Halstead acquires Riverdale firm, marking its second office in the nabe

From left: Diane Ramirez and Susan Goldy

Halstead Property acquired longtime residential Riverdale brokerage Susan Goldy Real Estate, the firm announced today, marking its second office in the upscale Bronx community. Both sides refused to disclose the terms of the deal, but Susan Goldy’s 12 agents will remain in Their Moshalu Avenue office while joining the Halstead Property brand, as of today.

Halstead already has a 20-agent office at 3531 Johnson Avenue, but Diane Ramirez, president of the firm, said she coveted Susan Goldy’s “incredible reputation in the community and great client base” along with the added depth and marketshare the firm immediately provides Halstead.

Susan Goldy, who founded the eponymous firm 34 years ago and maintains an office at 5626 Mosholu Avenue, said that merging with Halstead offered her firm the opportunity to keep pace with a changing real estate landscape.

“Today, you have to be able to deliver services in a way that will resonate with the public at large and that means using cutting edge technology,” she said. “Small companies have more difficulty staying on top of it — even if we know what to do, we’re not always in a position to do it.”

Goldy said she thinks Halstead is expanding its Riverdale presence at just the right time.

As the market rebounds, she said, buyers who value an urban setting but don’t want to live in Manhattan or pay Brooklyn’s rising prices, will gravitate towards Riverdale. Ramirez also said that her firm’s strong Riverdale presence will act as a portal to buyers interested in the surrounding Bronx and Westchester areas, too. The addition of Goldy’s Moshalu office marks Halstead’s 20th office in the tri-state area.

This acquisition follows Prudential Douglas Elliman’s purchase of Riverdale-based John Edwards Real Estate in November, as first reported by The Real Deal. Elliman declined to comment.

Vasco Da Silva, who opened Halstead’s Riverdale office in October 2005 and then jumped ship in December 2008 to start Sotheby’s International Realty’s office in the neighborhood, said it’s getting more difficult for the smaller firms to survive in the area. He noted that since he started Sotheby’s in 2008, Susan Goldy’s and John Edwards were acquired, and two more boutique brokerages, Koppell River Realty and Fraser Harrington went out of business.

“As buyers look outside Manhattan — and you saw this with Brooklyn earlier in the decade — they’re looking for neighborhoods immediately bordering Manhattan,” said Da Silva, an executive vice president at Sotheby’s. “You’re seeing that in Long Island City and Riverdale, and the bigger brokerages are following the buyers.”