Core sued by former broker
A former Core Group Marketing agent is suing the company and its key players for allegedly cheating him out of more than $51 million in commissions.
Broker Joseph Bongiovanni filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court March 7 against Core Group Marketing; co-founder and CEO Shaun Osher; co-founder Jack Cayre; principal Joseph Cayre (owner of Midtown Equities); founding member Steven Ganz; and broker Jon Isaacs. Bongiovanni alleges that the defendants stole his clients and refused to give him commissions on five development deals, including one for $200 million, and three residential sales.
In an eight-count complaint, Bongiovanni claimed that when he left the Corcoran Group for Core in August 2006, he and Osher reached a verbal agreement that Bongiovanni “had exclusive rights” to any client that he brought with him to Core. He claims that meant “no sales agent at the firm maintained a right to show properties to said clients other than the plaintiff.”
He also claimed that Osher verbally agreed that “any client which plaintiff procured either prior or subsequent [to] his joining the defendant firm was his and his only with respect to the ability to earn commissions.”
Osher wrote a statement that the claims are baseless.
“We firmly believe that Joseph Bongiovanni’s allegations against Core Group Marketing are without merit,” he wrote. “We are saddened that Mr. Bongiovanni has chosen to take the actions he has. We are confident that our reputation among our clients and peers alike will not waver as we move through the litigation process as a result of Mr. Bongiovanni’s unfounded claims.” By Lauren Elkies
Brooklyn lands the Real World
Jennifer Connelly and her actor-husband Paul Bettany might be selling their Park Slope home and moving to Manhattan, but don’t count Brooklyn out yet. MTV has announced it will air “the Real World: Brooklyn” early next year. No sign yet on whether the cast will live in Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Carroll Gardens, Park Slope or anywhere else in the borough. TRD
Prosecution moves forward for brokers accused of tax evasion
Eleven veteran New York City real estate brokers named in March as part of a tax evasion investigation led by the Albany County District Attorney face varying legal consequences, including reductions of charges, although no cases have been dismissed, authorities said.
Patrick Brennan, a senior associate broker at the Corcoran Group, was initially charged with two misdemeanor counts for failing to pay taxes in 2004 and 2005, the DA’s office said. Considered a minor offense, the charge was reduced to what’s called an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal.
If Brennan files an accurate tax return for two years, pays taxes owed plus penalties and interest, and stays out of legal trouble for six months, the case will be dismissed, the DA’s office said. Otherwise, the DA will prosecute the case.
Two other Corcoran brokers similarly saw their charges reduced. Gabriel Bedoya, a Corcoran vice president and associate broker who also has a real estate investment firm, was initially hit with two misdemeanors for allegedly living tax-free in 2004 and 2006; Dennis Hughes, a senior vice president and associate broker at Corcoran, was originally charged with a misdemeanor for allegedly failing to pay taxes in 2006.
Miriam Sirota, a senior vice president and associate broker at Corcoran, will be arraigned on tax evasion charges on June 3. The DA’s office said it would not discuss details of that case until then.
The brokers are part of a group of 31 real estate professionals in the state whom the DA’s office said failed to report more than $13 million in income and evaded more than $650,000 in state income taxes. By Lauren Elkies
Manhattan retail rents rise
Despite the economic slowdown, Manhattan retail rents increased in prime shopping corridors over the past months as tourists continued to spend freely, a report released from the Real Estate Board of New York said.
Manhattan retail rents grew by 3 percent compared
to a year ago to an average of $111 per square foot, the report said.
Not all the news was good. In some areas, rents fell,
including on Madison Avenue from 57th to 72nd Street, where the average asking rent fell by 8 percent to $1,066 per square foot.
In Midtown, the average asking rent rose by 9 percent to $145 per square foot; in Midtown South, rents rose by 8 percent to $96; and in Midtown East, rents rose by 6 percent to $164.
The city’s highest rents were found on the 10 blocks of Fifth Avenue south of 59th Street, where asking rents averaged $1,958 per square foot.
The survey reported a strong increase in rents in Herald Square and Soho’s Broadway district; the most dramatic increases were on Third Avenue between 60th and 72nd streets. By Adam Pincus
Tribeca mansion aims to break Downtown record
Months before the completion of one of Downtown’s largest townhouses, seller Steven Schnall said he has already seen interest from several potential buyers for his mansion at 2 North Moore Street in Tribeca, which hit the market with a $35 million price tag last month.
If it sells for that price — which brokers say is likely — it will break the record for the highest-priced single-family home sold south of 14th Street.
Schnall, founder and former CEO of New York Mortgage Trust, paid just $5.57 million for the property in 2005, when it contained two buildings, one of which was landmarked. Schnall had the southern building razed,
and gutted the landmarked building to its basement.
He then did his best to renovate the landmarked facade, and began building a six-story building to its south, also connected internally.
When completed, the 11,000-square-foot home will include a three-car garage, 50-foot lap pool, billiards, bar, media room, roof deck, balcony and a maid’s apartment with a separate entrance. And because the lot is located on a corner, the building will have 65 feet of frontage on North Moore Street and West Broadway.
Pricing the behemoth was a headache, Schnall said, because there was no comparable property in Tribeca. He interviewed several prominent luxury brokers to determine a good per-square-foot price point and decided on $3,000 per square foot. While he finally chose Deborah Grubman of the Corcoran Group to represent the listing, Schnall said he also spoke to Douglas Elliman, Massey Knakal and Sotheby’s.
