Oren Alexander at Day & Night’s weekly brunch party, with party planner Carli Roth
1OakOn any given evening, real estate players can be found at Manhattan hot spots like 1Oak, Provocateur Café and the Double Seven — or jetting off to Miami clubs LIV and WALL, or Marquee in Las Vegas.
While this “models and bottles” lifestyle has its perks, it isn’t all fun and games: In the New York City property world, knowing where to party can be the key to meeting new clients and securing deals.
Provocateur CaféAn evening with table service at Meatpacking District hangouts like 1Oak or Provocateur — where entry is by guest list only — sets a patron back $3,000 or $4,000, said Bernard Schwartz, managing director of lodging assets at Steven Kamali Hospitality, which operates the trendy Capri Hotel in Southampton. But when it comes to doing deals, real estate professionals consider it money well spent.
Spots like these may be pricey, but they’re “exclusive, comfortable environments where you can meet clients and rub elbows with the rich and famous,” Schwartz explained.
Nest Seekers managing director Ryan Serhant, 27, said he views partying with clients (and potential clients) as part of his job description, especially for foreign buyers who are in Manhattan for only a short time.
Serhant, who was depicted as a fun-loving lothario on the Bravo series “Million Dollar Listing New York,” said a typical night out for him starts with dinner in the Meatpacking District, followed by drinks and clubbing at venues such as the Double Seven, a cocktail lounge on Gansevoort Street. He also likes the Red Egg, a Chinese restaurant and late-night lounge on Centre Street, and La Baron, a Chinatown offshoot of the ultrahot Paris nightclub.
Prudential Douglas Elliman vice president Oren Alexander, 24, frequents boutique venues like 1Oak and Provocateur. He also likes the hip Meatpacking District eatery Catch, which has a rooftop lounge for late-night revelry.
“I go out to meet potential clients,” said Alexander, who is currently listing restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow’s Trump Tower apartment for $18.8 million.
“I recently closed a deal with a client I met at Day & Night Brunch,” he said, referring to the exclusive weekly Saturday afternoon party at Ajna Bar in the West Village.
Attracting well-to-do clients means going to the right places, he added.
“There are only two or three really high-end clubs that cater to the superwealthy,” the broker said, “and that’s where I want to be.”
He added that introducing clients to new clubs and restaurants — and making sure they have a good time — is a service he offers as a high-end broker.
“That’s why people want to be around me,” he said. “If they need a reservation at Catch, I can do that for them.”
Mitchell Moinian, an associate at Cushman & Wakefield and son of developer Joseph Moinian, said he inevitably runs into other industry pros when out on the town.
“New York City is a finance, insurance and real estate–centric society,” he said. “Because of that, many of our social platforms consist of active business [and] real estate people. I have definitely experienced nights at restaurants or lounges that have the real estate ubiquity of a REBNY event.”
Asked if he was making deals, entertaining clients or simply having fun on the nightlife scene, he responded: “In the New York real estate world, there’s always a strong intersectionality of all three of those components.”
Also frequently spotted at hip clubs: 20-year-old Daniel Chetrit and his brother Jonathan, sons of developer Joseph Chetrit. Jonathan is a fixture on the nightclub scene, sources said, and Daniel is a DJ with regular gigs at 1Oak and the Boom Boom Room at the Standard Hotel.
Real estate’s highest-profile young couple — Kushner Companies’ principal Jared Kushner and wife Ivanka Trump of the famous Trump Organization — are frequently seen schmoozing at high-profile nighttime events.
But Kushner and Trump — who have a year-old daughter — tend to frequent charity benefits or industry events rather than bars. For example, the couple attended the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala last month. And for Kushner’s 31st birthday, Page Six reported that the two celebrated with an intimate dinner at West Village eatery Recette rather than a blowout party.
“I honestly don’t go out to bars at all,” Trump told the Post in 2010.
Jet-setting
Of course, these real estate players don’t limit their socializing to New York City.
Winston Fisher, a partner at the family-owned real estate firm Fisher Brothers, was famously photographed on a 2010 Saint-Tropez vacation, competing with Malaysian billionaire Zhen Low to break the World Record for the most money spent on champagne in a single sitting, Page Six reported. During the party — also attended by developer Joe Sitt and socialite Paris Hilton — Fisher eventually lost to Low, who reportedly spent a stunning $2.6 million on the bubbly.
Fisher, who heads finance, acquisitions and new development for the company, did not respond to a request for comment. Sources said he can regularly be spotted out and about in the Meatpacking District, however.
Matthew Moinian, Mitchell’s older brother, held his 27th birthday party at the Hyde Bellagio nightclub in Las Vegas in January. At the party, depicted vividly in photos posted on the club’s website, staff wore “I heart MM” T-shirts, while hundreds of people rocked out to tunes by DJ Devin Lucien, who has also spun at parties for the likes of Janet Jackson and Tom Hanks.
Matthew, who declined to comment, is a recent graduate of Manhattan’s Cardozo School of Law and is now working with his uncle, Morris Moinian, to transform a vacant lot at 525 Greenwich Street into a $60 million hotel.
Sometimes, however, the best locations for real estate networking are private homes, rather than nightspots.
No one knows that better than the Moinians’ father Joseph, who is known for throwing lavish annual parties at his waterfront compound in Quogue. Every year, the event is attended by a veritable who’s who of powerful New York personalities, such as governor Andrew Cuomo, senator Charles Schumer and developer Andrew Farkas. The event typically has a novelty theme — past themes have included Diamonds and Denim, and Pirates — and Moinian rents nearby land to accommodate the many cars of his guests.
Serhant said he hosts dinner parties for clients at his 20 Pine apartment. And on “Million Dollar Listing,” he was shown throwing a Fashion Week party in a client’s loft at 95 Greene Street to help market the property. At the party, Serhant connected with a broker whose client wanted a private showing of the apartment, and later got another lead from a French buyer who had seen pictures of the party online.
There were also plenty of prospective clients at the soiree, Serhant said.
“We party with all clients,” he said. “This business is about people — making people happy.”