Clockwise from top left: Jennifer Reardon, Corcoran CEO Pamela Liebman, Leighton Candler; Frank Castelluccio, Aaron Lemma, Liebman, Shanice Catini, Mara Ingram; Yael Epstein, Maurice Singer, Deborah Rieders, Liebman and Sarah Shuken; Carrie Chiang, Liebman, Tresa Hall and Janet Wang

The Corcoran Group’s Leighton Candler won the company’s top honors at its annual awards ceremony last week, Corcoran said today.

At the event, held at 230 Fifth Avenue, Candler was awarded the Manhattan Individual Sales Person of the Year award for 2011, the company said, as well as Corcoran’s Deal of the Year award. A company spokesperson was not immediately available to comment on which deal Candler was being honored for, but Candler last year sold hedge-fund manager Scott Bommer’s full-floor apartment on the 29th floor at the Ritz, at 50 Central Park South, for $30 million. [more]

131 East 64th Street

After a brief hiatus, Jacksonville Jaguar founding president David Seldin’s Upper East Side townhouse returned to the market with a new broker and a new asking price, Mogulite reported. Previously listed by Corcoran Group brokers Leighton Candler and Christopher Infante for $22.9 million since October, the townhouse at 131 East 64th Street is now listed for $21.5 million by Jed Garfield, Francis O’Shea and Matthew Pravda of Leslie J. Garfield & Co. [more]

Scott Bommer and 50 Central Park South

Hedge-fund manager Scott Bommer, the man who set a record by flipping a Carnegie Hill co-op unit at 1060 Fifth Avenue for a jaw-dropping $48.9 million in 2008, is at his old tricks once again, having just sold a unit at the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton on Central Park South, according to public records filed with the city last week.
His full-floor apartment on the 29th floor at the Ritz, at 50 Central Park South, sold to a mystery limited liability company for $30 million, $1.5 million more than he purchased it for in July 2008. The buyer lists its address as a law firm based in Miami, Fla. A call to the office of the law firm went unanswered. [more]

Fifteen rent-stabilized tenants at 220 Central Park South have been bought out by Vornado Realty Trust and the Clarrett Group, clearing a major hurdle for the developers in their plan to eventually tear down the rental apartments and erect a more than 40-story condominium in its place, the Observer reported. The development team had been trying for years to oust tenants at the building — among them the Corcoran Group’s Leighton Candler — to no avail, and had offered them as much as $1 million a person in the past if they would vacate. City records now show that 15 of them, including Candler, are officially out, for a price of between $1.3 million and $1.56 million each. [more]

Brooke Astor and her home at 778 Park Avenue

Brooke Astor’s 778 Park Avenue duplex, near 72nd Street, once listed for an eye-popping $46 million, is now available for $24.9 million after its third price cut, the Daily News reported. Astor’s son, Anthony Marshall, who was convicted last year of stealing from his mother’s estate, has been trying to sell the 15th-floor apartment, which boasts 14 rooms, five fireplaces and six terraces, since Astor died in 2007. It is listed by Stribling & Associates’ Kirk Henckels — the Corcoran Group’s Leighton Candler had the original listing. The price, now nearly 50 percent off of its original, was first cut to $34 million, and then to $29 million last May. [NYDN] [more]

From left, Corcoran’s Pamela Liebman and EVP of sales Tresa Hall gave out the annual company awards to Robby Browne, Leighton Candler, Dennis Hughes, among others

The Corcoran Group held its annual Manhattan and Brooklyn awards ceremony Tuesday, with Robby Browne, a senior vice president and associate broker, taking top honors as Salesperson of the Year. The event was held at the Nokia Theater in Times Square with guest speakers Real Estate Board of New York Chairwoman Mary Ann Tighe and New York City restaurateur Danny Meyer. Corcoran CEO Pamela Liebman and Executive Vice President of Sales Tresa Hall presented the awards. In addition to Browne, winners included Carrie Chiang, who was named East Side Salesperson of the Year, Sherry Matays, who was recognized as West Side Salesperson of the Year, Fabienne Lecole as Carnegie Hill Salesperson of the Year, and Julie Pham as Chelsea Salesperson of the Year. Lisa Fitzig was named Manhattan Rookie of the Year and Dennis Hughes was rental agent of the year for Manhattan. Leighton Candler received the Deal of the Year award, though as of press time the company remained mum on the deal in question. For a picture from the ceremony, click here. This week, Corcoran also released its 2009 annual list of the top performing agents on the East End. TRD
[more]

From left, Neil Binder, Wolf Jakubowski and Jonathan Miller

From the November issue: The beleaguered luxury real estate market in New York is beginning to show some positive signs, but there is expected to be a lot of stumbling along the path to recovery. The high-end market here has been harder hit in terms of both price drops and activity than any other sector, and there’s still a sense of nervousness among many about buying multimillion-dollar properties. However, in this month’s Q & A, The Real Deal talked to market analysts, top luxury brokers and heads of firms who said that while there is still a lot of caution, they are beginning to see a mild increase in activity in Manhattan’s most exclusive property trades. Within the last two months, some say they have noticed an increase in buyers, who for the first time in the last year are not convinced that prices will continue to go down. But sales are still way off, and one analyst disputed the notion that prices are going to head back up anytime soon, saying “inventory is still grossly overpriced for the current conditions.” Meanwhile, many of the transactions that have taken place are from all-cash buyers who are paying lower prices, or from buyers who are putting in at least half of the cash needed to finance the purchase. That means the jumbo mortgages that drive the segment are still not getting easier to obtain — a reality that does not bode well for the sector in the near future. And many of those interviewed said sellers are still not dropping their prices to the levels they need to be at to lure buyers. They said the $2.6 million to $5 million range and the $10 million to $20 million range have suffered most. For more on what’s going on, which areas of Manhattan have seen the largest drops in the luxury sector and which ones are holding stronger, we turn to our panel of experts.

The unit to see the biggest price cut today is a five-story townhouse
at 131 East 71st Street, between Park and Lexington avenues, according
to Streeteasy.com. The price of the home, where interior decorators
Elsie de Wolfe and David Barrett have lived, was cut by $1.05 million,
and the townhouse is now on the market for $7.45 million. The home is
listed for 12 percent less than its asking price of $8.5 million when
it first went on the market in March. The top two floors of the
townhouse are currently a separate two-bedroom apartment, but according
to the Corcoran Group listing, the home can be converted into a
single-family house. Corcoran’s Leighton Candler and Pamela Marcus have
the listing. TRD