From left: Ken Krasnow of Massey Knakal Realty Services; Eastern Consolidated’s Ety Lee; Eastern Consolidated’s Jerome Benayoum; and Lon Rubackin, a managing director at GFI Capital

Commercial brokerage firm Massey Knakal Realty Services has temporarily replaced Kenneth Krasnow, the managing director of the firm’s Brooklyn office, because he is not licensed as required by the New York State Department of State, company CEO Paul Massey told The Real Deal this morning.

Krasnow had been the head of the Brooklyn office since 2008. He will be replaced by Cory Rosenthal, corporate vice president, until Krasnow obtains his license, Massey said.

“[In the] interim, Cory Rosenthal, corporate vice president, will take over day to day management of Queens and Brooklyn until Ken resolves the license issue,” Massey said.
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As 2011 shifts into gear, commercial real estate firms are reporting that they ended 2010 with their strongest sales in over two years, according to Crain’s. Massey Knakal Realty Services closed 35 deals in the New York metro area in December, with an aggregate value of more than $221 million, the firm’s strongest month since March 2008. “Activity has been increasing steadily over 2010,” said Ken Krasnow, a managing director at Massey Knakal. Eastern Consolidated also reported a strong December, where dollar sales volume jumped 50 percent from November levels. [more]

From the December issue: When the economy sours, one of the few sectors to profit is usually
postgraduate education. Laid-off employees, or simply scared ones,
historically have flocked to school to beef up their résumés in the
hopes of better positioning themselves in the job market. But for some real estate professionals, this recession is different.
At New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate Continuing
Education Program, which offers over 500 classes each year, enrollment
dropped 10 to 15 percent between fall 2008 and fall 2009. The Real Estate Board of New York has also seen a 5 to 8 percent
decline in their for-credit continuing education program participants,
who typically register in order to maintain their licenses.
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From the October issue: New York City is at a peculiar crossroads. For months, investors have
marshaled unprecedented amounts of capital, salivating at the prospect
of snapping up distressed properties. “We’re fortunate this cycle to
have the most dry powder in our
history,” Blackstone Group president Tony James said last month at the
Barclays Capital Global Financial Services Conference, which was held
in Manhattan. The firm has about $28 billion in unspent capital, he
said. About $12 billion of that is earmarked for real estate. “We’re
just beginning what will be the best period in decades for private
investing,” he said. Dan Fasulo, a managing director at Real Capital
Analytics, estimated
that $50 billion has been raised and is ready to be deployed into
distressed real estate. Paradoxically, investors have found very little
worth buying so far, in large part because banks continue to hold
troubled loans on their books, hoping conditions will improve. [more]