BROKERLAND—As The Real Estate reports, lunch today found the powers that be at Prudential Douglas Elliman celebrating the firm's Broker of the Year awards at Cipriani 42nd Street. The number-one ranked broker at the firm? The inimitable Dolly Lenz, of course, who made a brief appearance. ("I only got there for the last few minutes," she tells TRE. "I was in a meeting, literally, with a major banking group, and should not have gone.") All well and good, yes? Perhaps not: we've heard rumors this afternoon that the actual firm leader in commission income for 2007—topping even Lenz—was Jacky Teplitzky, who manages her own team inside the firm. In fact, PDE did name Teplitzky's team the top-ranked sales group for 2007—but, hmm, can the PDE kingdom endure two queens, each with claim to the first-place, number-one, blue ribbon? Conspiracy theories to tips@curbed.com, please. Meanwhile, per The Real Deal, the rest of the top sales groups: Tamir Shemesh Team, Bracha Group, Kotler Group, Roth-Sporn Group, Deniro Group, Daniela Kunen Team, Sukenik Group, Leonard Steinberg Team and Ruth Hardinger Team. [CurbedWire Staff]

CENTRAL VILLAGE—There's an advertiser out there looking to pitch his/her wares to a very select group of consumers: the residents of 8 Union Square South. Writes a tipster: "I was walking home about a week ago and noticed that there was a new benefit to living in the model-thin building erected at University and 14th: a large, animated neon-pink advertisement was being projected onto the wall of the building that houses Whole Foods et. al. Since most of the floor-to-ceiling windows face this wall, I wonder if the residents are happy about paying seven figures to have a neon ad blasted into their living room?" We've rarely seen more than two apartments' lights on, so we figure wherever 8USS's buyers are, they probably don't care all that much. [CurbedWire Inbox]

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As part of New York Magazine's recession package this week, which recalls the glory days of the early '90s when a Tudor City one-bedroom could be purchased for $3,500, there's a sidebar on "Bargain Hoods" that covers everything from the best places to borrow a wifi signal to tips on how to rent a room in one's condo or apartment as a hotel room. There are also tips from brokers on places to look for good buys. A couple of samples:

1) $299K for a 750 square foot 1BR coop in Inwood, which is "way north, but enough pluses...to attract people priced out of Chelsea and the Village."
2) A 450-square-foot $1,900 rental in an elevator building on 46th Street west of Ninth Avenue.
3) A 500-square-foot rental, with a private deck, for $1,390 a month in East Williamsburg/Bushwick. More deals east of the BQE, it's said, because the housing stock "is more humble."

· The Everything Guide to Belt Tightening: Bargain Hoods [NYM]
· The Upside of the Downside [NYM]
· The Stench of '89 [NYM]

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FLATBUSH—Hipsters rocking keffiyehs is so 2006, so it makes sense that the trend would finally find its way to real estate ads. But one observer is not pleased: "When most of us think of Flatbush, Brooklyn, we think of it as a largely Jewish and Caribbean community. Recently, the Flatbush Gardens apartments began featuring an ad with five smiling young adults. The ad is probably targeting the hipster class. One of the figures in the photo is wearing a keffiyah as a scarf. Forget about Che Guevara, the Yasser Arafat scarf is the latest in ignorant hipster couture. Terrorism is not cool! Besides, a keffiyah is traditionally worn only by men. Brooklyn is the most Jewish place outside Jerusalem, and for a developer to feature an Arafat scarf in its ads sends the wrong message to the public. I hope this ad appears on your blog. Be sure to forward it to your blogging friends in Brooklyn." Brooklyn blogging friends: you have been alerted. [CurbedWire Inbox]

HARLEM—An update on the Rhapsody on 5th apartments at 2056 Fifth Avenue from the developer, AFC Realty Capital: "AFC is also preparing for the Grand Opening of a new fully-furnished on-site sales center and model at 2056 Fifth Avenue. The state-of-the-art facility – which debuts with more than 50% of the luxurious homes already sold -- will be located on the second floor of the magnificent building. The noteworthy announcements do not end there. The condominium plan for 2056 Fifth Avenue has recently been accepted as effective by the Attorney General and initial occupancy at the building will begin in April." [CurbedWire Inbox]

TRIBECA—Hey, this Tribeca thing has legs! Stribling is expanding their presence in the 'hood, and here's an excerpt from the press release: "Stribling & Associates and Stribling Marketing Associates, premier residential real estate firms in Manhattan, celebrate the grand opening of their new, greatly expanded Tribeca office. The celebration will take place on January 31st at 32 Avenue of the Americas, the famed art deco AT&T building. The office will accommodate 40 of Stribling’s residential sales professionals engaged in resales and new development/project marketing representation." Noted. [CurbedWire Inbox]

