The Real Deal New York

Meatpacking District and West Chelsea are the unlikely homes of fresh commercial development Boutique offices sprout in Chelsea” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

Migration to the borough has largely peaked, study finds — just don’t tell brokers Brooklyn hot? Not so fast.” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

Smaller neighborhoods provide brokers best chances for sales Where it (really) pays to broker” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

High art and higher prices for new project 40 Bond in Noho Schrager’s graffiti-glam at $3,000 a square foot” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

Rents on the rise; Montague and Fulton streets, Bay Ridge lead pack [more]

Absorption largely positive the last 12 months, but vacancy rates tick upward in January [more]

Union Square readies for Trader Joe’s amid rising status as Manhattan’s foodie hot spot [more]

Consolo hopes to move burgeoning Queens district beyond bodega shopping, but skeptics question $50-a [more]

It’s a good time to be in hotels — so long as you’re not trying to book a room on short notice. Divining the future for what’s now a red-hot New York hotel industry” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

New York’s pop-up shops offer commercial brokers maximum visibility, but minimal profits Now you shop it, now you don’t” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

The Real Deal profile: Lance Korman, commercial real estate broker to rap’s leading lights, treads h Not too hip, but hip to hip-hop moguls’ needs” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

Larry Silverstein explains why Ground Zero is ready for five new office towers and why he plans to build them no matter what the mayor says
[more]

Large retailers like Home Depot targeting small-business enclave; less expensive store rents than rest of Manhattan
[more]

Extell selling Midtown West apartment building
The 25-story Encore rental at 301 West 53rd Street, which Extell Development bought at the end of July 2004 for $131 million, is on the market again. Extell had teamed up with Westbrook Partners to convert the building, but is selling it instead, according to the New York Post. Of the 264 apartments, only 22 are now subject to rent regulation. Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan of CB Richard Ellis are marketing the building, which is expected to fetch around $600 for each of its 225,000 square feet, or $135 million.

23 Wall Street could become high-end hotel
A high-end boutique hotel could rise at 23 Wall Street. Currently owned by Shaya Boymelgreen, who bought the property along with 15 Broad Street for $100 million in 2003, 23 Wall Street could sell for about $115 million, market observers say, and would-be buyers now include hotel developers, according to the Slatin Report.

Tribeca building could turn into hotel
Bids were due last month for the development rights for an eight-story building at 443 Greenwich Street. Several hotel developers were supposedly ready to put down more than $100 million to turn the Tribeca building into a high-end hotel, the Post reported.

Bids due for Technicolor Building
Bids were due in January for the 207,000-square-foot Technicolor Building at 321 West 44th Street, the Post reported. Owners Thor Equities and GVA Williams hope to fetch in the $70 million range. GVA is handling the sale offering. The building, home to jazz club Birdland, is known for show business office tenants that include Technicolor and Sean “P. Diddy” Combs’ recording studio.

Nonprofit selling townhouse
The Edwin Gould Foundation for Children has put its 23-room Greek Revival townhouse at 23 Gramercy Park South on the market for $16.9 million, according to New York magazine. Corcoran’s Erin Boisson Aries is the building’s listing agent. The nonprofit is headed to more modern offices in the Financial District.

Upper East Side apartment building on the block
The 19-unit apartment building at 7 East 75th Street is on the market for $14.75 million. The elevator building totals 17,010 square feet and can be converted to condos. Sharon Bands and Peter Von Der Ahe of Marcus & Millichap are marketing the property on behalf of the seller, a local private investor.

Mixed-use Greenwich Village building for sale
The mixed-use building at 52-54 West 13th Street is for sale at an asking price of $12 million. The site can support approximately 26,000 square feet of development. Tanya Khabay of Marcus & Millichap is representing the owner, an out-of-state investor.

Williamsburg development site on the block
Bids were due on Feb. 15 for four plots in North Williamsburg. Three of the lots — 391 Leonard Street, 59 Frost Street, and 65 Frost Street — are contiguous; the fourth is across the street at 79 Richardson Street. In total, the sites offer 133,596 square feet of developable land. The site will be delivered vacant to the new owner, who will have the ability to develop residential condos with retail components. Jeffrey Troy, Louis Ricci, and Anthony Finno of Eastern Consolidated are marketing the property.

Seasonal anticipation for a deal-making spring comes with question: how busy will it get? Remembrance of springs past” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

Lenders ask questions as signs of softening show in areas of borough late to the real estate boom [more]

New York brokerage community ignores Weblogs at its own peril, bloggers say For real estate blogs, it’s still about location” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

Where New York firms advertise internationally to draw foreign money to higher-end projects; spendin Luring those pounds, euros, and yens to housing market” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

Brokers say riskier ARMs still popular in New York despite rate climb As mortgage rates slowly rise, buyers weigh fixed vs. adjustable” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

Bedford-Stuyvesant
277 Nostrand Avenue
The five-story brownstone is being converted into seven condominium units. The one-and two-bedroom apartments will range in size from 637 to 710 square feet and start at $244,000. Abraham Hertzberg designed the project. The building is slated for occupancy in spring 2006. The Developers Group is the exclusive sales agent. Contact: www.thedevelopersgroup.com.

