The Noble Black team climbed to the top of the heap this year, taking home top honors at Douglas Elliman’s annual Ellie awards on Tuesday.
They won the top award for the team with the most commissions from sales in 2018, jumping from third place last year. Among their big deals of the year, the Noble Black team closed a $73.8 million dollar deal on a penthouse at Zeckendorf Development’s 520 Park Avenue, purchased by vacuum-cleaner mogul James Dyson. Black joined Elliman in 2015 from Corcoran, where he was a perennial name atop the city’s top agent lists.
Also in the top three were the Holly Parker team, which placed first last year, and the Rubin team and the Lauren Muss team, who tied in third place. Rounding out the top five were the Shemesh team and the Alexander Team.
Madeline Hult Elghanayan won for earning the most commissions from sales by an individual broker, unseating last year’s winner Lauren Muss.
Hult Elghanayan is director of sales at HFZ Capital Group’s the Marquand. She was part of the team that sold a $43 million penthouse at 160 Leroy Street to e-commerce billionaire Michael Rubin last year.
Ann Cutbill Lenane and Judith Lederer tied in second place, while Shari Scharfer Rollins came in third. Neal Sroka placed fourth and Emily Sertic took the fifth spot.
The Rubin team and the Stanton Hoch team shared the award for most transactions, while Jessica Levine did the most deals as an individual.
As they did last year, “Million Dollar Listing New York” star Fredrik Eklund and business partner John Gomes declined to participate in the Ellies. Raphael De Niro also appears to have opted out of the competition this year.
In Brooklyn, the top team award went to the Maroni team, and the top individual broker was Rebekah Carver. She was previously an agent at Brooklyn Hearth Realty, which Douglas Elliman acquired in 2017.
Nationally, Elliman reported a total sales volume of $28.1 billion for 2018, up eight percent from the year before.
The firm ranked in first place in The Real Deal’s annual Manhattan brokerage ranking in February, with $8.99 billion in closed sales, a 72 percent increase on the year before.