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Co-op Branding Press Kit NEWS/PRESS

DKLB on Curbed
Curbed featured CO-OP's newly branded Forest City Ratner Rental, DKLB BKLN, and its new personality.

Inside 36 Stories of Brooklyn's New Luxury Rental Livin'
Straddling the Downtown Brooklyn/Fort Greene border and climbing 36 stories high, the 80 DeKalb Avenue luxury rental tower has been known as the new big Brooklyn thing that developer Bruce Ratner actually built. But lately it has taken on a new identity, DKLB BKLN, and this ready-to-go entry in a crowded field of new neighborhood rental towers (Avalon Fort Greene, The Brooklyner, etc.) is showing off its new personality. The DKLB BKLN website has been fully fleshed out, including a peek at some rental rates. Under "Availability," the mentioned rents for December move-ins start at $1,955 for studios, $2,255 for 1BRs and $3,400 for 2BRs. It's amenities galore at 80 De-pardon us, DKLB BKLN. A sampling: sun deck, screening room, valet parking(!), 24-hourdoorman, gym, billiards lounge, private terraces and sweet sweet washer/dryers. It's no Nets arena, but for Bruce, it'll have to do. For now!

Construction Watch: 'Forgotten Ratner' Shows Its Face
What, with Bruce Ratner's massive Atlantic Yards nearby, it's only understandable that the rising 34-story tower at 80 Dekalb Avenue on the Downtown Brooklyn/Fort Greene border became the "forgotten Ratner." But with Atlantic Yards looking as likely as a Nets playoff run, it's time for 80 Dekalb to get the attention it deserves. Forest City Ratner enlisted prolific architect Costas Kondylis for this building, which will have 292 rental apartments (20% of them "affordable"). When we last checked in, the structure was just beginning to rise. Now, via the photos above dropped in the Curbed Photo Pool, we see that the prefab panels are already being hoisted into place. If only all Brooklyn construction got on so quickly, eh Brucey boy?

Construction Watch: Ratner's Big Kondylis Rising in BK
With all the Bruce Ratner talk that swirls around Atlantic Yards, there's a forgotten Ratner. This is it. It's 80 Dekalb Aveue, just a block in from Flatbush and it will be a 34-story Costas Kondylis-designed glass number straddling the Fort Greene-Downtown Border. When all is said and done the Ratner-Kondylis tower will have 292 units, 73 of them "affordable" housing. Oh, yeah, and the devleopment got $109.5 million in tax-exempt bonds and $27.5 million in taxable bonds.

Ratner Rising in Fort Greene
Developer Bruce Ratner's Costas Kondylis-designed, 34-story residential tower at 80 DeKalb Avenue is both underway and has gotten a boatload of financing, much of it tax free. "The glass building will join the Forte Condo (at Ashland Place and Fulton Street), and the soon-to-be-built Danspace project across the street to form a small mini-city on the edge of Fort Greene, bordering Downtown Brooklyn -- but a taste of the 16-skyscraper-and-arena Atlantic Yards complex to come." The development, which will have 292 market rate units and 73 affordable ones, has gotten $109.5 million in tax-exempt bonds and $27.5 million in taxable bonds.

Columbia University Talk
Columbia University hosted an integrated marketing forum called 'Coordinating a Unified Brand Message.' Presenters included CO-OP's Jim Moran, Young & Rubicam's Global Managing Partner and Berlin Cameron United's President.

DKLB Launches
CO-OP launches DKLB, Brooklyn's newest rental development, for Forest City Ratner and CitiHabitat.

How Magazine
CO-OP's work for Wells Woodwork Custom Cabinetry was featured in "HOW Design Magazine's 103 Award Winning Promotion Projects."

Promotion Design Awards - How Magazine - October 2009
Title: Wells Woodwork Identity
Design Firm: CO-OP, New York City, www.co-opbranding.com
Art Director: Simrit Brar
Designer: Yukai Nishimura
Client: Wells Woodwork

Northrose Launches
Atlantic Development Group and CO-OP launch the South Bronx's latest mixed-use development at Boricua College.

