From left: Raphael De Niro and his father, Robert De Niro

It’s been only six years since Raphael De Niro got his broker’s license, and he’s already got $600 million worth of property sales and a roster of high-profile clients under his belt. This weekend, the precocious celebrity spawn added a profile in the New York Times to his tally of coveted real estate prizes. But for the son of an Academy Award-winning actor, critics are quick to raise the question of nepotism: how much of Raphael’s success comes from the doors his father, Robert, has helped open for him? [more]

The 76th-floor Time Warner Center penthouse that Jay-Z once rented for $40,000 per month is back on the market for $38 million with Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Raphel and Claudine De Niro. That’s $11 million more than what it sold for in 2007, when Todd Wagner, the dot-com era business partner of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, purchased the four-bedroom, five-and-a-half-bathroom apartment for $27 million, or $5,596 per square foot, from telecom entrepreneur and real estate investor Michael Hirtenstein. Hirtenstein had bought it for $15.7 million but later had second thoughts about moving his 10-year-old daughter into the place. He rented the penthouse to Jay-Z instead before selling it to Wagner in what was, at the time, the highest price-per-square-foot ever paid for a Manhattan condo. [Curbed] 

From left to right: Justin Elghanayan, Jed Walentas, Andrew Sciame, Samantha Rudin, Raphael De Niro and Benjamin Levine

From the January issue: Signs of improvement appeared at the end of the year, but 2009 will be remembered for its epic real estate downturn. In response to the maelstrom of hard times, many longtime industry veterans took the opportunity to scale back their activities rather than tackling what promise to be several more difficult years. For example, Brown Harris Stevens announced plans to take over the 28-year-old Upper East Side boutique firm started by Edward Lee Cave, a fixture of the high-end brokerage scene. And Douglas Durst stepped down as co-president of the Durst Organization, after describing his day-to-day duties as “exhausting.” (He’ll remain chairman). But as some industry leaders recede, new opportunities are being created for young players, new ideas, new buyers and innovative business models. This month, The Real Deal looked at the next generation of New York City real estate, from the people poised to reshape the industry to the strategies that will help them do it. We looked at how the offspring of some of the city’s most established real estate families — including Ivanka Trump, Jed Walentas, Justin Elghanayan and Jamie and Harrison LeFrak — are handling the downturn. Because many old real estate families were conservative during the boom and avoided overleveraging, observers say their sons and daughters are uniquely positioned to profit from distressed opportunities.  More

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From left: Vishaan Chakrabarti, Helena Durst and Jared Seligman

As a new decade arrives, so does the latest crop of boat-rockers, according to the Observer, which released its list of “insurgents” yesterday. The list contains the 50-plus “punks who will make this city hum again,” the Observer said, including several real estate bigwigs. Helena Durst, assistant vice president for the Durst Organization, Prudential Douglas Elliman’s 23-year-old whiz kid Jared Seligman, Veronica Mainetti, head of investment management firm Sorgente Group’s U.S. activities; Vishaan Chakrabarti, director of the real estate development program at Columbia University as well as president of the Moynihan Station venture; and Jonathan Butler, the Brooklyn real estate blogger who founded Brownstoner, were among the real estate players named on the list. “The ‘insurgents’ may not know it yet, but they’re about to remake this town in ways many of us can’t even fathom,” the Observer editors wrote. “Meet the people who are going to make the [next decade] worth watching.” Other listees include Jonathan Gray, senior managing director of the Blackstone Group, and Andrew Ross Sorkin, reporter and author of “Too Big to Fail.” [NYO]

Condo-hotels, like the Plaza Hotel at 768 Fifth Avenue, and the new Trump Soho at 246 Spring Street, may soon become a thing of the past. The buildings allow condo buyers to access hotel services and restrict their occupancy so that units can be rented out while they are away. But they are now proving difficult to sell — not because of a lack of interest but because of a lack of financing. “There is no financing for condo-hotels, so people have to buy in cash,” said Rodrigo Niño, president of the Prodigy Network, which is marketing Trump Soho. “What we think is, out of the original sales, we’re going to lose 10 to 15 percent of the people who won’t be able to close because of lack of financing.” After their planned 205-unit Nobu Hotel and Residences fell through, Raphael and father Robert De Niro are now planning a new condo-hotel in Miami’s South Beach, but the model is slightly different: Buyers’ occupancy will not be restricted and the units will not be rented out part-time. Condo-hotels using the Trump Soho’s model “are proving to not be successful,” said Raphael De Niro, managing director at Prudential Douglas Elliman. At the Fannie Mae-approved 75 Wall Street, hotel services are being sold to buyers à la carte. “Fannie Mae will not approve a condo-hotel under their guidelines,” said Larry Kruysman of Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, who is directing sales at 75 Wall Street. [NYT]

A new baby isn’t the only big change in the Bundchen-Brady family. Supermodel Gisele Bundchen has sold her five-story West Village townhouse, according to the New York Post. The famed Victoria’s Secret star bought the spot for $5.8 million in 2005. Although it’s unclear who the buyer is, the Post’s Jennifer Gould Keil reported that the spot sold for $13 million, just $900,000 down from the asking price, to an “out-of-state financier.”

From left: Michael Bloomberg and William Thompson

A camera lens analogy might help voters understand where Michael Bloomberg and William Thompson, who are New York’s main mayoral candidates, stand on key real estate issues ahead of tomorrow’s election. Bloomberg, the Republican incumbent, seems to favor a wide-angle approach, as his sweeping rezoning of a fifth of the city, or 8,400 blocks over eight years in office, would indicate. Focused on creating denser, more transit-oriented development, according to his PlaNYC, which was unveiled in 2007, the city has famously paved the way for homes to be built into once-industrial swaths of land, notably along the Williamsburg waterfront in Brooklyn. [more]

Contrary to expectations that prices would be cut significantly after
Labor Day, sellers of some of the city’s most expensive properties have
not deeply slashed their prices. Raphael De Niro just listed
philanthropist Ephraim Gildor’s Park Laurel duplex for $28 million,
only $3 million less than its previous asking price in early 2008. De
Niro said sellers are not desperate enough to make significant price
cuts. Lois and Georges de Menil’s townhouse at 120 East 70th Street is
also on the market for $28 million, down from $33 million. Brown Harris
Stevens’ Paula Del Nunzio, who is listing that townhouse, said sellers
often keep their prices high because they are aware that buyers want to
bargain — but some sellers are also just unrealistic. [more]

The Real Deal has ranked the top listing agents of the week based on the highest priced residential deals filed with the city.

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