Other brokers asked by The Real Deal said that while the bottom-line price is record-breaking, the price per square foot is reasonable for a luxury property in Tribeca. By James Kelly
Lear closes on 15 CPW condo
Television writer and producer Norman Lear and his wife Lyn closed on a 38th-floor condominium at 15 Central Park West, paying $10 million, according to city records. The two-bedroom, 2,367-square-foot apartment went into contract in October 2006 and the sale was finalized April 28.
Lear, 86, produced hit shows such as “Sanford and Son,” “All in the Family,” “One Day at a Time,” “the Jeffersons” and “Maude.” Other entertainment figures in the trophy tower include Warner Bros. president Alan F. Horn, musician Sting, actor Denzel Washington and Tokyo-born director and producer Keiko Ibi. By Adam Pincus
Real estate licenses enter the Internet era
The New York State Department of State, the agency that issues real estate licenses, has moved some of its operations online.
The department recently launched a 24-hour licensing management system that expedites the licensing process and updates information in real time. The system, called EAccessNY, allows real estate agents and brokers to apply for a salesperson license, change an address, renew a license and check the status of pending forms.
Before the system launched, new agents had to trek downtown with application in hand to the Department of State’s New York City office on William Street, or mail a form and wait as long as a month to receive a permanent license. And while hard copies are still required for certain forms, others must now be done on the Web.
“This really allows them to go ahead and work right away,” said Michael Barbolla, general sales manager at Charles Rutenberg Realty. By Lauren Elkies
Columbia University buying failed Riverdale development
The down real estate market has dealt a major blow to one developer in the Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale. L & M Equity Partners and its affiliate Hudson Arlington Associates, the firm behind the Arbor, a 127-unit condo at 3260 Henry Hudson Parkway, has taken that property off the market and is selling it to Columbia University.
“Columbia has agreed in principle to purchase the residential building now under construction at 3260 Henry Hudson Parkway for housing faculty members, graduate students and their families,” said Robert Hornsby, Columbia’s director of media relations.
Hudson Arlington Associates declined to comment on the impending sale, which has Riverdale’s real estate community buzzing.
The wholesale purchase of an entire building by a nonprofit, even one as deep-pocketed as Columbia, is not giving local brokers great confidence in the future of Riverdale’s real estate market.
“I don’t think it’s a good thing,” said Robert Wachsman, president of Riverdale Homes, a local brokerage.
Brokers said that only 13 apartments in the still-unfinished Arbor had entered into sale agreements. Some observers said they believe the project’s high prices and unappealing design slowed sales. Units at the Arbor ranged between $400,000 and $900,000, too high for Riverdale, Wachsman said. By John DeSio
Murray Hill condo lures buyers with week of free meals
To welcome the annual onslaught of New Yorkers who greet the spring by going apartment-shopping, the developers of Jasper, a converted prewar loft in Murray Hill, hosted a week-long open house with free meals from neighborhood restaurants along with tours of model units.
The open house, which was held in May, was meant to attract buyers who might otherwise ignore Murray Hill, said Shaun Osher, CEO of Core Group Marketing, the development’s exclusive marketing and sales agent. Food was provided by restaurants like Blue Smoke, Dos Caminos and the Second Avenue Deli.
The 18-story, 121,000-square-foot building was developed by the Harch Group and PHH Realty and designed by architect Ismael Leyva. About 50 percent of the units have sold since September, Osher said. Its one- and two-bedroom units and penthouses are priced from $800,000 to $3 million.
“We felt that spring is always the time when people go out and look at property; they get out of winter doldrums,” Osher said. “We wanted to create something unique and bring people into the sales center and connect to Murray Hill, because Murray Hill is a hidden gem in the city.” By Catherine Contiguglia
Somerset Partners founder sells grass roof townhouse
A West Village townhouse at 13 Leroy Street with a garage, skyloft and mutliple grassy roofs has sold for $13.82 million. The seller, Keith Rubenstein, is a founder of Somerset Partners, a real estate investment fund. He bought the four-story home for just under $9 million in early 2006 from Andrew Rasiej, who founded Irving Plaza and sold Digital Club Network.
Rasiej, a former city public advocate candidate, bought the property, which is west of Bleecker Street, for less than $2 million and hired Turett Collaborative Architects to transform it. Actor Will Smith lived here briefly. The buyer was not listed on the deed. TRD
Broker, architect launch Soho art series
A broker and architect who double as artists launched a series of one-night art events recently in an underground space in Soho.
Stribling broker Mary Mihelic, who co-curated the show with architect Caridad Sola, said they wanted to address the uneasy relationship between art and real estate. Artists are often pioneers into neighborhoods, she said, only to be followed by wealthier residents who drive up prices and eventually force the artists out.
Mihelic saw the subterranean gallery as a way to keep art in New York City.
“Once Manhattan loses its writers and artists and musicians, it will become one big shopping mall,” she said.
The self-described guerrilla artist from Chicago built a crane in the space with a halo, in reference to the construction accidents in Manhattan.
It was not the only reference to the beleaguered Department of Buildings. She created an invitation for the event in the form of a DOB permit.
Co-curator and fellow artist Sola is an architect with Bovis Lend Lease who is working on the Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum. She said she and Mihelic were lucky to come across the Soho location. Even in the tight real estate market, unused properties are still scattered around the city, she said. “There are so many vacant spaces sitting there doing nothing,” Sola said. By Adam Pincus
Developer buys at Plaza for $13M
Ronald Oehl, president of Manhattan-based Stonehenge Capital Corporation, TLM Realty Corp. and TNC Realty Group, has purchased a condo at the Plaza Hotel for $13.34 million, according to city records. Stonehenge Capital Corporation is a national specialty finance company that manages investment funds with more than $500 million in capital. Oehl has donated to the presidential campaigns of both Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton and former Republican Sen. Fred Thompson. TRD