Devonshire House Launches
CO-OP launches Devonshire House, Greenwich Village's newest condominium development, for Sterling American Properties, Chesire Group and Stribling.

Legacy Place Launches
CO-OP successfully launches WS Development's newest mixed-use development, Legacy Place, just outside of Boston MA.

Devonshire House NYTimes
CO-OP's latest brand launch of Devonshire House puts a new spin on Emery Roth's 1928 building.

A New Spin on Emery Roth
WHEN Devonshire House, a 1928 Emery Roth building, was sold in 2008 to a group of developers, marking the end of decades as a prime Greenwich Village rental, residents knew change was afoot.

Construction workers and machinery filled the hallways as the developers, including the real estate magnate (and partial Mets owner) Fred Wilpon, began the process of carving spacious modern condominiums out of the building's 131 modest one- and two-bedroom units. Leases for market-rate tenants were not renewed, leaving only a few dozen rent-stabilized stalwarts in place.

But of the longtime residents who managed to stay, many assumed that the Devonshire's unique aesthetic - a hodgepodge of English, Spanish and Gothic influences - would be left alone. The building, perched on the southeast corner of East 10th Street and University Place, has an eclectic Old World charm and a name-brand architect to boot: Roth, the maestro of Central Park West's Deco skyline, is considered one of Manhattan's finest residential designers. Surely, such features would still prove marketable today.

Turns out that prewar appeal has its limits. A large-scale redesign has already ripped up part of Devonshire's distinctive lobby, a time-warped salmagundi of faux-wood walls, Gothic details and an imposing coffered ceiling that brings to mind the faded Oxford common rooms of "Brideshead Revisited." Now tenants are anxious about the fate of what they consider the jewel of their meticulously designed home.

"It's such a destruction of an architectural wonder," said Susan Bolotin, 59, the editor in chief of Workman Publishing and a 30-year resident of the building. "It's a sense of aesthetic outrage. We've been told they can do whatever they want."

Longtime residents consider the lobby singular and charming, a homey but elaborate space that often impresses guests. Stained-glass windows, topped by gothic arches, allow a view of a sunny courtyard, guarded by a row of small Corinthian columns. Elevator doors are embossed with the Cavendish coat of arms, the seal of a family whose ancestral home in England shares a name with the Manhattan residence.

"For as long as I owned the building," recalled William Felder, the former proprietor, "people would come in off the street and just fawn over that lobby."

But the new owners, conscious of the real estate consumer's fickle taste, say they are looking to brighten a dingy space. "We are trying to take a tired property and freshen it up," Susan Hewitt, the project's lead developer, said in a telephone interview. "The general effect we are trying to do is make it seem slightly less sepulchral."

Ms. Hewitt, who has done condominium conversions on other properties with historic significance, does not draw her adjectives from thin air. The lobby had a sense of shabby elegance: the ornate ceiling is dulled by a tobacco-stained hue, and the yellowish faux-wood floor, a rare feature in Manhattan buildings, is scuffed and scratched.

The renovations - assigned to the designer Victoria Hagan - call for the installation of a black-and-white checkerboard floor; a lighter shade of paint for the walls and an off-white hue for the ceiling. A concierge desk is also planned.

The starkest departure from the current look is the black-and-white floor, which some tenants worry will clash with the old-English atmosphere. Ms. Hewitt said the design had "ample historical precedent" in Manhattan prewar buildings, and Ms. Hagan said she was being "very sensitive" to the original.

"That's something I think I'm good at, understanding something that's old and giving it fresh life for a new time," Ms. Hagan said recently, while overseeing construction of a new apartment on the building's fourth floor.

It would seem unthinkable to tinker with Roth's more famous works in the city, including the Beresford and San Remo apartments on the Upper West Side; both have landmark status. And wealthy buyers happily snap up 1920s co-ops on Fifth Avenue that contain the best (rock-solid walls, original moldings) and worst (ancient plumbing) qualities of prewar construction.

