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]

New Jersey real estate agents are saying that the winter time is not as quiet as people think, according to NJ.com.

“There’s a misunderstanding that winter is quiet,” said Andrea Webb, an agent with Keller Williams in Montclair.

Starting last month, New Jersey agents are preparing for the spring market, decompressing, networking and taking continuing education courses. And some are encouraging sellers to list their homes during a time when there is generally less competition. [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]

Richard Tayar and the Tuscan estate

With a new offices and new hires seemingly every day, Keller Williams NYC has been expanding its operations within Manhattan. But the Ilan Bracha-led firm’s reach has gone as far as Italy.

Forbes reported that the brokerage recently picked up a 46,620-square-foot Medieval Tuscan mansion complete with restored frescoes and terracotta floors that’s asking €38 million, or about $53 million. The estate, located in Torrita di Siena, also has 74 acres of grape and olive vineyards and an operating winery that produces about 11,000 bottles of wine a year. [more]

From left: Keller Williams agents Laura Schwartz and Gershon Adjaye pictured at 361 1st Street in an episode of “Open House NY”

French reality television show “Angels of Reality” is descending upon
Jersey City for its third season, thanks to a last-minute lease
brokered by two Keller Williams agents. The show, which takes a group
of reality TV stars and puts them up in a “dream house” as they pursue
careers in the entertainment industry, signed a six-week lease on a home at 361 1st Street in the historic downtown section for $60,000, production company Paradoxal confirmed.

“We were looking for something very large — at least five bedrooms –
with modern furniture and a private swimming pool in New York City or
as close as possible,” said Doryne Mercier, a production coordinator
on the show. [more]

From left: Ilan Bracha, Rabbi Yishayahu Yosef Pinto and 240 Riverside Boulevard (building photo credit: CityRealty)

A three-year old plan to convert a 2,700-square-foot retail space into a synagogue at the Heritage at Trump Place may have collapsed, but the parties involved are trying to save it. In May, Bank of America initiated $1.2 million in foreclosure proceedings against a rabbi-to-the-real-estate-stars, a top-selling residential broker and a developer involved in the synagogue plans. According to the complaint, filed May 23, Rabbi Yishayahu Yosef Pinto, Ilan Bracha, who runs the Manhattan office for Keller Williams Realty, and his partner in development deals at B+B Investment Group, Haim Binstock, defaulted on their loan for a portion of Heritage at Trump Place at 240 Riverside Boulevard at 70th Street.

“As of May 16, 2011, the principal balance due and owing under the terms of the note was $1,207,694.24,” the filing says. Payments due to BofA have not been made since January, according to the filing. All three men are cited as part of the LLC — Pinto Bracha & Binstock LLC — that is named on the lien, according to city records. But attorneys for Pinto, Bracha and Binstock from the firm Mitofsky Shapiro Neville & Hazen fired back late last month. [more]

Sharing a name with your father might make it hard to climb out from under his shadow, especially if that shadow is huge, which is certainly the case with broker Walt Frazier.

His father, Walt “Clyde” Frazier, is the player who led the New York Knicks basketball team to its only two championships, in 1970 and 1973, and who currently provides in-game commentary for Knicks games on the MSG Network.

But Frazier isn’t complaining about being linked with his famous dad. In fact, since 2010, the pair has lived side-by-side in penthouses in a converted condominium in Harlem, at West 129th Street and Lenox Avenue. And a third next-door penthouse serves as an office for Walt Frazier Enterprises, which advises young deep-pocketed athletes how to invest well. [more]

New Director of Residential Rentals Declan Devlin and Keller Williams CEO Adina Azarian

Keller Williams continued its Manhattan hiring spree today, naming Declan Devlin the director of residential rentals, effective May 31. Devlin was most recently a senior vice president at Best Apartments, and said he had been looking to take a position elsewhere because his “upside was limited” at Best Apartments. While Keller Williams Chairman Ilan Bracha and CEO Adina Azarian have made their focus on exclusive listings known, they chose a director with little experience in that realm. “Exclusive listings are completely out of my range of experiences,” Devlin told The Real Deal, “I’m completely new to that form of the business.” But Devlin said he is very comfortable presenting in front of landlords, and as when it hired Azarian as the firm’s CEO, Keller Williams has demonstrated its preference for a certain character trait over a set of experiences. TRD [more]

Yankees pitcher Rafael Soriano rents four units in RiversEdge (the unit depicted is not his)

The Yankees most expensive off-season acquisition, right-handed pitcher Rafael Soriano, finally moved into his new digs last week at the RiversEdge building in Weehawken, N.J. Soriano signed leases for four rental units in the building, one for him, one for his assistant, one for his trainer and chef and another reserved for his sisters who travel from the Dominican Republic to games frequently, for a total of $15,000 a month according to the Keller Williams’ sales associate who brokered the lease, Gershon Adjaye.

Adjaye, who recently brought his Gersh Group under the Keller Williams umbrella, has brokered sales and rentals for several athletes before — he would only name former Nets’ guard Jeff McInnis, but never a Yankee. [more]