Paolo Zampolli is using a unique strategy to entice foreign clients to
purchase property: the Italian broker and founder of ID Model Management takes them apartment hunting

around Manhattan on his $800,000 boat, according to the New York Post.
“This is a way to give them a real feel of New York and the skyline
and where they want to be,” Zampolli said. From the boat, clients
point out the buildings they like. Then, Zampolli arranges a tour of
apartments for sale in those buildings. Since the boat tours began a
couple of weeks ago, Zampolli said he has already sold a $3.6 million
apartment in architect Jean Nouvel’s new building at 100 11th Avenue on

the West Side. While some brokers take clients on boat tours of
oceanfront mansions in Florida, he says the sales tactic is new for Manhattan.

So far, designer Roberto Cavalli has been on board. [Post]

[more]

Serena Boardman (Photo credit: Patrick McMullan)

From the December issue: It’s 2005, and golden-haired socialite
Serena Boardman is sunning herself on a yacht near the coast of
Sardinia in Italy. Nearby, her friend Dori Cooperman — now best known
for befriending actress Lindsay Lohan in rehab — is on the phone with
a reporter from W Magazine, chronicling the addictive qualities of
photo Web site PatrickMcMullan.com. Boardman interjects with her
opinion of the site, which documents the social lives of New York
City’s glitterati. “Tell him it captures a moment,” she shouts. Until
recently, the scene was typical for the 39-year-old Boardman, the
jet-setting heiress to a banking fortune whose stepmother is a European
princess. Along with society pals like Alexandra von Fürstenberg and Blaine Trump, Boardman spent her 20s being photographed in couture gowns at galas and benefits all over New York and Palm Beach, often with her equally glamorous sister, Samantha. Magazines chronicled her taste in clothes (Roberto Cavalli ruffled cocktail dresses) and jewelry (Verdura). She held jobs at the Web site Luxuryfinder.com and in the jewelry department at Sotheby’s. But to the media they were a postscript to Boardman’s glamorous social life. So it comes as a surprise to those who know Boardman that only a few years later, she’s morphed into one of the most successful real estate brokers in the business. [more]