BOND New York, one of the city’s largest brokerages, has taken an additional floor at its headquarters building at 1776 Broadway and, in an unconventional move, plans to set aside the space for brokers who meet a certain productivity threshold.
The office on the 23rd floor – which spans 4,400 square feet overlooking the Hudson River and Central Park – will function as a type of reward for highest grossing agents, Noah Freedman, co-founder of BOND, told The Real Deal. Only agents who gross at least $1 million in commissions will be able to work there.
“We wanted to create a really elite space,” Freedman said, adding that BOND has been growing and that previously some agents were crammed two to a desk on other floors.
BOND also has space on the second and 19th floors of the building, between 57th and 58th streets in Midtown. The 24-story building, owned by Illertissen Holding, according to PropertyShark, is also home to Mann Realty Associates.
While Freedman wouldn’t comment on which agents or brokers will move up, the BOND agents with the priciest listings, per a review of the company’s website, are Michael Chen and Pawel Ciecwierz, both of whom are listing $25 million properties — one a commercial space on the Lower East Side, the other a five-bedroom townhouse in the West Village.
The new floor will accommodate approximately 40 people.
Freedman declined to comment on rents but the asking rents on the 18th floor are $60 per square foot, according to real estate data service CoStar Group.
This just months after Bank of America sued BOND, after the brokerage allegedly defaulted on $750,000 in loans. StreetEasy, the listings provider, also sued the firm earlier this year, claiming it failed to pay a hefty advertising bill.
BOND has four other offices in New York City, in Chelsea, Greenwich Village, Tribeca and on the Upper East Side.
BOND is moving the agents up to the new office next week, Freedman said.