New sales approach at Modern 23

To save money on sales office payments, developer Erez Itzhaki fired his sales team at Modern 23, a condo project nearing completion at 350 West 23rd Street, and closed the sales office. Instead, Itzhaki is assigning individual apartments to experienced brokers from all the major brokerage firms, and is offering them substantial commissions to sell the units. The old sales team had only sold two of the 15 units. Among the chosen brokers are Kirk Rundhaug, a senior vice president at Core Group Marketing, who is selling the $4.75 million penthouse, and Lauren Muss, a senior vice president at the Corcoran Group, who is listing a $2.15 million full-floor unit.