Boerum Hill
52 Dean Street
Recal Associates has broken ground on the five-story, 23-unit condominium. The building will include one-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging from 800 to 2,600 square feet. Fifth-floor units will be sold as penthouses and each will have a terrace garden. One townhouse-style triplex unit will feature a private garden.

Chelsea
Remy
101 West 28th Street
Excavation work began recently for a new residential tower. The Costas Kondylis-designed project is expected to be 32 stories high and contain one- and two-bedroom apartments, some full-floor apartments, a duplex unit, and a penthouse with terraces, Curbed.com reported.

Chelsea
261 West 28th Street
An 11-story, 53-unit condominium tower will go up at the site, replacing three vacant buildings. Sonnenblick-Goldman arranged $55 million in acquisition and development financing for the developer. The project will total 80,000 square feet. Core Group Marketing is the exclusive marketing and sales agent.

Fort Greene
Cumberland Greene
237 Cumberland Street
The four-story condominium will offer four three-bedroom units ranging from 1,800 square feet to 2,200 square feet for the duplex penthouse, the New York Post reported. Amenities include a landscaped garden and a waterfall, while a pool and fitness center will be available in the basement. Prices are expected to start at $1.5 million. The developers are two local artists who live next-door to the building. Brooklyn Properties is marketing the project. Contact: www.brooklynproperties.com.

Greenpoint
The Kingsland Condos
240 Kingsland Avenue
Developers Sal Gargano and Fred Rufrano are converting the 1930s brick rowhouse into six condominiums, with prices from $469,000 to $615,000. Two of the units will be two-bedrooms with more than 600 square feet; two will be three-bedrooms just under 1,000 square feet; and two will be duplexes with private backyard lawns. PJM Architects designed the project. David Maundrell of aptsandlofts.com is the sales agent.

Greenpoint
Luxe 226
226 Richardson Street
Sales are under way at the 10-unit condominium designed by Andres Escobar. The five-story building houses one-bedroom lofts and two-bedroom duplexes ranging in size from 1,393 to 2,219 square feet. Prices start at $775,000. Occupancy is scheduled for late 2006. The Developers Group is the exclusive sales and marketing agent. Contact: www.thedevelopersgroup.com.

Harlem
The Marshall
222 West 135th Street
The Griffin Real Estate Group is partnering with Dabar Development Partners to build a 10-unit brownstone condominium. The units will include one- and two-bedrooms, as well as penthouse duplexes with gardens. Occupancy is slated for April 2006. Contact: www.themarshallcondos.com.

Lower East Side
108 Delancey Street
Acacia Development is converting the rental into five two-bedroom condominiums and a duplex penthouse. The seven-story project, designed by Meltzer/Mandl Architects, will also have retail space on the ground floor.

Lower Manhattan
The Cocoa Exchange
1 Wall Street Court
The building, which bears a strong resemblance to the Flatiron Building, was the site of the New York Cocoa Exchange from 1931 to 1972. Design firm McCartan worked on the 126-unit boutique conversion, where studios will be as small as 340 square feet, while three-bedrooms will top out at 1,374 square feet. Prices are expected to be around $800,000 to $1.7 million for one- and two-bedrooms, while the studios are expected to sell in the $300,000 range, the Post reported. Occupancy is slated for spring 2006. Contact: www.cocoany.com.

Lower Manhattan
Greenwich Club
88 Greenwich Street
Buttonwood Real Estate’s conversion of the 37-story Art Deco building will create 458 condo units. Studios, one- and two-bedrooms will be available, ranging from 500 to 1,350 square feet. Prices are expected to be around $1,100 a square foot, the Post reported. Contact: www.buttonwoodrealestate.com.

Midtown
150 West 57th Street
A condominium tower designed by Costas Kondylis is planned on top of the famed Russian Tea Room, which closed in 2002. The restaurant’s owner, RTR Funding Group, has received city approval to build a tower up to 29 stories, according to the Post.

Midtown East
The Capri
235 East 55th Street
Arun Bhatia Development has completed the 40 units that comprise the Costas Kondylis-designed condominium. The one- to three-bedroom units begin on the 33rd floor of the building and offer Central Park and East River views. Residences, available for immediate occupancy, range in size from 651 to 1,930 square feet. Prices run from $855,000 to $3.4 million. The Marketing Directors is the exclusive sales and marketing agent. Contact: 212-980-8555, www.thecaprinyc.com.

