Town Residential opens Astor Place office

Jeff Doder, and a rendering of the Town Astor Place office

Town Residential is opening its fourth Manhattan office tomorrow, at 26 Astor Place, in the East Village, the firm announced. The 6,000-square-foot space, located on the second floor of the Charles Gwathmey-designed Sculpture for Living tower, will eventually house 70 sales and rental agents.

Town is renovating the exterior and installing an illuminated double-sided clocktower (see rendering to the right), that will be unveiled at a party tonight (in time to start the clock at midnight) when the office officially opens. Jeff Doder, who Town recently hired from the Corcoran Group, will head operations at the office.

Matt Van Damm, director of operations at Town, said the office will open with management and support staff and just a handful of agents. “Our strategy all along has been to open an office and fill it out with the right people as they come along,” Van Damm said. “When this company started, it opened its doors without any representatives.” Van Damm said the company is not targeting any specific brokers or firms, and has not reached out to people within the industry to add them to the firm. “That’s not really our strategy,” he said.

One feature of the Astor Place office is an auditorium with stadium seating, dubbed “Town Hall,” where the firm will hold educational seminars and presentations. The theater will serve agents across all four of the company’s offices, including the existing three at 88 Greenwich Street, 110 Fifth Avenue and the firm’s headquarters at 730 Fifth Avenue.

Doder said Town chose the new location, which it’s branding as its Noho office, not only because of the architecturally beautiful exterior, but also for its location as a “strategic crossroads” of the downtown market. He said it gives the firm a presence with close proximity to the crucial Noho, West Village and East Village neighborhoods. Van Damm and Doder said the company has no immediate plans for further expansion. TRD