From left: 211 East 13th Street, Jacqueline Urgo, president at Marketing Directors and developer Charles Blaichman

The group of developers building an 82-unit condominium building at 211 East 13th Street has hired Jacqueline Urgo, president of the Marketing Directors, to promote the property, which is slated for groundbreaking this summer.

The project, which will occupy a vacant site between Second and Third avenues, is being developed by Ironstate Development, Charles Blaichman, and Abram Shnay and his son, Scott Shnay. They are anticipating completing the project by late 2013. [more]

75 Clinton Street

Dallas-based investment firm Invesco, the new owner of a planned 74-unit condominium conversion at 75 Clinton Street in Brooklyn Heights, has opted to lease the units instead, Crain’s reported, and will bring them to market in early February.

Invesco, which completed its purchase the building last week, has retained the Marketing Directors as the exclusive marketing firm for the building, in which rents will range from $2,800 a month to $7,000 a month. The condo was never declared effective previously. [more]

From left: Donald Trump, president of the Trump Organization, Dottie Herman, president of Prudential Douglas Elliman, Elizabeth Stribling, president of Stribling & Associates, Stuart Saft, chairman of Dewey & LeBoeuf’s global real estate department, and Frederick Peters, president of Warburg Realty Partnership, and Lois Weiss, real estate columnist for the New York Post

Compiled by Lauren Elkies

In the wake of Sandy Weill’s reported $88 million sale of his 15 Central Park West penthouse, The Real Deal wanted to touch base and see if real estate executives had any last minute predictions for the New Year since speaking with the magazine for the December residential market report.

Dottie Herman, president of Prudential Douglas Elliman, and Frederick Peters, president of Warburg Realty Partnership, said to expect 2012 to be a bit of a repeat of 2011, while developer Donald Trump said “really good real estate will have excess value.” Elizabeth Stribling, president of Stribling & Associates, predicts a “continuing strong demand for new condominium offerings all over town,” while Stuart Saft, chairman of Dewey & LeBoeuf’s global real estate department, said “the euro will continue to be in trouble causing a flight to safety to the U.S. and particularly New York City, so New York City properties will trade at even lower cap rates.” Meanwhile, Citi Habitats President Gary Malin and Halstead Property Development Marketing President Stephen Kliegerman recently told amNY that 2012 would bring more development and fewer amenities to New York City’s real estate market. [more]

Israeli-based property investment firm Fishman Holdings closed on a development site at 5 Franklin Place in Tribeca last week, after successfully bidding for the property at a foreclosure auction in September, and has released some details, including a rendering, of its plans for the site exclusively to The Real Deal.

The firm is planning a 19-story, 58-unit condominium, Yehuda Mor, executive vice president of Fishman, told The Real Deal. Construction on the new development will begin in the first quarter of 2012. Mor declined to comment on the size or price of the units or on who would be marketing the building, saying it was premature.

“We think the time is right to enter the Tribeca housing market,” he said. [more]

Clockwise from left: Keith Walker and Michael Etra from the Witkoff Group with Kelly Mack, president of Corcoran Sunshine; Harlan Goldberg and Norma-Jean Callahan of 515 East 72 with Howard Margolis of Prudential Douglas Elliman and Lawrence Treglia from Core; Keith Walker and Michael Etra from The Witkoff Group with Jim Sheehan of 515 East 72; and Jordan Weiss of NYCondo & Real Estate and Carey Adina Karmel of Corcoran receive complimentary massages (credit: Jim Cummins)

Real estate pros came out in force Tuesday night for the unveiling of 40,000-square-feet of amenity spaces at 515 East 72nd Street, the 41-story Upper East Side condominium formerly known as Miraval Living.
As previously reported, the 365-unit building parted ways with its former spa after a dispute over delays and payments in October last year and has joined forces with a slightly cheaper alternative spa, named Elements. The new amenity space also includes a newly designed children’s playroom by Jodi’s Gym and private park.
“Between the new amenity offerings in the building and new financing options we have seen an unprecedented interest in 515 East 72nd street. We are currently over 50 percent sold and expect to see that number increase considerably in the coming months,” said Elaine Diratz, senior managing director of Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, which is handling the sales and marketing for the development. — Katherine Clarke [more]

Almost 16 percent of the units in the first completed building at Harrison Station, the new luxury mixed-use development in Harrison, N.J., have been rented since leasing opened two weeks ago, according to Jacqueline Urgo, president of the Marketing Directors, the development’s exclusive leasing and marketing agent. Meanwhile, the restaurant chain Five Guys signed a 10-year lease for a 2,500-square-foot retail space earlier this month, said Greg Russo, a principal at Ironstate Development, which is partnering with the Pegasus Group to develop the 27-acre site. The entire retail space is 15,000 square feet. When completed, Harrison Station will include 2,600 residences, 80,000 square feet of retail and a hotel with up to 140 rooms, which Russo said is the next part of the project to get underway. [more]

Linden78 apartment from left: the A-line model unit by Thom Filicia and the B-line unit by Meridith Baer & Associates

Linden78, Urban Residential’s once-troubled Upper West Side condominium that relaunched sales late last year, is now 80 percent sold, according to the project’s marketing team. The long-awaited 32-unit project, at 230 West 78th Street, has been here before: Linden78 had nearly sold out in pre-sales during its first go-around on the market, but construction delays forced the developers to let buyers out of their contracts in the spring of 2009. But that threat has vanished now that the building is complete, and apartments are moving quickly. TRD Comments

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From left: 247 W. 46th Street, comedian Rosie O’Donnell, rapper Pras, Marketing Directors’ Adrienne Albert

After nearly four years on the market, the 220-unit Platinum condominium is sold out.

The last five units in the Times Square tower, designed by Costas Kondylis, went into contract in March, according to the Marketing Directors, the sales agent for the building.

Units in the 43-story building sold for an average of $1,350 per square foot, said Allen Goldman, president of SJP Residential Properties, the project’s developer.

It’s been a long road for Platinum, located at 247 West 46th Street at Eighth Avenue. [more]

From the December issue: Kitchen counters that can barely fit a coffeemaker, doors that swing the wrong way and terrace railings that hide views. These are just a few of the notorious apartment layout mistakes that regularly work their way into blueprints for New York City apartments. But if there is an upside to this long-standing problem, it’s that the downturn is having a corrective effect on floor-plan blunders. Unlike in the heady days of the boom, today there is little room for these sorts of layout and design miscalculations, brokers say. “I think the pressure on the development community to provide marketable product is so high today that people are now being sensitive to every single issue in order to build the best possible product,” said Adrienne Albert, CEO of The Marketing Directors. [more]

Jacqueline Urgo of the Marketing Directors and the Sheffield

Developers at several New York condominiums such as the Sheffield are reviving higher commissions and other incentive plans to sell units, according to the Wall Street Journal. When the Sheffield, at 322 West 57th Street, was reopening earlier this year after a conversion, the owners had nearly 330 units to sell. They held a launch party for agents and offered to increase their commission by a half percentage point for any of the 180 attendees who closed a deal by Nov. 15. More than a dozen of those brokers signed up condo purchasers. [more]