Midtown East
440 Park Avenue
The Macklowe Organization will demolish the 80-year-old Drake Swissotel to make room for a luxury condominium complex, with the possibility of commercial and retail space on the lower floors. The site has air rights for a building of nearly 70 floors, according to the Post.

Midtown East
The Veneto
Southwest corner of Second Avenue and 53rd Street
The Related Companies’ new condominium will have 137 one-, two- and three-bedroom units, the Post reported. Davis Brody Bond is the architect; Adam Tihany will design the interiors. No prices have been determined.

Park Slope
Highpoint Condominiums
560 Seventh Avenue
Sales are under way at the six-story, 11-unit condominium. Most units are two-bedrooms with outside balconies. The first-floor unit is a one-bedroom unit. Building amenities include a common roof deck with city and harbor views and six parking spaces. Contact: Brooklyn Properties, 718-857-2525 x41, www.highpointcondos.net.

The Rockaways
Arverne by the Sea
Benjamin Development Co. and the Beechwood Organization are building 2,300 units of mixed-income housing and 250,000 square feet of commercial and retail space. The project is slated to be completed in 2009, Crain’s reported. The city is also considering a proposal for a second project, Arverne East, which would allow for 1,500 mixed-income units, 500,000 square feet of commercial development, and a 35-acre nature preserve.

Soho
21 Mercer Street
The building houses four units, all floor-through lofts with 10- to 14-foot ceilings. Two of the units are already in contract, but two apartments remain — both 3,021-square-foot three-bedrooms priced at $3.875 million. Occupancy is expected in July.

Tribeca
50-52 Laight Street
Developer Kengo Watanabe plans to transform the two parking garages into a six-story, 17,500-square-foot residential building with a two-story penthouse addition, according to the Downtown Express. Watanabe will need to secure the support of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to build in the historic district and secure a variance from the Board of Standards and Appeals to expand into the rear lot.

Williamsburg
The Edge
East River waterfront
Douglaston Development and UBS are slated to begin work in May 2006 on the mixed-use development. When completed, it will include 547 condominium units, 344 affordable rental apartments, underground parking for 600 cars, 63,500 square feet of retail space, and a waterfront esplanade, park, and piers. The Singer & Bassuk Organization was retained to arrange a $450 million construction loan.

Windsor Terrace
The Simone
35 McDonald Avenue
Brooklyn-based Basile Builders Group will open sales early this spring for the building’s 38 condominium units. Prices for the one- to three-bedroom loft-style apartments are expected to begin in the $500,000 range. Adam Naim and Sebastian Giuliano of Brooklyn-based Bricolage Designs designed the five-story building; NICHE Environmentally Smart Design Group is the interior designer. Contact: 718-630-1111, www. basilebuilders.com.

Construction Update

Bryant Park
485 Fifth Avenue
Belfonti Capital Partners began construction in January on the 104-unit condominium conversion. Fashion designer Peter Som designed the project. The residences will range in size from one to four bedrooms; the one penthouse will have 3,000 square feet of outdoor space.

Chelsea
Chelsea House
130 West 19th Street
The Clarett Group topped out the 14-story, 64-unit condominium in January. Contact: www.chelseahousecondo.com.

Greenwood Heights
614 Seventh Avenue
Developer Chaim Nussencweig wants to build the condominium up to 70 feet, but the project may be scaled back by a third because of new zoning in the area, the New York Daily News reported. Residents object to the project because it could block the view of the Statue of Liberty from the statue of Minerva in Green-Wood Cemetery.

Morningside Heights
Ariel West
Broadway between 99th and 100th streets
Construction is moving forward on the 32-story glass tower, despite continued opposition from some neighborhood residents, the New York Times reported. The building is part of a two-tower residential project — the other tower, a taller one, is across Broadway — being done by Extell Development Corporation. A supermarket that stood where the Ariel West is going collapsed during demolition in July, injuring 10 people.

Murray Hill
45 Park Avenue
Demolition began in January on the 146-room Sheraton Russell hotel, according to the New York Sun. The new owners are building a 15-story, 105-unit residential condominium.

Tribeca
Block bounded by West, Washington, Watts, and Desbrosses streets
The Jack Parker Corp.’s plan to build a major residential project got a big boost last month when the City Planning Commission voted in favor of reviewing a proposed zoning change. If enacted, the rezoning will allow Parker to build up to 300 apartments in a 260,000-squarefoot project that would also include a garage. The company has not yet decided whether to build rentals or condos. The project faces community opposition due to its height.

West Village
360 West 11th Street
The city’s Buildings Department in January lifted its stop-work order against artist Julian Schnabel’s nine-story condo addition to his studio, the New York Observer reported. Schnabel can now move forward with the addition. His plans had been originally halted by the Buildings Department because of the October vote by the City Council downzoning much of the neighborhood.