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UPPER EAST SIDE—We had a mole on the inside of the Prudential Douglas Elliman holiday party last night at The Pierre, and look, pictures! "Clockwise from upper left: a) the bars on the second floor of The Pierre were stocked... b) which proved to be a very good thing, because there had to be at least 1,000 people here... c) to celebrate, er, Rockin' New Year's Eve with Dick Clark? Yeah, I didn't get it, either... d) PDE onion rings!! My personal highlight." [CurbedWire Staff]

STUY TOWN—"Heard from a new renter the other evening that Stuy Town management cut the price of her 1 bedroom by $400 and gave the 12th month for free. Hmmm, maybe the 'luxury' market isn't so fond of Far Eastern Gramercy. Even with a $400 discount, Tishman Speyer is still making a killing after cracking down on the rent-stabilized units. [CurbedWire Inbox]

NOHO—A renewed call for any information regarding what's to come at 30 Great Jones Street, aka the Screw Factory: "So I live on GJ between Bowery and Lafayette. I've tried to do some detective work on the Edison parking lot + screw factory + Edison parking lot = gigantic hotel rumor. I've come up blank. The neighborhood rumor was that the screw factory at 30 GJ was being restored and turned into apartments. It would appear though, that it is being demolished and fast." A recent picture was dropped into the Curbed Photo Pool and it ain't looking good. [CurbedWire Inbox]

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LONG ISLAND CITY—Check out the sweet wheels parked outside the Powerhouse sales center! Quoth the tipster: "Saw this on my way to the train this morning and couldn't pass this up. These guys are really pulling out all the stops..." [CurbedWire Inbox]

HARLEM—A Curbed reader writes: "saw this when checking out harlem open houses -- does curbed have a section for 'file under funny broker advertising'?" While the pose may be a little Miami Vice, let's not be harsh here, kids. [CurbedWire Inbox]

LOWER EAST SIDE—Over at CabanaGate central/154 Attorney, a flooring critique: "I went over to 154 Attorney street (Cabana gate locale) to see what 1.5 million can buy on ATTORNEY street where my mom got totally lost on her way to my place. It’s a neat space. But when I asked the guy from Prudential or Corcoran or what have you what the floor was made of on the ground floor (‘tis duplex) , he goes 'Wood' and I just waited….and waited…..until he said 'Well, engineered wood.' Which is like plastic but whatever." [CurbedWire Inbox]

Don't tell Miraval Living, but another massive Upper East Side condo conversion is taking up most of superbroker Dolly Lenz's time. It's the Manhattan House, the 583-unit white brick megacomplex that takes up East 66th Street between Second and Third Avenues. After much controversy, the Sun's Bradley Hope reports that the various legal albatrosses of the conversion have been resolved, and Lenz has assembled a team of seven brokers to quietly begin showing the units. Manhattan House was purchased for a record $625 million, and they've pumped another $150 million into renovations, so the prices are staggering but not unexpected: $1,400-$2,300 per square foot in a neighborhood with an $1,139/sf average. Many apartments will be combo jobs, such as a $14 million corner penthouse with four fireplaces and 6,000-square-feet of space. Yowza. The Manhattan House blog reports that the owners' loan terms say they have to sell 15% of the units by June 1, which if you believe Lenz, won't be a problem at all.
· Manhattan House Has Brokers Revving Up [Sun]
· 200 East 66th Street Blog [200east66thstreet.blogspot.com]
· Manhattan House Condo War Details [Curbed]

[Photo via The City Review]

SOHO—We kick off this Thursday edition of the Wire with some good old fashioned reader ranting: "It's official, I HATE Cashmere Mafia (right). They've blocked off almost all parking spots in Soho for filming. What the Fuck Darren Star? No chance I'm watching your show now. Helllooo Lipstick Jungle." We'll leave it up to the Nielsens to decide. [CurbedWire Inbox]

WEST CHELSEA—What's that? More rants? OK! "Saturday night I was driving down the West Side highway and passed Gehry's new building-- the IAC headquarters. Every single light in the building was on. (1) why must we waste so much energy to light up this atrocity? (2) it is obnoxious and wasteful, especially when the mayor is trying to push green initiatives in the city and many are encouraging developers to go 'green.' [CurbedWire Inbox]

UPPER EAST SIDE—Alright, that's enough kvetching. Let's head up to 95th Street: "i noticed the omni condos in the east 90s aren't using shvo for sales anymore. what's up?" Could it be that not even Michael Shvo could bring himself to care about the Upper East Side? We kid, we kid. [CurbedWire Inbox]