But the success of 15 Central Park West, Robert A. M. Stern's homage to old-school New York living, may suggest that buyers want a more modern take on the classics: prewar with postwar perks.

Meanwhile, the tenants at Devonshire remain unimpressed. A few reached out to preservationist societies in hopes of halting the renovation, to no avail. (Interior spaces can be declared landmarks in New York.)

"The lobby, as it is, is quite beautiful," said David Mann, the president of MR Architecture and Decor, who has rented a penthouse studio in the building for nearly two decades. "I am fearful about what they might do that may never be changed back. To rip out the floors, to me, is a crime."

Ms. Bolotin sounded pained when discussing the changes. "I remember moving in and learning about Emery Roth and the buildings he had done on Central Park West; there's a sense of-" she paused, then sighed - "I guess this doesn't mean much, but there's a sense of neighborhood pride. I raised my children there. We've seen generations come and go. People love living there."

The former owner, Mr. Felder, said that the Devonshire's purchasers had every right to change the lobby. "In their defense, I have to say, throughout the years, we've always had trouble maintaining that floor," he said. "You can clean it, but it just always looks dirty."

But Mr. Felder paused when told that a black-and-white checkerboard pattern was under consideration.

"That could be fairly atrocious," he said, after some contemplation. "If it was my decision and I had to replace the floor, I would replace it with some kind of stone."

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: September 6, 2009 _An article last Sunday about planned changes to the lobby of the Devonshire House, a 1928 building in Greenwich Village designed by Emery Roth, misstated the scope of landmark designations in New York. Interior spaces can indeed be granted landmark status.

Capitus Win
Capitus Limited, the Singapore clothing manufacturer, awards CO-OP their new fashion brand line.

WS Development Win
WS Development Inc, one of Boston's premier real estate developers, hires CO-OP to brand and market Legacy Place, the dynamic 675,000 square foot open-air retail environment. The launch is scheduled for the fall of 2009.

IMAX Branding Win
IMAX extends their 8 year relationship with CO-OP by hiring the NYC branding agency to develop new branding platforms for their expanding immersive movie experience.

Meeting Professional Internationals (MPI) Talk
MPI invited Jim Moran to speak on "Branding Your Event" at the June conference's continuing education series for the Greater NY chapter.

Connecticut College Magazine
The Connecticut College Magazine featured CO-OP partner and alumni, Jim Moran, on the importance of networking with people you trust during these economically challenging times.

How Camels Network
Two Camels gave Jim Moran '92 his first break in the marketing and communications business: Matthew Charde '87 and Fred Macdonald '87. Charde, the executive producer at an animation production company in Boston, offered Moran a job as a producer. Three years later he was a senior producer with award-winning commercials to his credit, and he headed for New York City where he's the managing partner of CO-OP, a branding agency, and still networking with other Camels.

NESCAC schools regularly offer networking events for their alumni, and "Connecticut College has far and away had the most alumni attend these events as compared to our peer institutions," Bridget McShane, director of alumni relations, says. The College also provides networking opportunities through the Alumni Online Community, events and receptions, Real World, Seminar on Success, Bridges Mentoring, and others.

"The common thread that ties my Connecticut College network together is trust," Moran says, "In times like these, that is priceless."

Communication Arts
Communication Arts featured CO-OP's advertising campaign for TOREN, the fastest selling real estate development in NYC, during their May 2009 online update for Exhibit.

Toren teaser campaign
Print Ads, Consumer Buying a home is never easy. And it's especially difficult when it isn't built yet. Toren, (the Dutch word for tower) is an iconic residential condo designed by well known Brooklyn architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. This campaign, developed by COOP (New York, NY) positions the building as "a new angle on modern living" and connects with the audience on three levels: Design. Green.

Brooklyn. The tease and launch tactic provided only a glimpse of the building to spark intrigue and anticipation; it wasn't until launch that the name, the building and its amenities were revealed.

