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Prudential Douglas Elliman

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The Flatiron District, one of many suggested "hot" "new" neighborhoods.

Q: The City’s Next Hot Neighborhood? A: Take Your Pick

To seasoned retail brokers, the very concept of the next big neighborhood in a city that has been developed several times over is, well, naïve. Still, as The Commercial Observer recently learned, most are still looking for a reason to believe.

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The Lease Beat

Carlyle

EXCLUSIVE: French Fashion Flagship Headed for NYC’s Carlyle Hotel

Fancy French fashion powerhouse Perrin Paris will be launching its first flagship New York City store at the Carlyle Hotel, The Commercial Observer has learned.

The century-old, family-run luxury leather goods company--founded in 1893, to be exact--will rub elbows with fellow swanky retailers Vera Wang, Stubbs & Wootton and Yves Delorme Linens at the 987 Madison Avenue hotel.

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Super Brokers

4 Photos

Some day...

Happy Douglas Elliman Day!

Yesterday, august real estate brokerage Prudential Douglas Elliman celebrated its 100th birthday. By order of the mayor, yesterday was declared Douglas Elliman day, in honor of the broker who founded the firm at 412 Madison Avenue and is often credited with making uptown chic. Firm owners Dottie Herman, Howard Lorber, even the ghost of Elliman Read More

Super Brokers

Marion Hedges

Prudential Elliman Broker Marion Hedges in Critical Condition

Philanthropist and Prudential Elliman real estate broker Marion Hedges is in critical condition after a vicious prank by two Harlem teens, the Post reports. Ms. Hedges was buying Halloween candy at Target when the pair pushed a shopping cart off a four story ledge, knocking Ms. Hedges to the ground as her young son screamed.

A doctor who happened to be passing by gave Ms. Hedges CPR for a full minute before she became responsive. Rushed to the hospital, Ms. Hedges is currently in a medically induced coma. Read More

Manhattan Transfers

Claremont House.

Giuliani’s Right Hand Man and Dorrian’s Daughter Sell UES Digs

For decades, Dorrian's has stood sentry on the Upper East Side, the quintessential prepster hangout and high schoolers' mecca. Carol Dorrian Carbonetti, daughter of the bar's proprietor Jack Dorrian, has lived not so very far away with her politico husband, Tony Carbonetti. But unlike the bar that has watched over many a debauched youth, the Carbonettis are on the move. The couple has sold their uptown digs at 52 East 72nd Street. Read More

apartments

The Edge, a rendering.

Williamsburg, Greenpoint Home Sales Jump—Why?

Surprise, surprise—the new Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel report shows that North Brooklyn home sales have more than tripled during the past year, which is just further evidence of expansion in an area that's growing in popularity with the young people.

Sales in North Brooklyn, which includes Williamsburg and Greenpoint, went from 127 units at this time last year to 402 units in the second quarter of 2011, a significant increase that could partly be attributed to trendy new condo development The Edge. The complex has 565 units and, according to its website, is more than 50 percent sold. Read More

apartments

Twilight?

Plenty of Brooklyn Apartments For Sale

It would seem by a new report that there are either (a) a lot of people leaving Brooklyn; or (b) a lot of opportunities to move to Brooklyn. It's got to be (b), right?

The number of homes offered for sale in the BroBo paradise jumped 11.5 percent annually in the second quarter, according to a new report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel, and the average number of days spent on the market hit 142 days, up from 103 days during the same time last year.

More apartments and brownstones gone wanting? For a month-plus longer than last year? What gives? Read More

Parties

Seal in '06. Those were the days.

Salesmanship in D Minor: The Real Estate Party Returns, In a Way

Gregory Spock is used to performing librettos before rapt audiences in concert halls from Hartford to Florence. Recently, the 26-year-old has found more intimate venues within the exposed-brick walls of New York townhouses. A Roland keyboard or a baby grand to his right, a pink bow tie around his neck, a songbook in his hands—Verdi always wows `em—Mr. Spock delivers bursts of baroque beauty, all for salesmanship.

Mr. Spock joined Manhattan brokerage Rubicon Property four months ago, after receiving his broker’s license in the winter. He said his new boss liked him for his creativity, which means saving money on those showings.

“A lot of people have food or wine now, but the entertainment isn’t thought out.”

Because who isn’t lulled into signing a multi-million dollar contract by the plaintive moans of Aida?

During last decade’s real estate boom, the real estate party, usually in a newly built condo tower, was a staple of the industry. After the recession hit, nobody could much afford them. Now they seem to be hobbling back, along with the real estate market. Read More

The Lab

You, under this.

Co-ops vs. Condos: Co-ops Winning Again

Co-ops are the dominant form of for-sale housing on our fair isle, more difficult to get into (persnickety boards that have recently gotten that much more uppity) and generally more expensive to buy (bigger down payments and more stringent financial requirements). They account for roughly two-thirds of the Manhattan housing stock, with condos comprising much of the rest.

But, for a while there during the last decade, condos overtook co-ops as the preferred housing choice, maybe due to looser mortgages or just the simple ubiquity of all those gleaming, new towers. This reporter recalls offhand a study done by The Real Deal magazine that showed more than 9,000 condos proposed for Manhattan in 2005 alone—and most of them subsequently got built.

It appears, though, that the dowager has risen. Read More