86 December 2011 www.TheRealDeal.com

Web hits: The month in review

Kirk Henckels, Margaret Furniss, Jennifer Callahan

Stribling $21 million 778 Park Avenue #16P15

Brett Miles, Susan Green,Rory Nichols

Town $15.5 million 400 West 12th Street #11A

Liora Yalof,Elizabeth Sahlman

Corcoran $15.16 million 800 Park Avenue #7THF

Maria Pashby, Joanna Pashby, Louis Buckworth

Corcoran $14.25 million 177 Franklin Street

Top deals of the month

Most popular stories

1) Andrew Farkas: The sequel

2) Balazs purchase hit with commission dispute

3) Where do top brokers live?

4) Gotham breaks ground on Manhattan’s largest new construction project

5) Crown, Centurion purchase Soho’s Apple store for $75M

6) A look at some of real estate’s most impressive comebacks

7) NYC rental websites stack up

8) Schron sells former Mitchell-Lama complex for $33M

9) Kushner, CIM buy 200 Lafayette Street for $50M

10) Beyoncé’s mom moves upstairs into daughter’s pad at One Beacon Court

Real estate heavyweights debate at TRD forum:

“Bailey v. Saft: That was the greatest show on earth. Better than any movie since ‘The Godfather.’ Please, The Real Deal,

bring them back for Round 2.”

(Read full stories online)

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Source: StreetEasy and The Real Deal. Data is for closed deals filed with the city between Oct. 28 and Nov. 28. The chart only in-cludes sellers’ brokers. Only deals where an individual broker and address can be identified are included.

Paolo Zampolli

Aqueduct casin rendering

Help from Yelp:

“With Yelp, negative reviewers often want to ‘settle the score’ for a bad experience. ... However, in real estate, so many issues

arise from things outside the agent’s control. But [clients] don’t understand these other issues, and instead it all becomes the fault of the agent. Yelp works for food, not for real estate.”

Brett Miles

Joseph Cayre

Ivanka Trump

Balazs purchase hit with commission dispute By AdAm Pincus

A broker who says he brought famed hotelier André Balazs to buy 5 Beekman Street filed a lawsuit last month claiming that the sellers, Bonjour Capital and the Chetrit Group, are refusing to pay him a commission. In the suit, filed in New York State Su-preme Court, broker Neil Gronowetter of Multifamily Investor claims that he intro-duced Balazs to representatives of Bonjour Capital, who promised him verbally that

he would receive a 1 percent commission. Balazs is now reportedly in contract to buy the 10-story build-ing from Bonjour and the Chetrits. “Neil has been victimized by well-known organizations that are looking to deny him what he’s rightfully earned,” said Gronowetter’s attorney, Luigi Rosabianca. Bonjour head Charles Dayan disputed Gronowetter’s claims, and said an outside real estate advisor, Hillel Spin-ner, introduced Balazs to the sellers.

Beyoncé’s mom moves upstairs into daughter’s pad at One Beacon Court By Leigh KAmPing-cArder

Tina Knowles, the mother of singer Beyoncé, is moving into her daughter’s apartment at One Beacon Court after selling her own place there, an inside source told The Real Deal

last month. The elder Knowles last month signed a contract to sell her condo unit for $5.6 million, and plans to move to an apartment Beyoncé owns, but does not live in, on an up-per floor of the 105-unit building. Best known for designing outfits for Destiny’s Child, Tina Knowles now heads up an eponymous women’s clothing line. She decided to sell her apartment “because she got top dollar for it, and she has an-other option in the building, so she took advantage of it,” the source said. Tina bought the unit for $2.9 million in 2005, according to property records, and listed it for just shy of $6 million in May with Prudential Douglas Elliman.

Massey Knakal retail director leaves after nine monthsBy KAtherine cLArKe

Massey Knakal Realty Services’ Ellaina Dreifach left the firm last month after less than a year, citing unfair commission splits and uncomfortable working conditions. Dreifach was hired from Eretz Realty in January to run day-to-day operations for the firm’s new retail leasing division, she told The Real Deal. But she was unhappy with Massey Knakal’s territory model and commission splits, she said. “You have to pay the person in your territory 20 percent of your income,” Dreifach said, “and then [firm co-

founders] Bob Knakal and Paul Massey want another 20 percent. It’s ridiculous.” Dreifach also said she is considering suing the brokerage over the way she was treated during her tenure, alleging the presence of sexual harassment and illegal drugs at the firm. A spokesperson for Massey Knakal called the allegations “patently absurd and utterly baseless.”

Tina Knowles

5 Beekman Street

Ellaina Dreifach 200 Lafayette Street