Woodside
53-03 Broadway
Pafos Realty is seeking to build a six-story rental building with 42 units, the New York Daily News reported. Local residents object to the size of the project; the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals will decide the outcome.

Financing

Hudson Heights
Castelli di Cabrini
205 Cabrini Boulevard
The three-unit Hudson Heights development that resembles a small castle is on hold as developers restructure the construction financing on the project, the Post reported. Only one home, a 2,000-square-foot duplex listed for $4.8 million, was on the market. There is no immediate time frame on when it will return to the market, according to Sidney Whelan, the Prudential Douglas Elliman agent who represents the apartment. Meanwhile, developers are still deciding how — and even if — they will market the two remaining apartments.

Jersey City
Trump Jersey City
Washington and Bay streets
Corus Bank has closed on a $171-million loan to an affiliate of Metro Homes, which is developing the project in partnership with Donald Trump. When completed, the complex will contain 462 units in two towers, which will be the tallest buildings in New Jersey, GlobeSt.com reported.

Sales Update

Bryant Park
Bryant Park Tower
100 West 39th Street
The 10-story condo atop the Residence Inn hotel has sold 80 percent of its 93 units.

Dumbo
70 Washington Street
The 259-unit condominium conversion by Two Trees Management is 60 percent sold.

Harlem
The Crown
2132 Second Avenue
The condo is 40 percent sold out since opening for sales last year, the Post reported.

Lower Manhattan
Cipriani Club Residences
55 Wall Street
Developer Steven Witkoff paid $500,000 to break his sales and marketing contract with the Corcoran Sunshine Group for the 106-unit building, the New York Times reported. On Feb. 1, Corcoran Sunshine’s agents were escorted from the building and replaced with marketing and sales people from Prudential Douglas Elliman — but not before Witkoff paid up. Contact: www.ciprianiresidences.com.

Midtown West
Atelier
627 West 42nd Street
The sales office opened in February at the 46-story condominium residence now under construction by the Moinian Group and MacFarlane Partners.

Upper West Side
Fifteen Central Park West
Sales surpassed the billion-dollar mark in January, according to the Post. Of the 202 units, more than 100 have been sold. Contact: www.15cpw.com.

Development in Brief

Manhattan (north to south)

23 East 128th Street
The Developers Group is marketing the new condo, called the Madison, according to the Post.

Upper East Side
Construction is slated to begin this year on two developments that could help transform the area around the intersection of 86th Street and Lexington Avenue, according to the New York Times. Extell Development Corporation plans a glassy L-shaped building between 85th and 86th streets that will contain about 150 condos and 20 rentals. And the Related Companies and its partners plan a condo development on Third Avenue and 86th Street with about 25,000 square feet of retail space.

101 West 24th Street
Later this year, a joint venture of LCOR and CalSTRS will begin construction of a 37-story, 191-unit condominium tower on the parking lot site, the Sun reported.

155 Spring Street
YL Realty will turn the top floors into condos when the leases run out, the Post reported.

173-5 East Broadway
The 29 condos under development in the 60,000-square-foot building are priced between $600,000 and $5 million, the Times reported.

New Developments from Previous Month

Home sales in San Francisco slow as inventory rises

Home sales activity in the once-robust San Francisco Bay Area continues to slow. Local brokerages last month reported a surge in the inventory of homes on the market, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Bay Area sales dropped by nearly 16 percent in December — the steepest year-over-year drop since November 2001. This ebb in what was one of the nation’s hottest residential real estate markets comes at the same time as the overall economy in the Bay Area slows. The area should experience slow-to-moderate economic growth this year, according to a recent forecast from the Association of Bay Area Governments, with the cooling housing market both a factor in that growth and a product of it as well.

–
Atlanta

Commercial
Modest job growth will help drive down the office vacancy rate in Atlanta during 2006 to below 20 percent, according to a forecast from brokerage Grubb & Ellis. Class A asking rents, however, in the city’s downtown area will stay generally flat during the year at around $20 a square foot. In Atlanta’s suburban commercial areas, higher asking rents will also be flat, at an average of $22 a foot by the end of the year, according to the forecast.

Boston

Residential
Essex County just north of Boston saw Massachusetts’ biggest 2005 increase in foreclosure notices. The number of foreclosure notices issued in Essex increased 48 percent last year over 2004, the Boston Globe reported. The number of foreclosure notices filed against Massachusetts homeowners last year, in fact, reached its highest level since 1993, according to the Globe, with as many as 11,500 filings.

Commercial
The rebound in the Boston office market that started in 2005 should continue through this year, the Boston Herald reported. The overall vacancy rate should continue to decline (it declined for the first time in five years in 2005, to 13.3 percent), and rents are expected to increase, especially for Class A high-rises. Some Boston high-rise space already commands at least $35 a square foot, the Herald reported, and some as much as $50.

