Inside Official’s breakup after the Alexander allegations

Last days at brokerage fraught with failed co-founder negotiations, lost business as top brokers face rape lawsuits, FBI probe

How Alexanders’ Brokerage Official Fell Apart

Photo illustration of Tal Alexander, Nicole Oge and Oren Alexander (Illustration by Kevin Rebong for The Real Deal)

Aug 28, 2024, 12:00 PM

In June, Oren and Tal Alexander, faced with allegations that they and their brother drugged and raped women over more than a decade, said they were stepping back from the brokerage they co-founded just two years ago.

The plan was to minimize impact on the business. But it already seemed to be the beginning of the end for Official, the Side-backed brokerage co-founded by Alexanders, with Nicole Oge, Richard Jordan and Andrew Wachtfogel just two years earlier.

Top agents left and developers cut ties with Official. The firm’s other co-founders tried to distance themselves from Oren and Tal. Oge became the company spokesperson, blasting the media for conflating Official with the Alexanders.

They wiped the website of any trace of the Alexanders and moved forward with a new version of Official: These partners kicked off a roadshow in early August to raise money and rebrand, a source told The Real Deal.

The brothers, who are being investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, had a different plan and turned their aggression toward their soon-to-be former partners.

By the end of July, the Alexanders were demanding a course of return for if or when they were cleared of the disturbing allegations, according to the source. Oge, Jordan and Wachfogel could vote them out of Official, but the Alexanders threatened legal action, a mess that the other partners weren’t interested in being a part of, according to people familiar with the matter.

Oge and her partners announced they were forfeiting ownership, leaving the Alexanders as sole owners.

At that point, it seemed to those still engaged with the Alexanders that they were still missing the gravity of the allegations and the firm’s inability to recover, sources said.

As some developers and brokers told TRD, “what business is left?”

Controlling the message

From the outside, Official broke up with the Alexanders. In August, Oge, Jordan and Wachtfogel called a meeting in Aspen for the first stop on a tour presenting the plan ahead to agents. But drama was bubbling up in the background, as the Alexanders signaled they would not exit the business.

The fundraising campaign was cut short “due to the friction playing out behind the scenes,” one source said.

Oge, Jordan and Wachtfogel’s exits mark the end of an ambitious partnership, with ties going back months or years before Official launched.

Since its inception, Oge has been at the center of Official. She played a critical role in Official’s branding, which attracted other agents as it expanded to markets beyond Miami and New York. The role was a culmination of Oge’s more than a decade in real estate marketing in New York City, where she jumped from brokerage to brokerage.

After three years at Town Residential, Oge left the now-shuttered brokerage for Douglas Elliman. Town sued in 2014, alleging she violated her noncompete, which barred her from working for another residential brokerage in Manhattan for two years after leaving Town. (The two eventually settled).

She joined Elliman as global chief marketing officer, where she spearheaded a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign with the support of longtime chairman Howard Lorber. That’s where she worked with Jordan, who is now her life partner. Jordan, who led Elliman’s development marketing’s global efforts, would remain at the brokerage until a couple of months after Official’s launch in 2022.

Oge suddenly resigned from her post at Elliman in 2016, just two years after joining the company. The circumstances surrounding her departure remain unclear. A spokesperson for the company told TRD at the time she was shifting her focus to philanthropic efforts.

A few months after Elliman cut ties with Oge, Wachtfogel joined the brokerage in the research and analytics department and wouldn’t leave until 2022 to launch Official.

Oge took a break after her departure, before joining WeWork shortly ahead of its ill-fated 2019 IPO. She left in 2021 and later became an adviser for brokerage startup Casa Blanca.

At this point, the plan to hatch Official was already in the works. Though Oren and Tal didn’t leave Douglas Elliman until June 2022, they had approached Oge three years earlier and they gave Lorber nearly a year’s notice that they were considering leaving the brokerage, the source said.

Elliman put together a comparable offer that would give the Alexanders a similar financial position to what Side was offering, according to text messages reviewed by TRD.

Elliman declined to comment. A lawyer for the Alexanders declined to comment on details around the brothers’ discussions with Elliman ahead of Official’s launch, terms of compensation and return to the business.

Official’s final act?

Once negotiations fell apart, the three partners announced they were exiting, effective Aug. 15. Though Jordan and Wachtfogel are still licensed with Official, state records show, but are in the process of being moved to Side.

Days before, the Alexander brothers were spotted in Aspen, where they were said to be trying to convince remaining agents to stay with the firm.

The brothers’ income was based on their commission split and they did not receive a salary, a source said. Oren and Tal’s licenses have been inactive since they stepped back from Official, but the Alexanders are likely waiting for a handful of sales to close so the brokerage can collect those commissions. In New York, Official’s pending sales total just over $14 million.

In Miami, Official’s pending deals include 222 South Coconut Lane in Miami Beach, which is on the market with Isaac Lustgarten and Liora Rahimi for $12.9 million; and Lustgarten and Lucy Donn listing for the home at 19465 39th Avenue in Sunny Isles Beach, asking $2.6 million. Official also has deals in the works at Jonathan Landau’s Indian Creek Residences, a boutique new development in Bay Harbor Islands.

Some agents left after only a few months at the brokerage, while other longer-tenured agents have stuck around, including Lustgarten, Oren’s partner on the Alexander Team in South Florida. Sources say Lustgarten is “stuck” but will be leaving Official for a competitor. Lustgarten did not respond to requests for comment.

The Alexanders’ plans for the business are unclear, as the four civil lawsuits work their way through the legal system. All four name Oren as a defendant and one includes Tal. An FBI child exploitation and sex trafficking task force has been interviewing women who allege they were assaulted by the brothers or witnessed the attacks.