Nancy Packes, an early pioneer of new development marketing in New York City, died Thursday at the age of 80.
A Bronx native, Packes graduated from New York University’s School of Law in 1970 and worked as a criminal trial lawyer for the next seven years.
Packes left law and in 1977 founded her own brokerage, Feathered Nest, which launched a more than three-decade career in real estate. She built the brokerage from the ground up, The Real Deal previously reported, cold-calling landlords and commuting two hours from her home in New Jersey.
By the time she sold it to Brown Harris Stevens in 1998, Feathered Nest counted more than 70 agents and a place among the top residential brokerages in the city.
During that time, Packes also served as a trusted consultant and advisor for some of the city’s foremost developers, including Donald Trump, Douglas Durst and Bruce Ratner.
“We don’t make a move on our layouts without running it by Nancy,” Durst told TRD in 2010. Durst worked with Packes on projects like the Epic at 125 West 31st Street and the Helena at 601 West 57th Street.
Her break came when she received an unexpected call from Trump one day, Packes previously recalled to TRD. “Nancy, be here tomorrow morning!” he told her. Soon after, she was renting out the investor units at Trump Tower.
Packes made a name for herself with her astute design sensibilities that went far beyond the role of a typical leasing agent.
In her consultant role, she helped developers choose floor plans and build buyer profiles. At Douglaston Development’s Ohm rental building in Hell’s Kitchen, she convinced developer Jeff Levine to build a performance space in the airy lobby to cater to the nightclub-oriented neighborhood.
In a 2010 interview with the New York Times, Architect Frank Gehry compared Packes to another maven of new development, Sunshine Group founder Louise Sunshine, for her singular role in shaping the city’s new development market. The pair worked together on Forest City Ratner’s 900-unit development at 8 Spruce Street.
In 2005, Packes helped launch Brown Harris Stevens Project Marketing, an arm dedicated to new development condos, before re-focusing her energy on her consulting firm, Nancy Packes Inc., in 2009.
In recent years, her firm’s data arm, Nancy Packes Data Services, became a trusted repository of rental market information and analysis.
Packes is survived by her son, Seth, who also works for her firm, as well as a daughter-in-law, granddaughter, nephews, nieces and cousins.