Stuart Elliot
The Real Deal is firing up the klieg lights and rolling out the red carpet.
This month will see the premiere of our first full-length documentary feature film. Called “Building Stories,” it’s a look at the most prolific architect in New York City, Costas Kondylis, who has added an incredible 86 towers to the skyline here but is a relative unknown to the average man on the street.
The film, which features interviews with real estate bigwigs like Donald Trump, Larry Silverstein, Richard Meier, Aby Rosen and many others, will be screened as part of an invite-only event May 11 at the Morgan Library in Midtown. Later this month, check out our website for more information about the film’s public release date.
Costas’ huge number of buildings tell the story of how the city’s skyline was built up, through booms and busts, over the last three decades.
He’s designed most of Trump’s (that is, our next President’s) buildings in the city, including what was until recently the tallest residential tower in the world. (That project, Trump World Tower, was controversial for overshadowing the nearby headquarters of the United Nations — even more fitting these days, considering Trump’s right-wing political aspirations.)
It’s terribly hard to build a good building in Manhattan because of the economic pressures, community opposition, red tape and restrictive zoning. Sometimes the artistic vision of the architect wins out, and most times the bottom line of the developer prevails. It’s a tension at the center of Costas’ career, ever since he first arrived in New York as an immigrant in the 1960s with dreams of building a masterpiece (no, Trump never asked for his birth certificate). It’s an illuminating journey about the nature of integrity and what it takes to get things done in this world, and Costas’ leading-man looks and love interests don’t hurt the story either.
It’s been an enjoyable process to help our director, Toni Comas, and executive producer Amir Korangy (also known as The Real Deal’s publisher), on the project and branch out from the written word to long-form film (as long as I don’t have to go in front of the camera). We hope you enjoy the results.
Meanwhile, this issue has a lot of star power, too. We look at the marquee names of residential brokerage in our annual ranking of the firms, in a series of stories by Candace Taylor. We survey the largest firms as well as the top boutiques in Manhattan; we also canvass Brooklyn for the top companies.
The results show relatively new upstart companies — Rutenberg Realty and Bond New York, to name two — growing dramatically in terms of agents, even if they still don’t do anywhere near as much business as their established counterparts, like Prudential Douglas Elliman, Corcoran and Brown Harris Stevens.
In the boutique realm, two firms getting heavy exposure on the real estate TV show “Selling New York” seem to have benefited from it in terms of their business. Michele Kleier’s Gumley Haft Kleier rose up the ranks, and Core CEO Shaun Osher said his firm has more upcoming new development projects than ever before.
Also, check out our sit-down interview with developer Bruce Ratner, by reporter Adam Piore. Ratner rarely speaks to the press, but emerged to counter reports that his massive Atlantic Yards project was being vastly scaled back. While he probably has more opponents than any other developer, he’s one of the most ambitious builders around, with mega-projects that take several economic cycles to get done — clearly he’s comfortable with the bumpy ride.
Finally, I’d like to congratulate managing editor Jill Gardiner on her upcoming wedding this month. She’s the driving force in putting together the print issue you hold in your hands each month, and we’ll miss her as she takes a well-deserved break on her honeymoon.
Stuart Elliott