RE:CAP A roundup of real estate-related happenings last month COMPILED BY ANN IMPERATORE
LUXE Crown Heights continues to heat up, but at a cost. Brownstoner reports: “Renters upset about insane ConEd Bills to heat Crown Heights luxury building.”
Can’t spare a square: Two UES millionaires, Philippe Delouvrier (right) and Soros Fund Management partner Ravi Yadav, go to court in a battle over inches of property between their neighboring townhouses.
Daily News RE editor Kathy Clarke (left) tweets at NY Post RE reporter Jennifer Keil, accusing Keil of “shamelessly” ripping off her story about $51M Jeff Blau UES townhouse buy.
In Vogue interview, “Ivanka Trump knows what it means to be a modern millennial,” and divulges that the secret to romance is … real estate.
Ivanka lays it on thick for Fredrik Eklund: With ads like this, #TheSell should be called #TheHARDSell
Luxe Downtown Brooklyn building 66 Rockwell Place concludes what amenities renters want most: Book clubs, poker tournaments and cooking classes.
The longest lingerer: 60 Warren Street’s 10,900 sq-ft PH finally sells for $24.5M, after 1,600 days on the market and a $4 million price cut. One reason for the big lag? Seller Edward Bazinet once said “there are no cozy areas” in the glassy pad.
This roof is on figurative fire! Sloping zigzag party in the sky at building slated for Bushwick’s Rheingold Brewery site will have fire pit, outdoor BBQ areas, hiking course, urban farming area and dog run.
Nutty Nest Seekers agent & screen star Ryan Serhant poses nude for Flaunt Magazine in almost comically phallic photo series featuring a strategically placed bowl of nuts, erect candlesticks and an ass shot to rival Kim K’s. Greenpoint gets hotter --yet more annoying: An entreprenuer is seeking funding for a retail hot sauce tasting room, complete with a hot sauce “sommelier.”
“Words are not my thing. I’m a realtor, not a poet.”
StreetEasy launches brilliant ad campaign
WIN
FAIL
We are family? Developer Jed Walentas divulges he has called his father “David” since age 2.
We are family? Robert Reffkin, co-founder and CEO of brokerage Compass, divulges his mother, a real estate agent with 16 years of experience, works at competing firm Charles Rutenberg.
“My husband’s idea of a date night somehow always involves me looking at a development site.”
Aural Pleasure: An audiovisual installation called Soundscape New York, at the Museum of the City of New York, combines the actual sounds of iconic NYC interiors, like Grand Central Terminal and the t e Guggenheim, Gugge e , with t visual sua animations projected on a panoramic screen.
Verizon Fios launches campaign #NeverSettle promoting its videochat product featuring a daft realtor in “Flipside Stories” who laments how difficult it is to describe a property to a client.
We are unsure why rebellious real estate brokerage “access property group” eschews all capitalization and most punctuation on its website. On “A Fine Blog,” Halstead agent Andrew Fine declares Third Avenue between 83rd and 84th NYC’s “healthiest block,” highlighting SoulCycle, Juice Generation, Juice Press, Just Salad and Exceed Physical Culture. The neighborhood Krispy Kreme lasted only a few months, he notes.
Apartments.com gets rebranded, dusts off Jeff Goldblum as spokesperson “Brad Bellflower” and coins word “Apartminternet” in what we can only coin a trifecta of fail.
The Village Voice offers LOL-worthy alternatives to pricey NYC apartments, including: a food cart, yurt, party bus, ambulance and the vestibule at Warren 77 #TheRentIsTooDamnHigh (and so are the Voice writers!)
The despicable trend of Native Advertising hits our industry: IFC comedy series Portlandia, blatantly sponsored by Zillow, dedicates whole episode “House for Sale” to real estate, each skit featuring all sponsored content. #MakeItStop
Highly rated flick “Wild Canaries” namechecks Douglas Elliman when a rent-controlled tenant in a Brooklyn building dies mysteriously and her real estate mogul son is suspected of murder.
LOW RENT 140 April 2015 www.TheRealDeal.com
Genius parody “The Jinx Podcast” and companion Twitter feed @thejinxpodcast launch to poke fun at HBO docu-series and Mr. Bob, with episode titles like “Eyebrows Shmybrows.”