Joseph DeCristofaro, founder of the Global Group, and Eddie Shapiro, founder and CEO of Nest Seekers

Noted Hamptons agent Joseph DeCristofaro, who abruptly left Nest Seekers International in November and then sued the firm, has launched his own residential brokerage that will focus on rentals and sales in New York and the Hamptons.

Named the Global Group, as reported by the New York Post earlier this month, the firm launched Dec. 21 and will cater to buyers, sellers, tenants and landlords. DeCristofaro also started LeaseHamptons.com, a separate Hamptons rental listings website. [more]

From left: Model Basia Milewicz, the 95 Greene Street penthouse and Nest Seekers managing director Ryan Serhant

Renowned celebrity photographer Ken Nahoum has finally found a buyer for his 1,800-square-foot duplex penthouse at 95 Greene Street, sources told The Real Deal today, marking the beginning of the end of a long legal battle with the building’s condominium board, which sued Nahoum in connection with $40,000 in unpaid common charges last year.

A buyer by the name of Richard Abrizi purchased the condo unit, Penthouse C, yesterday. The final closing price was $3.15 million, the sources said. [more]

From top left: Nest Seekers CEO Eddie Shapiro, managing directors Melvin Caro and Alex Dietrich, and a rendering of the new Williamsburg office at 578 Driggs Avenue

Come next Wednesday, Nest Seekers International will have a brick-and-mortar Williamsburg presence with a new office at 578 Driggs Avenue.

It’s a duplex office in a storefront location at the corner of North 6th Street, said Eddie Shapiro, the company’s president and CEO. He wouldn’t disclose the terms of the lease, but said the space clocks in at just shy of 2,000 square feet.

Nest Seekers, which has five offices in New York City (one of which is under construction), four on the East End and one in Miami, was “getting pressure” from agents and customers to open an office there, Shapiro said, and he wanted to expand the reach of his firm. [more]

Rendering of Nest Seekers’ new office at 100 Riverside Boulevard (see inset)

This fall, a one block stretch of Riverside Boulevard will suddenly become crowded
with real estate offices. First, Blu Realty Group plans a real estate office
and cafe on the boulevard, now Nest Seekers International is bringing an
office designed by Andres Escobar & Associates to Lincoln Square. The residential
brokerage said it commissioned the high-end designer to transform the raw
commercial condominium it bought at the base of the Avery into its newest office.
Escobar is known for designing the Duvet nightclub in Gramercy and the
92 Greene Street condo in Soho, among other high-profile projects.

Nest Seekers closed on the $1.4 million, approximately 1,500-square-foot space at
100 Riverside Boulevard last month and will open the office, its fourth in Manhattan,
in 30 to 60 days. The West Side office is the firm’s 10th overall; in addition to the
Manhattan locations it has one office in Long Island City, four on the East End, and one in Miami. [more]

Broker Regis Roumila

From the August issue: With the success of “Selling New York”on HGTV and Bravo’s forthcoming New York spinoff of “Million Dollar Listing,”there’s little doubt that New York real estate can generate solid ratings for television networks. Now, Nest Seekers International is betting that small-screen exposure can yield big sales, too.
The firm has struck a deal to broadcast its own internally produced 12-minute show on Cablevision’s Plum TV every Saturday, twice in the morning and once in the evening. Called “Blend” for its mix of real estate, lifestyle and celebrities, the show is hosted by Nest Seekers senior vice president Caroline Grane and filmed inside some of the firm’s priciest listings.
The first episode aired Memorial Day weekend. It featured a cooking segment, a roundtable discussion by artists and designers about Manhattan’s Sloane mansion, and a tour of the Watermill home of Todd Hase, a Soho-based furniture designer. The house is currently listed with Nest Seekers’ Joseph DeCristofaro for $3.295 million. [more]

From left: 36 Gramercy Park East, Jim Parsons of “Big Bang Theory” and Nest Seekers’ Ryan Serhant and Carol Friedman

“Big Bang” actor Jim Parsons purchased a $1.82 million apartment at 36 Gramercy Park East, the New York Observer reported. Carol Friedman and Ryan Serhant of Nest Seekers, the building’s exclusive marketing firm, brokered the deal.

The building is among the few condominiums along the private park, as it was converted from a rental in 2009 by Mann Realty Associates, with average asking prices of about $2,248 per square foot. Parsons came away with his 911-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment for $2,000 per foot. [more]

From left: David Tobon, Alon Chadad, Moshe Balalo, Andy Kim and Michael Arcos of the firm Blu

Blu Realty Group, the new 100 percent commission residential brokerage launched in Midtown by five Nest Seekers alumni earlier this year, is expanding its business to the Upper West Side, where it plans to open its second office in mid-July.

Alon Chadad, one of the firm’s co-founders, told The Real Deal that Blu has leased a roughly 1,600-square-foot space at Trump Place, at 120 Riverside Boulevard and 67th Street, chosen because of its proximity to the burgeoning new developments market in the area.

“We’ve been doing a lot of business with Extell [Development] and at Trump Place,” Chadad said. “The Rushmore, the Avery… all of those. The neighborhood is picking up tremendously.” [more]

Nest Seekers International added Hamptons-based brokerage Perspective Properties to its growing East End stable, the company announced today. Nest Seekers will absorb 11 agents, 20 exclusive properties — some listed for as much as $10 million — and Perspective’s 688 Montauk Highway office, rebranding it as Nest Seekers Water Mill. The acquisition comes on the heels of April’s purchase of Engel & Volkers Southampton office, and brings the firm’s count of Hamptons brokers to 40 and Hamptons offices to four. The firm also maintains three Manhattan offices, one Queens office and another in Miami and more than 150 agents in total. The firm also operates overseas through a set of international affiliates. “Their office location is superb, and they are a pleasure to work with,” said Eddie Shapiro, CEO of Nest Seekers International, in a statement. – Adam Fusfeld

German real estate brokerage Engel & Völkers is facing a new round of litigation in Manhattan Supreme Court, as former broker EV Scarsdale filed an amended complaint last Friday and was joined by two new lawsuits by E&V franchises in upstate New York and of Rhode Island.

EV Scarsdale filed a suit last month against E&V alleging the real estate franchise provided him with misleading financial data and failed to support his operations, resulting in $1.5 million in damages.

Now, Riverside Homes Realty, based in Hastings-on-Hudson and James Ian Properties, based in Cranston, R.I., are making similar accusations against E&V. [more]

Fresh on the heels of its Engel & Volkers acquisition, Nest Seekers is recruiting East End talent away from the Corcoran Group’s Southampton office. According to Crain’s, Joseph DeCristofaro, Corcoran’s East End rookie of the year in 2007, recently left the firm and is joining Nest Seekers as a managing partner to help run its new Southampton office. He’ll work alongside Amadeus Ehrhardt, who became a managing director at Nest Seekers during the Engel & Volkers merger. Ravi Gulivindala, vice president and managing director at Nest Seekers, said the firm is “attracting a lot of interest from talent in the area” but wouldn’t say how many hires he plans to make during the expansion. [more]