Earlier this week, The Observer practically annointed Ilan Bracha the new king of New York City's real estate brokers. He'd led the top team at the city's largest brokerage Prudential Douglas Elliman for two years running, while also running a successful development... MORE >
Another day, another sale at Jean Nouvel's spectacular 100 11th Avenue. Self-made man Luciano Rammairone went from studying at Pace to having college kids write about it for high school kids at College Bound magazine. Now, his CollegeBound Network rivals the likes of Kaplan and Princeton Review, and the proceeds have helped finance a move from a sleepy Staten Island cul-de-sac to one of the toniest--if troubled--properties in... MORE >
It was a gray January day when The Observer met Ilan Bracha at the Sony Building on Madison Avenue for lunch. But inside the Philip Johnson-designed atrium, at Solo (Zagat: the "be-all, end-all" of "gourmet" glatt kosher restaurants), it could have been a breezy summer evening in Mr. Bracha's native Tel... MORE >
Oscar Engelbert has the flare of Donald Trump and the savvy of David Walentas, while making a name for himself at half their ages. The smartly dressed 34-year-old Swede has transformed a number of commercial and industrial buildings in his homeland into housing since founding Oscar Properties in 2004. ... MORE >
Sergio Trujillo has danced his way into a phenomenal Chelsea penthouse at the Lion's Head Condominiums (there's one on the facade) at 121 West 19th Street, according to city records. Mr. Trujillo, called "The Ubiquitous Choreographer" by Playbill, has staged dance routines most recently for The Addams Family, Memphis, Jersey Boys and Next to... MORE >
--From muscling terrorists to sipping cocktails on a wraparound terrace with Central Park views, there's no question Frances Fragos Townsend is enjoying her retirement. Ms. Townsend will pay $4.98 million to purchase a Lexington Avenue townhouse from an impenetrable LLC. The 49-year-old former prosecutor was George W. Bush's Homeland Security adviser from 2004 to 2007, which makes her by far the longest-running holder of that position in its brief (and, shall we say, not especially... MORE >
Tragically, the Rockefellers didn't make it into The Observer's Power Families issue. But don't weep for the Standard Oil spawn: According to city records, Peter C. Rockefeller and his wife Allison Whipple have sold their four-bedroom apartment at 131 East 69th Street for $7,400,000. (According to their 1987 wedding announcement, he is Nelson Rockefeller's grandson, and she used to be a broker at Douglas Elliman.) The Brown Harris Stevens listing--which is now offline--clocks... MORE >
We reported last week that the Real Estate Board of New York will be starting early next year its own searchable Web database for residential listings. Of course, the cost to the dear consumer is zero. But if REBNY's more than 300 member residential brokerages want their listings included in the new database, the price won't be so small. According to one source, bigger firms will be charged $7,500 annually, while the little folks... MORE >
It's time for the quarterly reports again! And as always, the brokerages are breathing largely the same rarefied air inside Manhattan's still-robust real-estate bubble. The headline is that the average price for a Manhattan apartment topped $1,000 a square foot to reach a new record, according to reports issued today by all four major Manhattan brokerages: Douglas Elliman, The Corcoran Group, Brown Harris Stevens, and Halstead. Inventory is also expanding across the market--a worrying indicator... MORE >
That's Jonathan Miller, New York's resident real-estate expert, not the Gifford of days past. Michael Bloomberg issued a doomsday statement on the New York real-estate market to Reuters this weekend: "The real estate market is slowing down dramatically and we're going to have a problem down the road," Bloomberg said. But the statement, which responds to one of Jonathan Miller's regular reports, prepared for Douglas Elliman, doesn't support Bloomberg's gloom, Miller argues on his Web log, Matrix: Why... MORE >
Cheri Dorr had been renting in Chelsea for more than a decade when, eight years ago, she finally was... MORE >
Manhattan's rich and famous are once again fighting-and ponying up-to live in the city's most presti... MORE >
A 24-foot-wide billboard will soon be hoisted above the sales office of the sleek residential tower ... MORE >
OnOct. 18, Michael Shvo, the top-grossing broker for Prudential Douglas... MORE >
Over the past year, the major Manhattan real-estate brokerages have released a fusillade of market r... MORE >
From our partners...