Chicago

Residential
The South Loop and Near South Side are expected to add more housing units this year than any other areas of the Windy City, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. More than 8,000 housing units alone are either under construction or planned in the South Loop, where 46 percent of Chicago’s new-construction condo and townhouse sales through the third quarter of 2005 happened.

Commercial
Chicago’s office market should continue to struggle, compared to other major cities’ markets, according to a forecast by brokerage Grubb & Ellis. New office space and consolidation by tenants into smaller offices will cause further negative absorption, and the city continues to have higher unemployment rates than the nation overall. There is some good news — the continued conversion of older Class B and Class C space into residential and office condos could help balance the Chicago office market.

Las Vegas

Residential
Rising construction costs are contributing to the cancellations of condo projects in Las Vegas. Labor and building material costs have increased 10 percent to 30 percent there over the last year, BusinessWeek reported, meaning that slow-selling condo projects must budget money for construction inflation into development. If a project doesn’t sell fast enough, developers might be tempted to sell the project or cancel it altogether rather than pay higher construction costs.

Los Angeles

Commercial
Business expansion and a dearth of new office construction continue to tighten the Los Angeles office market. The average vacancy rate for L.A. County dropped from 14.8 percent in December 2004 to 12.3 percent in December 2005. Asking rents over 2005 increased an average of 5 cents, to $2.11 a square foot, the Los Angeles Times reported. The trend toward lower vacancy rates and higher asking rents is expected to continue into the summer.

Residential
Home sales may be slackening in Los Angeles, but prices for them remain high. In December, for instance, home sales dropped in L.A. County 15.8 percent over the previous December. But, the median home price for the county in December was $552,760, a 19.3 percent jump over the same month the year before, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.

Miami

Residential
Home sales have declined in the Miami region, signifying perhaps more than any recent price drops that the South Florida housing market has decidedly cooled. Continuing a months-long decline, sales were down 41 percent in Broward County in December and 39 percent in Miami-Dade, the Miami Herald reported. Throughout the rest of 2006, the Herald reported, real estate experts expect the South Florida housing market to remain cool as mortgage rates creep upward.

Commercial
Low interest rates, tenant demand, and tax benefits for owners are helping spur an office-condominium development spree in Miami. There are 33 office-condo projects comprising 2 million square feet of office space that have either been completed or are in the planning stages in Miami-Dade County, according to brokerage CB Richard Ellis. The average office tenant in Miami-Dade uses less than 5,000 square feet of space, the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reported, fitting the profile of the typical office-condo user.

Philadelphia

Commercial
Center City’s current office vacancy rate of 15-plus percent could fall below 12 percent during 2006, according to a forecast from Grubb & Ellis. The 57-story Comcast Center, now under construction in Center City, Philadelphia’s main business district, won’t cause a spike in office vacancy rates there, according to the brokerage. Population growth, growth in smaller firms, and the conversion of office space to condos should help keep vacancy rates lower than anticipated, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Commercial/Residential
The Science Center will add 1.8 million square feet to its existing 1.7 million square feet on Market Street in Philadelphia’s University City between the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University. The five-building expansion, with a price tag of $600 million, is expected to include a residential high-rise with 260 units, a 225-room hotel, retail space, and office and lab space.

Phoenix

Commercial
Phoenix’s housing market often grabs headlines for its strength, but the city’s office market, too, remains very healthy. The Phoenix region’s overall office vacancy rate declined to 11.8 percent at the end of 2005, down from 13.3 percent at mid-year and 15.1 percent in December 2004, the Arizona Republic reported. Market observers expect the rate to keep dropping, too, as asking rents go up.

Washington, D.C.

Commercial
Washington is the best American city for foreign real estate investors, according to an annual survey by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate. Washington, in fact, finished second only to London in the 2005 survey as a world destination for foreign real estate investors. The city’s continued low vacancy rates, good rental growth, and strong capital appreciation rate make it a solid fit for foreign investors, according to the Washington Business Journal.

Commercial
The commercial market in the Washington area exited 2005 strongly, with vacancy rates falling and asking rents rising. The vacancy rate was 9.1 percent at the end of last year, down from 10.6 percent at the end of 2004, the Washington Post reported. Over the same period, the average asking rent for office space rose to $39.49 a foot from $29.60. The strong market was fueled, according to the Post, by law firms leasing space downtown, government contractors adding jobs in Northern Virginia, and federal agencies signing large leases in Maryland.

