From left: Elliman’s Fredrik Eklund and Raphael De Niro, Prodigy Network’s Rodrigo Nino and Trump Soho

After months of speculation, Prudential Douglas Elliman officially got in on the marketing act at Trump Soho, according to Real Estate Weekly. The Real Deal previously reported the hotel-condominium’s developers and lenders were considering replacing the current Prodigy Network-led team with Elliman brokers. According to Real Estate Weekly, Elliman’s Raphael De Niro and Fredrik Eklund will “spearhead” the domestic sales effort for the unaccounted for apartments in the 346-unit tower, while keeping Prodigy in tow. According to Prodigy President Rodrigo Nino, 21 units have entered contract and 19 units have closed since the team unveiled lower prices in the Sapir Organization and Bayrock Group-developed building in late February. [more]

Bond New York has launched a Chinese-language section on its website in an effort to attract Asian investors and buyers, Crain’s reported. It is also embarking on a Web marketing campaign to identify the brokerage and the wider New York market to Chinese-speaking buyers overseas.
Bond is not the first brokerage to target foreign buyers. Marketing firm Prodigy Network allows visitors to switch its website to Spanish from English. The Corcoran Group’s site lets clients search for agents who speak a total of 29 foreign languages and Halstead, meanwhile, lists speakers of 19 languages. [more]

Trump Soho and Prodigy Network’s Rodrigo Nino, who is heading up sales at the building

The developers of the Trump Soho hotel-condominium at 246 Spring Street are relaunching sales at the controversy-prone property, with units listed at an average of 21 percent below their original asking prices, according to Crain’s. Having recently reached a deal to restructure their $275 million loan at the project, Bayrock Group and the Sapir Organization are hoping that bargain buyers will emerge from the sidelines to take advantage of their new pricing schedule. As of last week, 279 of Trump Soho’s 391 units were still unsold. Since the project launched in 2007, only 45 units have closed for a total of around $55 million, while another 67 are in contract. [more]

William Beaver House and Andre Balazs
Another iStar-backed Sapir Organization project is getting a shot in the arm from Los Angeles-based CIM Group. According to the Post, CIM has purchased the $60 million face-value loan on 209 unsold condominiums at the Financial District’s William Beaver House for an undisclosed price. It’s unclear whether iStar will maintain a stake in the project, designed by Andre Balazs at 15 William Street. Last week, CIM helped Sapir and partner Bayrock Group pay down iStar’s debt on their Trump Soho condominium-hotel. [Post] [more]

 

Less than a week after Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Bracha Group ousted Prodigy Network as the sales team at Cassa NY Hotel and Residences, the

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As developers in places like New York and Miami look for ways to sell off condo inventory, some are turning to guaranteed income assets, also called master leases. Broker Rodrigo Nino, founder of Prodigy Network, has started using these leases, in which the developer leases out or promises to lease a condo, puts up to three years worth of rent in an escrow account, and then sells the property to an investor, who is guaranteed rental income at least until the money in the escrow account runs out. Nino is using this method to sell units in William Beaver House, at 15 William Street at Beaver Street. [more]

Battery Park City’s Visionaire receives Platinum LEED certification: The
Visionaire, the Albanese Organization’s latest green residential
development in Battery Park City, has received Platinum LEED
certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, making it the only
LEED Platinum condominium on the East Coast. The 35-story, 247-unit
building was designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and construction
was completed last fall. It features a rooftop garden that harvests
rainwater for irrigation of the garden, a central heating and cooling
system powered by natural gas, and solar panels which harvest a portion
of the building’s electric output. TRD [more]