Soleil Moon Frye as Punky Brewster and at the Azure book readingReal estate events don’t usually involve glitter and tiaras. Then again, they don’t usually involve Soleil Moon Frye, the actress best known for playing a spunky foster child on the ’80s sitcom “Punky Brewster,” either.
On a Thursday night last month, Frye celebrated the launch of her new parenting book, “Happy Chaos,” in a four-bedroom model apartment at Azure, a new condo at 333 East 91st Street. Organized by Divalysscious Moms, a networking group for New York mothers, the event featured glitter-sprinkled cupcakes and tiara-embroidered pillows.
Frye, now a children’s clothing designer and mother to seven-year-old Poet, talked diapers and Dolce, read from her book, and signed copies for the stylishly attired New York moms in attendance.
For David Greczek and Ammanda Espinal, the Prudential Douglas Elliman agents handling sales at Azure, those well-heeled moms were the real focus of the event. Launched in 2007, Azure has large three- and four-bedroom units, and has always appeared to aim its marketing efforts at families. (The apartment where Frye spoke was staged to include two children’s bedrooms, one decorated for a boy, the other for a girl.)
Azure’s sales effort has been hit by a few unforeseen snags, including a crane collapse and the onset of the recession. But now it’s 40 percent sold and 27 percent occupied, and Espinal said she hoped Frye’s appearance would help sell the remaining units.
“We have great success with these types of events,” Espinal said. “The ‘Diva Moms’ tell their friends about Azure. The word-of-mouth factor is priceless.”
At the Frye event, several moms made appointments to look at apartments in the building, Espinal said.
The Divalysscious group is actually becoming something of a force on the real estate scene.
“I host events at apartments that I would raise my own family in,” said Divalysscious founder and blogger Lyss Stern, who recently hosted an event at the Aldyn at 60 Riverside Boulevard.
In the seven years Divalysscious has been around, 10 apartments have been sold in connection with its events, Stern said.
As for Frye, she said she loved Azure’s open spaces, but she won’t be purchasing in it anytime soon. Based in Los Angeles, she told The Real Deal her real estate tastes run to “fixer-uppers — something super-unique.”