Scott Taylor and 40 Central Park SouthAtco Residential Group recently dropped its name for what it considers a more consumer-friendly one: Essential New York Real Estate.
Scott Taylor, director of Essential New York Real Estate, said the real estate brokerage came up with the name because “in New York, real estate is one of the things that is essential to people, it’s what they talk about at parties.”
For the past year, Taylor said the firm has been planning the re-branding. It is still under the parent company Atco, which has property management, construction, investment and development arms. Taylor said the Atco name is more known for its commercial ownership and property management businesses, which is one of the reasons the residential division wanted to separate itself with a new name. Atco is run by the family of Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman H. Dale Hemmerdinger.
The firm officially started using the new name April 1, and is slowly expanding its broker ranks.
Taylor said they are hiring one new broker every two weeks, and recently acquired a broker team called the World Beaters that had been at Century 21 NY Metro, which itself just brought on three new teams. Essential New York currently has nine brokers.
Essential New York is also looking into opening more offices in the city.
The firm’s home is at 40 Central Park South, on the ground floor of a residential rental building where the company is the exclusive leasing agent.
Taylor said one of the goals of the name change is finding “life outside of 40 Central Park South.”
He added, “Before, the company focus wasn’t where it needed to be,” explaining that it previously focused on finding tenants for 40 Central Park South, and worked mostly in The Plaza District area, but is now focusing more on being buyers’ brokers for properties all over the city.
An Essential New York broker recently sold a Midtown West apartment for $1.76 million, which had an asking price of $1.7 million, and also leased a 40 Central Park South penthouse for $17,000 a month, Taylor said.
When asked if the company’s name switch has confused some clients, Taylor said: “It does cause a little bit of confusion, but once they get the feeling of the differences, they know it’s a good thing. People are starting to see that the image is more than a name change.”