Media Production. “I couldn’t have told you two years ago who worked at my company because I was on the West Coast or South Africa,” Ferrari said. With the financial crisis, however, the business struggled, closing two of its three offices within a year, and Wagner recently announced plans to leave, as The Real Deal first reported. Ferrari considered closing the company, he told The Real Deal, but instead has decided to step back in to manage its day-to-day operations. He said he is planning to put a significant amount of capital into the business — “whatever it takes” to get it up and running. He is also planning to reopen the company’s Soho office, which closed over a year ago, and has begun making overdue payments to creditors, (including The Real Deal). “The future of the company is much more stable than it was six months ago,” Ferrari told The Real Deal by phone from the company’s current headquarters at 120 West 21st Street. But there’s one major difference. This time around, Ferrari said, he is committed to transforming the company into a socially conscious venture that will give some 75 percent of its profits — after agents and bills have been paid — to charitable organizations Ferrari supports, such as the AIDS research group amfAR, the non-profit organization Color Me In!, and Housing Works. [more]

Retailers previously priced out of Soho and the Upper East Side are taking advantage of falling rents and opening shops. Rents in the city fell an average of 11 percent between fall 2008 and spring 2009, Crain’s New York Business reported. Soho and Nolita are expected to see the biggest drop in rent this year — about 20 percent. Shoe store Camper recently signed a one-year lease on Madison Avenue at 59th Street for about $500 a foot, and thrift shop Housing Works just opened its ninth location in the city on Crosby Street in Soho. In addition, sneaker store Flight Club just leased its third Manhattan location on Lafayette Street for just $70 a foot. Brokers said the space could have fetched $200 a foot last year.