Like with Sin City’s recent housing woes, Miami’s are marked by cancelled condos [more]

Iconic townhouses and old money add to allure of East 70th Street between Park and Lexington avenues [more]

Sites available for development, though critics cite retail failures as reason to limit growth [more]

Opaque Empire State Development Corporation backs many projects, but a judge’s stop to Brooklyn proj [more]

Recent $325M settlement with largest subprime loan originator may serve as blueprint for consumer pr [more]

The Tax Woman giveth and the Tax Woman taketh away. [more]

With markets in cool-down phase, attention shifts from appreciation to a more fundamental calculatio [more]

New Web site links to properties for sale by U.S. government; surprisingly hype-free listings; condo [more]

A story in the February issue, “Brokers get creative to lure bonus money,” incorrectly identified Halstead as the sole marketing company for the Hudson Condominiums at 225 West 60th Street. The Developers Group and Halstead are the exclusive brokers for the project.

A story in the January issue, “High Hopes for Bushwick… er, East Williamsburg,” omitted mention of the Bluestone Group as the majority partner for 101 Wyckoff Avenue, a new condo development.

A story in the January issue, “Small Investors: Hope for the Little Guy,” had the incorrect address for the offices of Red Real Estate. It is 67 East 118th Street.

A story in the January issue, “Developers see sweet spot on Brooklyn’s Vinegar Hill” incorrectly referred to a building in a photo accompanying the story. The building is 304 Water Street, not Commodore’s Court Condominium at 85 Hudson Avenue.

The new president of William B. May & Company wants to settle any confusion about his firm’s recent turbulent patch, addressing any misperceptions both among the public and the brokerage community. Then he wants to expand. Eric Lustgarten moved in January from nearly eight years at Brown Harris Stevens to head William B. May, a residential firm with a pedigree stretching back to at least the 1860s.

Except that, lately, the pedigree has zigzagged.

At least two firms, through a maze of legal maneuvers and May family disputes, have staked a claim to the William B. May name in the last couple of years, with the dust only settling at the tail end of 2005, when one of those firms reemerged as Century 21 Kevin B. Brown & Associates and the other as William B. May, the company Lustgarten now runs.

Confused? It’s understandable: The top two hits of a Google search in late February for “William B. May” were Lustgarten’s firm and Century 21 Kevin B. Brown, which on its Web site touts its existence “since 1866″ — the year William B. May started.

Lustgarten told The Real Deal that his first priority as president was to slice through this confusion. A re-branding campaign will roll out over the next couple of months, unfolding in tandem with an expansion to three Manhattan offices from two currently, including a new 5,000-squarefoot flagship office at 64th Street and Lexington Avenue with more than 80 feet of street-facing windows. The flagship should open by the spring, Lustgarten said. An office in Greenwich, Conn., may soon follow, he added.

“There’s a lot of confusion out there, and we intend on rectifying that confusion,” said Lustgarten, 43, who was approached by the May family — whom he called “the original May family” — in the fall of 2005. “A lot of brokers don’t even really know what has occurred. There will be an entire re-do of everything from our Web site to our business cards, and everything in the middle.”

One of these changes will be the ditching of the firm’s 1980s-originated “New World Vision, Old World Values” slogan in favor of “Building Wealth Through Property Since 1866.”

Along with the re-branding campaign will come an increase in the number of William B. May brokers. Lustgarten said the firm hopes to get to and stay at 60 to 80 brokers from around 20 currently, with all levels of experience.

He said that more experienced brokers at some of the city’s bigger brokerages have already approached him about switching firms, although he did not go into specifics. William B. May is also negotiating with New York Mortgage Company, Lustgarten said, about a partnership similar to what other brokerages have with mortgage firms, such as that of Prudential Douglas Elliman and Preferred Empire Mortgage.

In August, Jeff Yamaguchi moved from Las Vegas to become the first chief operations officer of the Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group. By the end of 2005, he was out of a job in New York. Details of his abrupt departure after an approximately four-month tenure emerged in February, and Yamaguchi himself could not be reached for comment. His leaving is the latest changeup in the leadership of the firm’s 9-month-old combined development marketing division.

With Yamaguchi gone, Corcoran CEO and president Pam Liebman is the de facto head of the Corcoran Sunshine Group. Sunshine Group founder Louise Sunshine had already stepped down as CEO and chairwoman of her namesake firm and reportedly into a consulting role with the newer group.

Liebman, whom Yamaguchi reported directly to, explained that he wanted to return to Las Vegas — and the group couldn’t accommodate him there, either.

“We had to relocate him from Las Vegas,” Liebman told The Real Deal, “and we have an operation in Las Vegas as well. And we needed him to pay some attention out there, and he really wanted to get back to Las Vegas. It was more a question of he wanted to head back to be out on the West Coast. We really had no work for him in Las Vegas.”

A June merger between the Corcoran Group and the Sunshine Group, both owned by NRT, formed the Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, which serves as the marketing arm for Corcoran’s development properties. When Yamaguchi was hired about two months after the merger, he was touted as “an ideal chief operating officer” for the group, according to a Corcoran release, because of his executive experience. Yamaguchi was a 26-year veteran of the luxury hotel condominium industry, and his last stint before Corcoran Sunshine was as vice president of operations for the Residences at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

The two biggest residential brokerages in Manhattan revamped their Web sites in February. So how do the firm’s Internet presences stack up against one another?

