From left: Keller Williams NYC Chairman Ilan Bracha and CEO Eric Barron

Keller Williams NYC is struggling to carve its place in the city’s residential brokerage marketplace, according to Crain’s, though the firm’s executives deny this to be the case. With the exception of Ilan Bracha — a former top producer at Prudential Douglas Elliman who jumped ship to establish the national brokerage’s local arm — none of the industry’s top players have joined the firm more than a year into its existence. Further, Keller Williams hasn’t landed many exclusive listings, and seldom gets its hands on high-profile ones. [more]

From left: Ilan and Mati Bracha, an interior shot of a Rushmore condo (credit: Bracha Group Blog) and the exterior of the Rushmore

Ilan Bracha, chairman of the Manhattan brokerage Keller Williams NYC, the local franchise of national firm Keller Williams Realty, is moving up in the world in accordance with the growth of his franchise, which has accumulated more than 160 agents in the last year.

Bracha and wife Mati Bracha, an artist, have purchased a four-bedroom, 3,056-square-foot penthouse at the Extell Development’s Rushmore condominium at 80 Riverside Boulevard, according to public records filed with the city today. The deed for the property is in Mati’s name, records show.  [more]

From the March issue:

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Clockwise from top left: 923 Fifth Avenue (credit: PropertyShark), Joseph Klaynberg, Bahar Tavakolian and the interior of Klaynberg's unit Ilan Bracha

Real estate developer Joseph Klaynberg and his wife, Emily, have sold their five-bedroom condominium at 923 Fifth Avenue for $10.9 million, according to city property records filed Feb. 8. The sale, handled by Ilan Bracha, founder of Keller Williams NYC, was the most expensive of last week.

Klaynberg is the founder of Wonder Works Construction, a development and construction firm that has worked on numerous New York City residential projects. A native of Minsk, he is now a senior managing director at Berkshire Capital Group, a private equity real estate investment firm headquartered in Manhattan. [more]

From left: Zhann Jochinke and Eric Barron

[Updated at 8:51 p.m. with comment from Argo] Keller Williams NYC has hired Zhann Jochinke to oversee the brokerage’s day-to-day operations as COO, the firm said. Jochinke joined the Keller Williams NYC in December, but his hiring was kept under wraps due to unspecified “complications” with his previous firm, Argo Residential. [more]

From left: 425 Park Avenue, Ilan Bracha, chairman at Keller Williams NYC (note: correction appended) and Jeffrey Rosenblatt, senior managing director at Newmark Knight Frank

[Updated at 3:12 p.m. with comment from Newmark Knight Frank] More details have emerged regarding Keller Williams NYC’s new 25,000-square-foot space down the street from its existing offices.

The residential brokerage got a “great deal” on their sublease at 425 Park Avenue last month, according to Jeffrey Rosenblatt, senior managing director at Newmark Knight Frank, who represented both Keller Williams and the sublandlord, Lebhar Friedman, in the transaction. The firm also has an option to take another 10,000 square feet in the space in the event of further expansion, a spokesperson for Keller Williams said. [more]

Nancy Sale Johnson Rashad and husband Ahmad Rashad

Socialite Nancy Sale Johnson Rashad, the ex-wife of Jets owner Woody Johnson and mother of the late socialite heiress Casey Johnson, has relisted her apartment at 817 Fifth Avenue with Ilan Bracha of Keller Williams NYC for $23 million, according to data from Streeteasy.com.

The five-bedroom apartment, which was previously listed with the Corcoran Group’s Leighton Candler in 2010 for $21 million, has five bedrooms, five-bathrooms, two wood-burning fireplaces and a lower-floor vault. It is configured as a triplex maisonette with nearly 7,000 square feet of living space on three levels. [more]

While the folks behind Streeteasy.com may be most closely associated with real estate listings and data points, they shrugged off the computer geek image last night for a holiday party at the Mondrian Soho hotel’s Mister H bar.

Sofia Song, vice president at Streeteasy, said more than 200 of the invited brokers, advertisers, clients and media guests planned to attend the event, at 9 Crosby Street between Howard and Grand streets, and the press of bodies last night seemed to bear out her tally.

Between the ruby-colored wingbacks, gilt-framed mirrors, Persian rugs and bird cages strung from the ceiling, the space evoked a cross between a boudoir and a colonial drawing room. Or, as Iman Bacodari, vice president and associate broker for the Jacky Teplitzky team at Prudential Douglas Elliman, put it, “Chinatown dumpling shop meets Spanish brothel … with a little English manor sprinkled in.” Comments

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By Katherine Clarke and Lauren Elkies

From left: Adina Azarian, the former CEO of Keller Williams NYC, Ilan Bracha, chairman of KWNYC, Eric Barron, the new CEO of KWNYC, and the company’s new office at 425 Park Avenue

Adina Azarian has stepped down from her role as CEO of the real estate franchise Keller Williams NYC after just seven months to take a more junior position at the company, the company informed The Real Deal today. Azarian will take the job of executive director of new business development.

Azarian, who joined the company in April after being recruited by now-defunct Dwelling Quest colleague Ilan Bracha, chairman of Keller Williams NYC, told The Real Deal she “initiated” the executive changes and chose her replacement. Eric Barron, a former managing director at the New York Real Estate Institute, took over as CEO Nov. 14, according to the company. [more]

From left: Ilan Bracha, Haim Binstock and 16-18 West 57th Street

Gary Barnett’s Extell Development paid $80 million for a five-story commercial building that residential broker Ilan Bracha and development partner Haim Binstock bought in 2007 for $60 million.

Bracha, the chairman of the New York City office of residential firm Keller Williams, and Binstock, purchased 16-18 West 57th Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, in 2007 through their B&B Investment Group, with hopes to build a 28-story mixed-use tower.

Instead, their original lender Petra Capital Management sold the loan to a company affiliated with Barnett earlier this year, The Real Deal reported. [more]