Stribling duo exit, join Urban Compass

Cox, Giordano bring $18M One York exclusive, Hudson Woods and overseas projects

From left: James Cox Jr. and Frank Giordano
From left: James Cox Jr. and Frank Giordano

Stribling & Associates brokers James Cox Jr. and Frank Giordano have left the company to join Manhattan startup Urban Compass.

The pair will be based out of the company’s new Union Square office and focus on Manhattan-based exclusives, including a full floor unit at Tribeca’s One York condominium listed at $18 million. They will also continue to work with development projects in the Dominican Republic, Mexico and 26 custom residences in the Hudson Woods development in the Catskills, Cox told The Real Deal.

“This is a great opportunity for us because Urban Compass is technology-driven, very forward thinking,” Cox said of the move. “For us, our business fits well into this model. I’m looking to do big developments in the Dominican Republic and we have Hudson Woods, and we have great access to buyer pools and investors through Urban Compass.”

Cox comes to Urban Compass with a background in luxury hotel design, marketing and sales, including over $200 million in sales at the Esentai Tower in Almaty, Kazakhstan. He previously worked as a broker with Brown Harris Stevens from 2008 to 2009, had his own brokerage called Earth 316 from 2009 to 2011 and then joined Town Residential in 2011. He departed Town in February to join Stribling. Giordano, meanwhile, has a background in real estate and experience in the culinary field.

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“Over the past year, we’ve made many strategic hires of forward-thinking agents, and James and Frank perfectly fit into that category,” Robert Reffkin, founder and CEO of Urban Compass, told TRD via email. “James and Frank will continue to focus on their Manhattan listings and clientele, while James will also use his many years of international experience to spearhead opportunities in new markets.”

Urban Compass, which currently has over 50 agents, has plans to expand into international markets, Reffkin said.

Rebecca Mason, Stribling’s Downtown manager, did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Urban Compass, which launched in May 2013, snagged headlines with a business model combining a StreetEasy-style listings website with a team of salaried “neighborhood specialists” who essentially served as rental brokers. The startup closed a $25 million funding round in September for a total of $33 million, and has since been valued at $150 million. The company made the jump to sales in December, opened a second New York City office at 19 Union Square West in February and has since welcomed a number of high-profile brokers and other industry executives who departed their firms to join the growing startup. Among the relatively recent hires are former StreetEasy head of research and communications Sofia Song, Citi Habitats alums Jason Saft and Gordun Golub and Town’s Takeshi “Takk” Yamaguchi, who brought two-dozen exclusive listings along with him.