Prudential Douglas Elliman re-launched its Web site in late February to make it, as the brokerage’s president explained, friendlier for consumers. It’s as if the Age of Craigslist has nudged brokerages into an era of greater disclosure to make their services more enticing and relevant.

The Elliman re-launch came only weeks after the Corcoran Group engineered an ambitious Web re-branding that included retiring founder Barbara Corcoran’s familiar visage.

On Douglas Elliman’s new site, visitors can e-mail real estate questions to chief executive Dottie Herman, and, she said, she’ll try to e-mail back answers. The firm’s demographic information — including the same sorts of property details offered by new real estate sites like Zillow.com and PropertyShark.com — are also on the site. “We’ll have up all of our data, all of our information,” Herman said. “I hope people will be able to use this.”

Corcoran’s revamped Web site offers listings searches by school district and subway line as well as a feature called Arrange-a-Room, which allows consumers to place furniture on floor plans for its listings.

Garrick-Aug merges into Century 21 Kevin B. Brown
Just 14 months after the retail brokerage shop was sold to investors, Garrick-Aug Store Leasing is being merged into Century 21 Kevin B. Brown & Associates, the New York Post reported. The company was set to move last month from 360 Lexington Avenue into the Century 21 Kevin B. Brown offices at 575 Madison Avenue.

Craigslist to charge brokers for rental listings
Starting Mar. 1, Craigslist.org will charge a $10 fee for each rental listing posted to the broker apartment categories on the New York City portal of the popular Web site. The fee applies only to the Big Apple, and applies to both fee and no-fee apartments.

Jamestown partner starts own firm
After 13 years as one of the general partners of Jamestown, Steve Zoukis left to start his own business, Cityfeet.com reported. His new company will pursue real estate investment and development. Zoukis will continue with Jamestown, but as a limited partner. The American operations will be headed by Jeff Ackemann, Matt Bronfman, and Lee Wright, who have been managing directors responsible for day-to-day operations.

Sotheby’s acquires Westchester firm
Sotheby’s International Realty announced the acquisition of Scarsdale-based Julia B. Fee. That firm’s eight Westchester offices will now operate as Sotheby’s.

Zillow.com launches property value tool
Former Expedia chief Richard Barton’s residential home valuation tool Zillow.com, which uses a computer program to determine property values, was launched last month. New York-based PropertyShark.com also announced last month that it launched a beta version of its new home sale-price maps.

Trulia.com launches in New York City
Listings search service Trulia.com launched last month in New York City. The San Francisco-based spider culls listings from many of the boroughs’ brokerages and also provides market data.

PropertyRover.com launches consumer version
PropertyRover Inc. has launched a consumer version of its residential real estate search engine, called PropertyRover.com, the company announced last month. The Web spider, which is targeted to New York City homebuyers, is being offered in addition to Web-based business tools offered by PropertyRover.com for Manhattan-based residential brokerage firms.

Japanese real estate firm to re-enter US market
Mitsui Fudosan America Inc., the American subsidiary of Japan’s largest real estate company, appointed Graham Bond chief operating officer. Bond will work with the executive team to engineer the resurgence of the company in the American market. He had been at Morgan Stanley.

South Street Seaport owner opens new city office
Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc., owner and manager of the South Street Seaport, announced that it has opened a New York office at Wall Street Plaza, 88 Pine Street. The Pine Street office staffs a full team of General Growth management, marketing, and leasing personnel for the company’s New York and New Jersey properties.

GuardHill becomes mortgage bank
GuardHill Financial Corp. announced that it has become a mortgage bank. The firm can now issue same-day commitments and close mortgage loans without relying on other institutions.

Brown Raysman expands construction law practice
Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner LLP announced last month that it has expanded its construction law practice with 15 attorneys from New York-based Ross & Cohen LLP. The firm now has more than 30 attorneys working in construction law.

Trump Mortgage launches with nationwide focus
Donald Trump has launched Trump Mortgage, with headquarters at 40 Wall Street. The new venture has a national focus, said CEO E.J. Ridings, with the firm handling financing for both commercial and residential properties.

Neil Rubler launches investment firm
New York real estate industry executive Neil Rubler announced the formation of Vantage Properties LLC, a private real estate development firm based in New York. Vantage made its first acquisition — Delano Village in Harlem — in partnership with Apollo Real Estate Advisors in January.

Michael Bloomberg, Jan. 23, 2006, radio Address: “The real estate market is slowing down dramatically and we’re going to have a problem down the road. If people who want to sell their houses have to wait a longer time before someone comes along and buys it, it would be a miracle if prices didn’t start to go down.”

