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Emmy-winning actress joins Sierra Realty

Blanche Baker Magill

A new commercial broker at Sierra Realty is also an Emmy-winning actress. Blanche Baker Magill has joined Sierra as an associate director of commercial sales and leasing. Clients and colleagues may recognize Magill from her role playing Molly Ringwald's older sister in the 1984 Brat Pack film "Sixteen Candles."

The actress-turned-broker previously worked at Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy and decided to leave when she heard rumors that the firm was closing. The Real Deal reported that CBHK shut down in May.

"Once I heard the rumor, I figured better be safe than sorry," Magill said. "The day I signed a contract [with Sierra] was the day they announced the franchise wasn't going to continue. You have to see things coming in a turbulent situation. It can create opportunities for people who recognize them. That's the reality we're living right now."

Magill was an actress for several years before she got married, had children and quit the business. Although she tried to get back into the acting scene as her children got older, she found it exceedingly difficult. "There was very little work for a woman in her 40s," Magill said.

To make some extra money, Magill saw an opportunity to enter the commercial real estate world, saying she was attracted to the commercial side rather than residential because there were so few women in the field.

"I think there's a gap between clients and who's serving them," Magill said. "Women have made great strides in business, but not commercial real estate. It's dominated by men."

A recent deal Magill closed was a new office for architect Page Cowley, who took the seventh floor of 10 East 33rd Street.

Magill still acts intermittently, and on one occasion her two worlds converged.

"I went to a screening party at the Pioneer Theater and met the owner of Mo Pitkin's [bar]," Magill said. The owner was selling the building and Magill got the exclusive listing.