WILLIAMSBURG— There's more going on along North 3rd Street than just strange windows. A reader writes: "Looks like the sales office for 80 Metropolitan in W'burg is coming along quickly in the former MiniJake storefront at N. 3rd and Wythe..." We don't know if quickly is the correct word. [CurbedWire Inbox]

THE INTERNETS—There's nothing like a new web presence to get us randy: "Looks like Corcoran Sunshine is doing some new self-branding, explaining the merger and unveiling the new website. See for yourself." Will you look at that. [CurbedWire Inbox]

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Last we left our friends at TEAM SHVO, they were feverishly dissecting the over 500 new taglines generated by the copywriting geniuses in the Curbed readership. (You'll recall that Michael Shvo himself had offered $10k to the Curbed reader who came up with a message befitting his burgeoning empire.) Today, we come with news of a decision: none (0) of the entries were good enough to sit atop the Shvo branding machine.

But you didn't think that Shvo would let this moment pass without a final flourish, did you? Of course not. The following three entries touched Shvo's ultra-sensitive marketing nerve in such a way that he's decided to open the checkbook and reward each of their originators with $1000:

· SHVO: Life. Style. (Jim Saisakorn)
· SHVO. Real Estate Redefined (Allen Liou)
· SHVO: Sales. Marketing. Style (William Wong)

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Brokers have to be delicate when describing an investment property that has an elderly rent-controlled tenant. How to explain that you might be able to move in sooner rather than later, while not being offensive? A Curbed reader thinks Elliman broker Silvia Aboud has found the perfect strategy for selling this $295,000 Suttonish studio: include a covert photo of the tenant in the listing pics. The commentary:

Notice the silver-haired lady grasping her walker, looking closer to kicking-the-bucket then kicking up her heels? Since it is probably the ONLY photo on the Elliman site with an occupant in the photo, I don’t think it is much of a leap to guess why they included her in the pics. Is this savvy marketing, advertising the apartment's potential? Perhaps, but at the expense of being really tacky. Call me an old softy, but I find waving the scent of death under investors’ noses is just plain bad taste.

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Corcoran broker Hubert Etchison, Curbed salutes you for not being afraid to sell a $4 million condo with an extended superhero metaphor. At right, the library "to help feed the soul of any crime fighter." Not pictured: the wood-burning fire place where you'll "curl up with Lois." Definitely not pictured and probably NSFW: bedroom 2, which "has a private bathroom and even a sleeping loft for Aqua-Lad which could also be extra storage for your gadgets and disguises."
· Listing: 35 West 23rd St. [Corcoran]

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EAST VILLAGE—We just can't get us enough camera phone pictures of the slow-developing East Houston Hotel. The above shots of the new signage come with a disclaimer: "sorry these are blurry, but some weird Italian tourists were taking my picture while i was taking them so i didn't want to hang around to try to get better ones." [CurbedWire Inbox]

EAST VILLAGE—"There was a pricespotter a few months back that generated a lot of interest," writes another Curbed reader. "The property was 735 E. 9th St. I think people would be interested to know that the apt. was sold last week for $1.225 MM." The people should also know that $1.225 million was the most recent ask and that this much-appreciated intel remains unconfirmed. [CurbedWire Inbox]

OPEN HOUSES—Finally, this missive landed in our tip box under the shamelessly titillating header, "Are Brokers Getting Desperate?": "I've been going to open houses in Manhattan (EVill, WVill, Chelsea) on a fairly regular basis for the past year, seriously looking, but taking my time. Occasionally I get a follow up email, I might get a phone call now and then, but after one day I've had three out of six brokers contact me, one calling twice. Pretty limited circumstances, I know, but for me quite a shift from recent times." [CurbedWire Inbox]

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This week, we're running reader tales of first-time home purchases. If you've got a good one, drop us a line. Our first entry, via reader MD, is straight ahead. Enjoy.

"My first attempted try was a total crash and burn (it is true what they say…the first time isn’t good for anyone). It happened on the corner of 3rd and A. The players; me and a cute little 1br pre war. Original hardwood floors, original claw foot tub. Not fancy at all but totally my style as I love the feeling of old stuff.

"The broker loved me, and I loved the apartment. I saw it the first day it was on the market and I put in an offer that evening. Things moved along, my offer was accepted (hallelujah…since I had made offers on 2 other apts and had gotten rejected) I was also starting to get nervous since my current apartment’s lease is up Aug 31st and if I didn’t find an apartment come June 15th-ish, I would probably be out of a home while waiting to close.

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