Corcoran To Open Fourth Brooklyn Office in W’burg
RIVAL FIRM SAYS THEY’VE GOT HIP MARKET ON LOCK
By Sarah Ryley
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Williamsburg — Prudential Douglas Elliman and aptsandlofts.com will have to make room for another major player on their Williamsburg turf. The Corcoran Group, one of the city’s largest real estate firms, will be opening its fourth Brooklyn office on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, between North Third and Fourth avenues, in less than a month, said the company’s regional vice president of Brooklyn, Frank Percesepe.
With some 40 brokers, the office would be bigger than the Corcoran branches in Fort Greene and Park Slope, but smaller than the company’s Brooklyn headquarters in Brooklyn Heights.
Some people have asked Percesepe why the company waited so long to open a permanent office in one of the borough’s hottest neighborhoods, with new projects breaking ground every month.
“You have to wait for the stuff to be built,” he said, “We’ve been doing business over there for a long time, but we’ve been doing it from other offices.”
Finding a space big enough on Bedford Avenue, lined with tiny storefronts, also presented a challenge. “We actually would have opened up a year ago if we found the right space,” said Percesepe. “It’s all about finding the right space, and I’m telling you, it was really hard to find the right space.”
Eventually, two adjacent commercial rentals were available at the same time, with a combined 41,000 square feet, and Corcoran seized on the opportunity.
David Maundrell, president and founder of aptsandlofts.com, which started in Williamsburg five years ago and has its only two offices in that neighborhood, said he’s not too worried about the competition.
“We’ve kind of grown up with Williamsburg,” said Maundrell. “A lot of people in Williamsburg appreciate the smaller type of business rather than the big corporate goliaths… That’s why you don’t see a Starbucks here.”
Though aptsandlofts.com may be smaller than Corcoran, the company is certainly no David in Williamsburg.
Maundrell said his firm, which is marketed toward a younger crowd, is contracted as the exclusive broker for rentals and sales on 140 developments, some of which haven’t been built. “It’s a steady stream of supply that’s coming out over the next few years,” he said.
Corcoran and aptsandlofts.com are both members of the Real Estate Board of New York, which means they have to share their listings.
On aptsandlofts’ 140 development, “We’ll still be an exclusive agent, so we’ll still get a large portion of the commission” from units that brokers from other firms sell, said Maundrell.
On the flip side, Maundrell said within the next year his company would likely open an office in Manhattan, where Corcoran has long been a major player. But you won’t see aptsandlofts.com listing luxury real estate along Park Avenue, he said. The Lower East Side, with its steady stream of new projects aimed at the younger set, is a more likely scenario.
“We make a splash with a new development, and then hopefully rise off the success with that project,” said Maundrell.
Corcoran, an established firm more than 30 years old, also looks to open new offices in neighborhoods with lots of new projects (or inventory).
Although other emerging neighborhoods in the borough, like Prospect Lefferts Gardens, have been increasingly getting the attention of real estate media and brokers, Percesepe said, for right now, Corcoran isn’t set on opening a fifth Brooklyn location.
“It’s one step at a time with us,” he said. “We don’t rush into markets, we enter when we feel the time is right.”
In the case of Prospect Lefferts Gardens, there’s not a lot of new development projects there. The amount of inventory, though increasing in value, is relatively stagnate and wouldn’t be enough to support 30 or 40 brokers.
“Other companies open small offices, and we don’t open small offices, we open large offices,” said Percesepe.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
All materials posted on BrooklynEagle.com are protected by United States copyright law.
Just a reminder, though -- It’s not considered polite to paste the entire story on your blog. Most blogs post a summary or the first paragraph,( 40 words) then post a link to the rest of the story. That helps increase click-throughs for everyone, and minimizes copyright issues.
So please keep posting, but not the entire article. arturc at att.net
Main Office 718 422 7400
