After Faith Hope Consolo died unexpectedly late last year, the @FAKEhopeconsolo parody Twitter account that skewered the real estate industry with biting posts changed its name.
The anonymous author still Tweets out hot takes on industry goings-on under the name “Click My Bricks.”
But at Douglas Elliman, the self-described Queen of Retail’s brand name lives on.
The brokerage’s Faith Consolo team has decided to keep the team moniker (sans the middle name) and selected a new slate of leaders.
“Faith was an icon and a brand unto herself, and we were lucky to receive her leadership and guidance for so many years,” Arthur Maglio, who is co-leading the team with Corey Shuster and Diana Zisholtz, told The Real Deal.
“She certainly left a void in our office, and her passing was a huge personal loss to all of us,” Maglio added. “But she always fostered an atmosphere of teamwork and comradery.
Consolo was a consummate self-promoter who was a master at marketing — so much so that she was sometimes criticized for constantly being in the spotlight. But since her death seven months ago at the age of 73, the retail scene’s lost some of its pizazz.
At industry events like the Real Estate Board of New York’s annual Retail of the Deal award — which held its first ceremony since her death this past June — Consolo was a regular and hard-to-miss figure.
“You knew when Faith was in the room,” RIPCO’s Gene Spiegelman told TRD shortly after her death in December.
“Keep the Faith” schwag that Consolo would send out to friends and colleagues following a phone call or meeting have stopped arriving at offices across the city. And Consolo’s Twitter page has gone silent since its last tweet on Dec. 19, four days before her death.
Members of her team, meanwhile, said they’ve retained 95 percent of Consolo’s clients, which include landlords such as Kensico Properties, Centaur Properties and Madison Realty Capital.
So far this year, the team’s done deals like the Carmina lease at 509 Madison Avenue and The Daily Edited at 385 Bleecker Street. The team has also added two new members so far this year.
Steven James, president and CEO of Douglas Elliman in New York City, said Consolo’s team has picked up the pieces, but he also noted that her death left a void.
“We know that a larger-than-life figurehead such as Faith can never be replaced,” he said.