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]

Even as luxury condominiums flood southern Tribeca, the portion of the
once-gritty neighborhood north of Moore Street is outpacing the
neighborhood’s southern portion in terms of real estate prices, reported
the Wall Street Journal. The median price of a condo in northern Tribeca is $3.3 million, or
$1,472 per square foot, according to data from Streeteasy.com. In
southern Tribeca the median price is only $2.8 million. The Tribeca
allure lies in the lack of tourist foot traffic and a quiet,
undiscovered feeling that suits young families, the Journal said. [more]

Soho and Tribeca were the most expensive New York City neighborhoods in the second quarter of 2011, but Dumbo was a surprising fourth entry on the top 10 list, according to PropertyShark.com. Dumbo was ahead of many other Manhattan neighborhoods such as the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side, the West Village and Chelsea, with a median sale price of $1.075 million. That price increased 9 percent from the median sales price in the second quarter of 2010, which was $990,000. Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill was also on the list at number 10, with a median sales price of $801,000. Soho was tops at $2.147 million, a 26 percent increase over its 2010 second-quarter price of $1.7 million.
— Miranda Neubauer [more]

Justin Timberlake and the Tribeca condo

Justin Timberlake has closed on the sale of his three-bedroom Pearline Soap Factory condominium for $4.7 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The pop singer and actor took a small loss on the deal, as the sale price was slightly below what he paid for the apartment, at 414 Washington Street, in 2008. It was also more than 10 percent below the original, $5.25 million asking price for the fifth-floor spread. [more]

Michael Imperioli and 138 W. Broadway

‘Sopranos’ actor Michael Imperioli and his wife, Victoria, have relisted their renovated 4,720-square-foot mixed-use property in Tribeca for almost $7 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The income-generating building at 138 West Broadway houses Imperioli’s office, a four-bedroom home and retail space on the ground floor. The couple purchased the property in 1998 for $750,000.

As previously reported, the property was originally listed in January 2010 for $7.5 million by Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Raphael and Claudine DeNiro, Maggie Leigh and Sara Dai and then the price was reduced in April to $6.995 million, according to data from Streeteasy.com. The building was then taken off the market in January 2011 and relisted with Malcolm Beadling Sotheby’s Interational Realty in May. [more]

Former French Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been bouncing around residences since he was first released from Rikers Island on $1 million bail. Now it seems he’s finally settled in a 3-story, 6,800-square-foot palace at 153 Franklin Street, between Varick and Hudson streets, in Tribeca. Kahn moved into the $14 million home last night and enjoyed $200 steaks from Tribeca eatery Landmarc with his wife, journalist Anne Sinclair, according to the New York Daily News.

The 27-foot-wide townhouse, which recently drew the attention of Alex Rodriguez and Cameron Diaz, was once the site of a firehouse and is on the market for $13.9 million. It was also listed for rent for $50,000 a month. It boasts a spa, private theater, rainfall steam showers and a wet bar. [more]

Reade57From the April issue: In a city defined by soaring skyscrapers, a 20-story condominium is hardly considered a towering giant. But in Tribeca, a neighborhood marked by low-rise buildings and sprawling lofts, the New Modernist, glass-construction Reade57, a high-rise with smaller-scale apartments, will stand apart as a residential alternative in the area. At least that’s what its developers, the John Buck Company, are hoping. The Chicago-based firm, the builders behind the swanky Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District, plans to launch sales at the 84-unit condo in the middle of next month, with Brown Harris Stevens Select serving as the exclusive marketing agent. [more]

The West Village’s 10014 placed fifth on Forbes’ annual list of America’s most expensive zip codes based on home prices, down from third place last year, with a median of $3.8 million. The Upper East Side’s 10065 came in at number seven, with a median home price of $3.7 million. Soho’s 10012 ranked in the top 10 this year, coming in at number 9, moving up from 18th place last year, with the median home price rising 22 percent to $3.2 million. Last year’s most expensive zip code, 07620 in Alpine, N.J, dropped to fourth place as the median home price there fell 8 percent to $3.8 million. [Forbes]

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From the April issue: There are still plenty of unsold new construction condos in New York City, especially in areas like Midtown, the Financial District and Williamsburg. But brokers say that months of busy sales activity (combined with some sellers taking their units off the market) is creating a shortage of inventory in some hot spots. Indeed, Miller Samuel’s fourth-quarter market report found that Manhattan inventory was down 18 percent from the previous quarter and almost 25 percent over the fourth quarter of 2008. In some neighborhoods, buyers are increasingly frustrated because they can’t find the type of apartment — often resale condos or prewar co-ops — they want. As a result, the competition for those apartments, when they do come on the market, can make the downturn seem like a distant memory. This month, The Real Deal asked brokers to identify the types of Manhattan apartments facing the worst shortages. [more]

A 16-unit luxury co-op building at 34 Leonard Street in Tribeca is hitting the auction block May 5, according to Crain’s, a year after developer R Squared defaulted on its $37.5 million mortgage and saw lender iStar Financial foreclose on the property. Although the property’s conversion to co-op was considered a success, the developers’ timing was off, placing the units on the market in fall 2007, just a short while before the recession hit. The R Squared development team has yet to comment on the auction proceedings.