Twenty-year-old brokerage firm Brooklyn Properties is closing one of its four offices, at 504 Fifth Avenue in South Park Slope (pictured below), The Real Deal has confirmed.
The move was an attempt to downsize in the midst of the real estate downturn, said Nalani Clark, principal broker at Brooklyn Properties, adding that the company laid off a secretary in the office but moved the eight agents stationed there to the company’s other locations.
“We needed to cut costs like I’m sure everyone has to,” she said. “We had two other offices in Park Slope already, and we felt that it was the prudent thing to do.”
Clark said the company is closing its two-year-old Office On Fifth Avenue, but not the two remaining Park Slope offices, one at 113 Seventh Avenue between Carroll and President streets, and another about 10 blocks away at 213 Seventh Avenue between Third and Fourth streets, she said. A third office, in Fort Greene, is at 725 Fulton Street at Lafayette Street.
The space will be vacant as of next month, said building owner Eli Oved, who is marketing the space himself. The 1,900-square-foot space is available for $5,500 a month, he said.
Clark said the company has a good relationship with Oved, who let the real estate company out of its lease. “We’re sorry to leave his space,” she said.
The closing, originally reported on Brownstoner.com, is the most recent in a slew of real estate offices closed by brokerages hoping to save money with sales and rental transactions way down.
Click below to listen in as reporter Candace Taylor gives the back story on the closings of New York City residential real estate offices.