Newmark Knight Frank’s Brandl Frey has been poached by the Durst Organization, where she’ll be the company’s newest leasing manager. Frey, who was most recently a director at Newmark on James Kuhn and Brian Waterman’s team, and previously worked as a broker at Cushman & Wakefield, will be helping to market more than 10 million square feet of commercial property for Durst, president Jonathan Durst announced today. In the past, Frey was a leasing agent for 1333 Broadway, 855 Sixth Avenue and 250 West 57th Street, among others, and has represented tenants like Morgan Stanley, CBS and Tommy Hilfiger. TRD

From left: REBNY award winners Alan Pfeifer, Rena Goldstein and Nancy Teague

The founders of the New York Residential Specialist committee, a post-graduate program aimed at educating existing brokers, received the Real Estate Board of New York’s Special Recognition Award for Outstanding Service during REBNY’s annual gala award ceremony. Meanwhile, the Moinian Group announced yesterday that it has donated one year of rent-free living to a silent auction hosted by lung cancer research foundation Joan’s Legacy: Uniting Against Lung Cancer and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has signed an agreement to sell the Bliss Spa and product company to Steiner Leisure Limited for $100 million. Click here for more. TRD [more]

Jonathan “Jody” Durst, co-president of the Durst Organization, sat down with the New York Times to talk about sustainable development, new projects and the latest shakeup at Durst: Jonathan’s cousin, Douglas, co-president and current chairman, announced that he would be leaving the co-president post and stepping down from day-to-day operations at the organization, while remaining chairman. Beyond leadership changes, Durst said his company is holding up well in the market. His latest project, the 55-story Bank of America building, is back on track after nabbing an extended $1.3 billion in loans. Today, the tower is nearly 99 percent complete and 98 percent occupied, Durst said, but securing the proper financing wasno easy task: “It took the expertise of many consultants and lawyers just to keep everybody together and focused. The economy and the financial atmosphere were constantly changing over those 12 months, and so all the participants were wondering whether they should stay at it.”