From left: Garret Thelander and Paul Massey

Massey Knakal Realty Services has tapped Anglo Irish Bank executive Garrett Thelander, who helped open the New York office of the troubled lender and grow its staff to 35, to lead its new mortgage division, it was expected to be announced today.

Thelander, 55, is once again charged with starting a new office, this time as a managing director for Massey Knakal, to hire brokers and develop the new arm, Paul Massey, company CEO, told The Real Deal.

The hiring of the bank executive comes two weeks after Massey Knakal launched a retail brokerage division, bringing in long-time retail agent Benjamin Fox for that job. At the same time, the firm has had significant defections, including a top producer for the firm, Shimon Shkury, who left with his team to open the new firm Ariel Property Advisors. [more]

From left: Landon McGaw and Kobi Leifer

And then there was one.

The New Jersey office for investment sales firm Massey Knakal Realty Services is down to one salesperson from a peak of five following today’s resignation of the region’s managing director.

The news comes a day before Massey Knakal is set to announce that for the first time it has hired a retail leasing broker, and one week after one of the firm’s top producers, Shimon Shkury, departed with his entire team to form Ariel Property Advisors. In related news, two sources said Massey Knakal has hired a new retail leasing broker focusing on Manhattan. Company CEO Paul Massey would not comment on the new hire or identify the individual. [more]

From left: Shimon Shkury, Victor Sozio, Mike Tortorici and Ivan Petrovic

Massey Knakal Realty Services partner Shimon Shkury left the firm today with his entire team of junior brokers and support staff to start a new sales company named Ariel Property Advisors, Shkury told The Real Deal. The new 12-person firm, based in Midtown, has five brokers, including Shkury and former Massey Knakal agents Victor Sozio, Michael Tortorici, Christopher Lefferts and Ivan Petrovic. There are seven people on the support staff. “We left this morning and we started it today,” Shkury said. With investment sales growing this year, Shkury, 39, said it was a good time to launch a new venture. “It is a time of opportunity,” he said. [more]

The Riverton Houses and Larry Gluck

The new owners of the rent-stabilized Riverton Houses in Harlem that sold at auction yesterday will have to pay a hefty transfer tax of just under $4 million after they take title to the property in the next couple of days, real estate experts said. Financial firm CWCapital Asset Management, the special servicer for the loan on the 1,228-unit complex between 135th and 138th streets and Fifth Avenue and Harlem River Drive, won the property at an auction yesterday with a bid of $125 million. Since it was representing the commercial mortgage trust that held the Riverton loan, it effectively put the foreclosed property back into the hands of the lender. Tom Fink, senior vice president of Trepp, which tracks mortgage-based securities, estimated the tax liability to be $3.8 million. [more]

Pacific Housing Advisors, an affordable housing consultancy firm, has purchased a nine-building affordable housing development in East Harlem, known as Met Paca I and Met Paca II, for $26.9 million. The sale was the largest recorded in Upper Manhattan in 2009, according to Massey Knakal Realty Services partner Shimon Shkury, who represented the seller, Security Properties. The 229-unit housing complex will operate under a Section 8 rent subsidy. The properties encompass a several addresses, including a series on East 118th Street, East 119th Street, East 122nd Street, and Lexington Avenue. Earlier in the year, the Massey Knakal Northern Manhattan team also closed on a property at 1428 Fifth Avenue for $21.95 million. TRD

From the January issue: While the pipeline for condos has slowed to a near-stop, there are a
few daring developers out there picking up land and buildings in this
tough market. But those who are making purchases and starting up projects now are
doing so with revised cost projections — faced with the reality that
expenses must be contained in a weak sales market. The Related Companies, for example, restarted construction in the
fall on a long-delayed skyscraper at 440 West 42nd Street, which
includes a Frank Gehry-designed theater, a hotel and 800 apartments –
a mix of market-rate rentals, affordable units and condos. The deal was made possible with the help of $25 million from the
city for the theater and a citywide agreement between developers and
more than 40 labor unions to trim construction costs up to 20 percent.
The project had been on hold for months amid the downturn and limited
financing.

From left: 1428 Fifth Avenue and a rendering of a proposed development on the vacant site.

Affordable housing builder L & M Development Partners and a city housing fund closed on Harlem’s highest priced asset purchase so far this year, according to Massey Knakal Realty Services, paying $21.925 million for an apartment building and an adjacent vacant parcel. The next two biggest deals this year traded for $12.5 million each — 169-75 East 101st Street and 604 West 131st Street, records from Massey Knakal, which represented the seller, Manhattan-based developer Metrovest Equities, show. L & M Development and the city’s Partnership Housing Development Fund closed on the 120-unit, six-story elevator building at 1428 Fifth Avenue as well as the neighboring development site, both between 116th and 117th streets, on September 26, city property records published Monday say. Despite being a top price for the year in the market, it was less than half the $58 million Metrovest wanted for the site in 2008. [more]