Keller Williams NYC absorbs fledgling brokerage

Portman Realty brings with it 16 agents

Newcomer brokerage Portman Realty has been absorbed by Keller Williams NYC — and at its new home will be called the Portman Group at Keller Williams NYC. All 16 Portman agents will join Keller Williams, executives from Portman told The Real Deal.

The deal, which was effective as of today, will provide Portman — the brokerage that last month sold the Electra, at 354 East 91st Street, for $95 million — access to Keller Williams’ national and international networks of clients and contacts, executives said.

The Portman Group will continue to offer a three­-pronged approach to its business, as a brokerage for both residential and commercial investment properties, as a property manager and as a consultant for property owners, said Benjamin Benalloul, a principal with Portman.

The group plans to expand to 25 total agents in the next six months, Benalloul said.

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“I am very excited that this dynamic group of individuals will be joining us,” Keller Williams NYC CEO Eric Barron said in a statement to The Real Deal. “They’re smart, unbelievably ambitious, and very well connected in the New York City marketplace.”

The Portman executives were indeed ambitious when they spoke with The Real Deal today. “We are the next generation of Howard Michaels(es),” said another Portman principal, Daniel Messing, referring to the chairman and CEO of international real estate investment banking firm the Carlton Group.

All agents at Portman, which formed only 18 months ago, are under age 29, Messing added. Since its inception, Portman has sold “more than $100 million,” worth of real estate, Messing said, and is in contract on another $30 million, including a $17 million mixed-use property in the Bronx’s Pelham Bay area.