Louise Sunshine
Is The Mark Trying Too Hard?
As the only hotel in Manhattan with its own "curator," it is perhaps fitting that The Mark has published a set of Tashcen-esque glossy coffeetable books "introducing" the newly designed, landmark Upper East Side hotel-turned-condo.
Such an expensive marketing blitz calls into question the media hype surrounding The Mark's renovation and the bullish projections about future condo sales there from the Alexico Group, the firm managing the conversion. read more »
The Art of Shvo: City Real Estate Stars Jet to Miami for Art Basel
Avenue, a new condo he's marketing.
Besides being Manhattan realty mavens, what do Michael Shvo, Louise Sunshine, and Dennis Mangone have in common? They've all fled New York this week for the well-tanned haven of Miami Beach, where Art Basel ("the most important art show in the United States, a cultural and social highlight for the Americas") began yesterday.
"My clients are collectors... They collect art, they collect Yachts, they collect condominiums, they collect lifestyle," said Mr. Mangone, a senior vice president at the Cororan Group. On the art fair's first day, Mr. Mangone met a European gallerist who's now interested in an apartment at 40 Bond, the hip new condo building developed by Ian Schrager. read more »
What A Country! Russian Mogul Could Set Record: $150 M. Apartment
Russian-born and Harvard-educated finance billionaire Leonard Blavatnik has signed a letter of intent to buy a $150 million apartment on East 77th Street, The New York Post is reporting this morning.
"The price would be twice as large as the previous record listing in New York City, and nearly $50 million more than last year's sale of the De Menil estate in East Hampton, believed to be the priciest residential transaction in the country," Braden Keil writes.
Readers of the Manhattan Transfers column will know Mr. Blavatnik's name. Back in 2005, he tried to buy Mary Tyler Moore's 5,740-square-foot prewar coop on the eighth floor of 927 Fifth Avenue, but his $18.5 million offer was rejected by the exacting co-op board. The rejection seems to have stuck: the same thing happened when the co-op board at the San Remo on Central Park West rejected his bid to buy and combine three units into a massive aerie overlooking Central Park. read more »
The Corcoran Sunshine Gals Sell Out Their Realty Class
Even if real estate is New York's version of the movie biz, and even if Barbara Corcoran and Louise Sunshine are the grand dames of high-end realty, you wouldn't expect they'd sell out an "Advance Business and Communications" class for brokers.
But The Observer has learned that there's no space left in the Real Estate Board of New York class that's being taught next Monday by the ladies, plus Clark Halstead (who started his own eponymous brokerage after co-founding Sotheby's International Realty).
If you're an ambitious agent, show up at REBNY's Lexington Avenue headquarters at 5:30, and push your way in. Ms. Corcoran (whose first book is called If You Don't Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons in Your Pigtails & Other Lessons I Learned from My Mom) might give some hints about her new work. And Ms. Sunshine, according to a publicist, will be talking about "how she transformed new condominium development into an upscale lifestyle approach." Sounds awesome.
On Shlock and Shvo: Louise Sunshine Rebrands Herself
Twenty years ago, Louise Sunshine was busy changing how New Yorkers thought about luxury living. Now, she’s developing prime spots like The Mark Hotel and 56 Leonard—and, oh yeah, launching a global media company. read more »
Here Comes Louise Junior
To recap: Jeff Yamaguchi, hired as C.O.O. right after Ms. Sunshine stepped down, only lasted about six months. And this week, Kelly Kennedy Mack became division president, and Tricia Hayes Cole was named chief operating officer of the developmental marketing.
Now, Ms. Sunshine assures The Post that she is not being pushed out, and things are running according to plan
And Sunshine, also in the process of "creating a think tank that for Corcoran Sunshine, is particularly happy with Mack's appointment.Think tank? We're hoping to hear more about that in the future. - Michael Calderone"For the past four years, I've been grooming Kelly as my heir apparent," said Sunshine, chairwoman emeritus with the company. "She is a person of incredible talent, intelligence and finesse - a Louise Junior."
More Changes at Corcoran Sunshine
Now, there's a couple more executive changes over at the Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, reports the New York Post.
Kelly Kennedy Mack was named division president, a newly created position and Tricia Hayes Cole became chief operating officer of the developmental marketing arm of residential real estate giant Corcoran Group. The move comes following speculation that Sunshine...was being further eased out of her role as the driving force behind the marketing division.Hopefully, these new hires will last longer than former C.O.O. Jeff Yamaguchi, who came aboard last summer after Ms. Sunshine stepped down. His brief tenure was over by the end of the year. - Michael Calderone
Power Divas
Hello, I'm Giorgio Armani.
Find out all you've ever wanted to know about Pam Liebman, Dottie Herman, Louise Sunshine, and Elizabeth Stribling, who provides this story about breaking into the industry.
I was at a party in Newport, Rhode Island and I told my escort that I was looking for a job…but that I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. He asked if I had ever thought about real estate. Just an off-chance question, but afterwards…when I looked at the New York Times and read all the ads for duplexes and townhouses, it so sounded terribly glamorous that I decided to sell in real estate. I learned pretty quickly because I had a genuine knack for negotiation.
And what about each woman's forecast for 2006? Not surprisingly, they're quite optimistic. read more »
- Michael Calderone
