From left: Luis Ortiz, Ryan Serhant and Fredrik Eklund

Luis D. Ortiz, who recently joined Keller Williams NYC after 18 months at Synergy NYC, is the newest addition to the cast of “Million Dollar Listing New York,” sources said. The real estate-themed Bravo show catapulted Elliman brokers Fredrik Eklund and Michael Lorber and Nestseekers’ Ryan Serhant to fame last year.

Sources spotted Ortiz filming early scenes for season two of the hit show on Wall Street. It was not immediately clear if he is the only new broker joining the show. [more]

From left: Katie Holmes, Ryan Serhant and the Chelsea Mercantile

The Chelsea apartment building where Katie Holmes is staying, in the wake of filing for divorce from Tom Cruise, is benefiting from all the attention it’s getting. One broker says that interest in his listing, at the Chelsea Mercantile, is five times what it was prior to the media frenzy taking hold.

“We went from showing once or twice a week to five showings today, four on Thursday and seven on Friday so far,” said Ryan Serhant of Nestseekers, who is listing a $22.5 million apartment at the building with his colleague Regis Roumila. “We may even have an open house this weekend, just to handle the traffic.” [more]

From the June issue:

From left: Ryan Serhant, Fredrik Eklund and Michael Lorber (click image to see video)

Bravo’s new reality TV show, “Million Dollar Listing New York,” was recently picked up for a second season. The Real Deal’s Candace Taylor and Lauren Elkies sat down with the three Manhattan real estate brokers who star on the show — Ryan Serhant of NestSeekers and Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Fredrik Eklund and Michael Lorber — to find out how TV stardom has impacted their lives and careers. … [more]

NestSeekers' Ryan Serhant and the office at 156 Reade Street

Riding on the recent success of “Million Dollar Listing New York,” TV star and NestSeekers International broker Ryan Serhant has been tapped by his firm to head its newest office at 156 Reade Street in Tribeca, he told The Real Deal yesterday.

The 2,000-square-foot Tribeca storefront, NestSeekers’ 10th, will house 40 agents over two floors, Serhant said. The official Serhant team, which currently includes seven NestSeekers employees and is housed at 415 Madison Avenue, is slated to expand to 17 to occupy the space in the coming months, he said. The executive vice president is aggressively recruiting outside the firm. Other NestSeekers agents will relocate from other office to fill the remainder of the space. [more]

From left: Ryan Serhant, senior vice president of NestSeekers, and the exterior and interior of the freestanding mansion at 2134 Ocean Parkway (credit: Rich Caplan)

A 9,200-square-foot single-family Brooklyn home at 2134 Ocean Parkway has come on the market today, making it the largest freestanding residence currently for sale in the borough. The property, which has been owned by the same family since 1992, has an asking price of $14 million, $4 million more than Brooklyn’s second most expensive independent residence, a renovated townhouse at 36 Garden Place in Brooklyn Heights, which is asking $10 million. [more]

Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes of Prudential Douglas Elliman (credit: Richard Caplan)

Fredrik Eklund, managing director at Prudential Douglas Elliman and newly anointed star of Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing New York” has been getting 2,000 hits a day on his Elliman agent’s page since the show hit the airwaves last month, up from 100 views a day prior to the show, he told The Real Deal today. Traffic on each of his listings, open house foot traffic and telephone call volume is also up substantially, he said, thanks to the publicity the show has garnered for Eklund and John Gomes’ team, founded in 2010. (While Gomes was on “Selling New York” with Eklund, he bowed out of participating in the Bravo show.) [more]

From left: Designer Christopher Highland, his Chelsea apartment and Nestseekers' Ryan Serhant and Regis Roumila

[Updated at 9:00 p.m. with a comment from Bravo] A 4,000-square-foot apartment in Chelsea owned by Manhattan interior designer Christopher Hyland, has been relisted after 18 months off the market, but the textile guru’s not too keen on selling it, he told The Real Deal today.

The 12th-floor loft unit, which first came on the market for $22.45 million in 2010 and was featured on “Selling New York” with Core broker Michael Graves and agent Kirk Rundhaug, was listed again yesterday for the same price with “Million Dollar Listing New York” star Ryan Serhant and Regis Roumila, both of Nestseekers, but is for sale only because “everyone wants to do TV shows about it,” Hyland said. [more]

Ryan Serhant and Fredrik Eklund (right) face-off in Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing New YorkMillion Dollar Listing is coming to New York City, and Bravo released the first trailer of the premier season, which documents Ryan Serhant of Nest Seekers and Fredrik Eklund and Michael Lorber of Prudential Douglas Elliman angling to close multi-million dollar deals (watch the trailer after the jump). … [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]