Coming off of a dismal year in real estate, Prudential Douglas Elliman’s business has tripled in 2010, Dottie Herman, president and CEO of the brokerage, told the New York Times. Elliman, which just opened an office in Williamsburg, is planning to open another in New Jersey to service its growing number of projects there, like the Residences at Liberty National. Meanwhile, the brokerage’s long-awaited, million-dollar website, currently online in beta form, is slated to be “up and running” the week after Labor Day, Herman said. “I wouldn’t want to say we’re in a sellers’ market, but people feel we’ve hit bottom. We’re getting close to where it’s pretty neutral,” she added. [NYT]

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Michael Imperioli and 138 West Broadway

The four-bedroom Tribeca townhouse that belongs to ‘Sopranos’ star Michael Imperioli
is on the market for $6.995 million, according to the Post. The
cast-iron, four-story home, at 138 West Broadway between Thomas and
Duane streets, has retail space on the ground floor and basement, which
is currently occupied by custom linens shop Stella. The residential
space is located on floors two through four. Built in 1872, the
4,720-square-foot property is decorated in a gothic and red motif and
has high ceilings and a roof deck. Brokers Raphael and Claudine DeNiro,
Maggie Leigh and Sara Dai of Prudential Douglas Elliman are marketing
the building. [Post]

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Ali Jafri, one of the top-producing brokers of the Bracha Group at Prudential Douglas Elliman, is leaving the 15-person group after three years and will likely start his own team, he told the Wall Street Journal. While Jafri, 30, will remain at Elliman, whether he will keep his listings is “still under negotiation,” he said.
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Agnes Nolan, the veteran luxury real estate broker who once ran brokerage Whitbred-Nolan, has listed her own slice of high-end New York real estate for $13.9 million. Nolan, who employed Elizabeth Stribling for 14 years before she broke off to start Stribling & Associates 30 years ago, has lived in the penthouse duplex at 271 Central Park West since 1964. The five-bedroom, five-and-a-half-bathroom home contains 4,000 square feet, a wraparound terrace and views of Central Park. Powerbroker Dolly Lenz of Prudential Douglas Elliman has the listing. [Post, 4th item]

At left: Gaia managing partners Amir Yerushalmi and Danny Friedman and Park River Properties’ Lenny Sporn and Mickey Roth at their new office opening. At right: Lenny Sporn with Rabbi Yishayahu Yosef Pinto at the office.

It’s been less than three months since Prudential Douglas Elliman powerbrokers Mickey Roth and Lenny Sporn departed the firm to start their own venture, but the Roth-Sporn brand appears to be holding strong, even under their new company name, Park River Properties.

The freshly-minted firm, which organizes foreign buyers into purchase groups for bulk deals in new development condominiums in New York City, is planning a slew of international outposts for its forthcoming expansion. In addition to the existing Park River office in Tel Aviv, Israel, a branch is coming to Rome next month, Sporn said. He is hoping to open a total of five new overseas offices over the course of the year, and is eyeing Japan and India for two of them.

Park River, which launched in December as part of one-year-old Gaia Real Estate, a distressed investment firm, also moved into a permanent U.S. headquarters this week with Gaia and Gaia’s latest acquisition, Vision Property Management, at the Carnegie Hall Tower at 152 West 57th Street. Park River currently employs 15 agents in New York and also has plans to open two more Manhattan branches over the next six months. [more]