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Michael Bloomberg, Jan. 31, 2006, budget announcement: “New York’s real estate market is expected to slow with a 10 percent decline in home prices, a 14 percent decline in home sales over the next few years, and a significant decline in real estate transaction taxes that have buoyed the city’s tax revenue in the last few fiscal years.”

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The mayor, no slouch in the business acumen department, seemed in the last several weeks to be running a campaign of temperance regarding the housing market, one that was equal parts pragmatic and political. The market, after all, has cooled since the summer, and projections by market observers have it staying a more normal course in 2006.

“This reality check has been a long time coming and now is not the time to submerge ourselves in the delusions of real estate grandeur,” wrote blogger Property Grunt on his site after the mayor’s budget announcement. “This is the time to take a good hard look at ourselves and try to figure out a way to ride out the storm. This is the time to make hard decisions.”

But some see a political dimension behind the mayor’s pronouncements. (Bloomberg’s office did not return calls for comment, and the source for his sales and price projections remains a mystery. )

“From a political perspective,” wrote New York appraiser Jonathan Miller on his blog Matrix, “the city is running a large surplus ($3B), coming in part from the taxes paid by the housing sector, and one could speculate [Bloomberg] is positioning himself in the next fiscal year to lower the expectations of those who would like to spend it.”

Of course, you can nudge the mayor’s motives aside, and just take the interpretation of Curbed.com, summed up in its Jan. 23 headline: “Bloomberg shrieks ‘Sell!’”

You can’t judge a book by its cover, but Charles Grodin knows you can judge a co-op by it residents. The title of his latest play says much about the sordid underbelly of New York City co-ops: “The Right Kind of People.” Grodin’s one-act, which opened in New York in January and runs through early March, chronicles the hoops prospective owners must leap through in their quest for approval by a fashionable Fifth Avenue co-op board.

Grodin, the actor, talk-show host, and author, uses the play to explore unspoken (at least, publicly) issues that go into a board’s decision on whether to approve or disapprove. Surprise — it’s not just about money: Race, gender and the elusive quality of social status all come into play. One co-op board character, for instance, knocks a prospective owner because “he buys his clothes off the rack.” With a successful premiere in San Francisco last year, “The Right Kind of People” is now on at the 59E59 Theaters on East 59th Street until at least Mar. 5.

Grodin himself served from 1986 to 1992 on the co-op board of a Fifth Avenue building, and said the experience cried out for mockery. “Before you can purchase an apartment in these prime buildings, you must present yourself before the board so they can determine your worthiness to live in their midst,” Grodin said. “Sound like the stuff of grand comedy? I thought so, too.”

Richard Topp’s first clients as a sales associate at Bellmarc Realty were Korean-American newlyweds. After he shepherded them to their first home, Topp did a little research on traditional Korean wedding presents and discovered that something with permanently mating birds was appropriate. While vacationing in Italy, he bought a hand-made crystal goblet supported by a pair of swans, and later gave it to the couple.

“As the couple are very American,” Topp wrote in an email to The Real Deal, “I’m not sure that they understood its significance, but I am hoping that one of their mothers or grandmothers recognize what it is about.”

A few years ago, Steve Hakimzadeh, president of HH Realty Group, bought a big box containing hundreds of thank-you cards. He suggested that agents at his firm, which specializes in rentals on the Upper East Side, send the thank-you cards to particularly receptive clients. Some did; many didn’t. And Hakimzadeh eventually tossed the box with most of the cards still in it, unused by his agents.

The agents that didn’t send the cards, Hakimzadeh said, aren’t doing all that well in real estate and some have left the industry. The ones that did, however, are still in real estate and doing generally pretty well. “These are the agents,” he said, “who understand the need for great networking.”

And that’s the point of broker gifts to clients after the deal, from a simple thank-you note to a crystal goblet. Not only are the gifts nice, but, hopefully, the gifts spark a warm memory in a client’s mind, so the client uses that broker again — or recommends him or her to others. Thus, the broker gift becomes important on two levels: what it actually is and that it’s even given in the first place.

Sometimes the gifts don’t always immediately follow a close. Lisa Maysonet, a senior vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman, sends a bottle of champagne or wine to her clients on the one-year anniversary of a closing — a friendly reminder of the relationship she formed with them. The bottles have labels with Maysonet’s name and her Douglas Elliman group logo on them.

In the end, the momentousness of the occasion can gel nicely with what the broker might get from the gift. Gigi Van Deckter, a sales associate at Bellmarc, gave a young couple who spent $952,000 on their first New York apartment a pair of large monogrammed key rings from Tiffany’s. It was Van Deckter’s first close, but the gift seemed to her a no-brainer.

“Frankly, it never occurred to me to not give a gift,” Van Deckter wrote in an email. “I always will. It is one of the important events of a lifetime, purchasing your home. So, it deserves some ceremony.”