Residential and commercial brokerage NYC Homes has left its office in the Flatiron District and is looking for a smaller space. Founder J.P. Kingue said he and his 10 employees left their 3,000-square-foot office at 34 West 28th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue and now are looking for a new office for around half the size. Kingue said he is close to signing a deal for a space in Union Square that is about 1,500 square feet.
As with all brokerages in New York City, business is slow. Steve Landfield, a former broker at NYC Homes, left the company earlier this year to work for Royalton Realty.
“There was little activity. I was having a lot of difficulty getting ads answered, so I moved on,” said Landfield, who also teaches commercial real estate at the New York Real Estate Institute.
NYC Homes is one of many brokerages to downsize because of the downturn.
To cut costs, five-year-old boutique brokerage Domain Properties moved from its 5,000-square-foot space at the corner of 25th Street and Broadway to a 500-square-foot space at 234 Fifth Avenue. And larger agencies with multiple locations in the city — including Bellmarc Realty, Citi Habitats, Warburg Realty and the Corcoran Group — have closed some offices.