Brokers Weekly
CO-OP partners, Jim Moran and Paul Newman, discuss the need for McMansion developers like Centex-Pulte, Toll Brothers and K. Hovanian to re-position themselves and change their product offering in changing market conditions to appeal to the budget conscious, design savvy consumer.

A new age for the McMcMansion Developers
Brokers Weekly
May 20, 2009
05/20/09

Jim Moran, Paul Newman

The recent news that Pulte Homes has acquired Centex Corp. is a bright spot for the national residential mega-developer category that includes Toll Brothers and K. Kovnanian.

The two companies—Pulte and Centex—have successfully catered to different, but complementary segments of the market: Pulte to the homeowner considering trading up (what we call the "aspirational homeowner") Centex to the first-time homebuyer (these days, what we call the "hesitant homebuyer").

The issue the new company faces is this: designing and marketing homes for an audience of homebuyers who face unprecedented selection, tighter credit, uncertain job security and the market psychology that home prices could still sink further. After facing these changes, Pulte-Centex needs to re-examine buyers needs from a rational and emotional perspective to help them connect with their product while navigating through this economic minefield.

The obvious: From a rational perspective, the new Pulte-Centex company needs to offer the right mix of product at the right price, since the same predictable "insta-communities" that define new suburban wealth no longer have the same appeal for today's homebuyer. From an emotional standpoint they need to stay in tune with the buyers' shift in interest from indulgence (a dirty word in today's marketplace) to home assurance and quality – today's new emotional filters.

Offering homebuyers flexibility and modularity in design is also critical. Most homebuyers—even first-time homeowners—will be thinking about long-term ownership, since the expectation of flipping homes for a quick profit is muted. residences that Pulte-Centex designs need to accommodate significant growth and change (addition of a home office, extra room for another child, elements of sustainability) as well as quality and affordable design.

Most of the current homes sold by these kinds of developers are static—designed to blend seamlessly into the perfectly manicured neighborhoods that anchor them. There's little room for individuality let alone the design eccentricism that has made magazines like Dwell and companies like IKEA so popular with a generation of design-savvy, eco-conscious homeowners. Why? People want to buy into a personality, designer, and fashion as or trend as it connects them to a lifestyle that they want to emulate. There's a reason why so many successful national retailers now partner with celebrity designers to offer affordable design.

Pulte-Centex needs to consider pushing the boundaries of what a development community is, with greater emphasis on sometimes-disparate design for the individual homes. The company needs to let go of the notion of "flawless" insta-communities where the homes' exterior design carry a strong architectural theme, resulting in too many look-alike homes. Historic preservation and landmark issues aside, why can't a large-scale developer build an eclectic but thematic community that appeals to multiple homebuyer profiles the way some of the coolest parts of San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sydney Australia do? Character doesn't have to be compromised for construction costs and value engineering. In fact, this level of development will separate Pulte-Centex (or other developers who take this approach) from the rest of the building community.

One of the biggest challenges facing the new company: building a brand that differentiates beyond what every other developer states. How many times have your gone to two developer websites and they say the same thing. If you switched the logos, would it matter? The new Pulte-Centex needs to implement a brand strategy that integrates the overall business goals + product offering + the buyers needs. This is a long-term proposition and not an instant fix. To date, most mega-developer's think executional marketing and not branding. Websites, collateral, direct mail, and advertising are all important, but if the upfront strategy is missing or lacking, I'd hate to be sitting in the developer's marketing director's chair when the results don't come in and you don't have concrete answers. Would you start your multi-million dollar development without a blueprint? So why would you begin to market and advertise without a brand plan?

The no-blueprint might have worked in the more-is-more, trading-up culture in the earlier part of this decade, but it doesn't address any of today's new realities. The stronger, no-end-in-sight market made developers and their advertising /marketing agencies jump on the sensationalism bandwagon. That "look at me" behavior created buzz but has quickly sunk with the rest of our property values. The new realities of this present market have now made those same developers and marketers rethink this approach.

Successfully connecting to a new home buying audience, and keeping them as loyal customers will require a well-thought out brand strategy that lays the groundwork for fluid, tactical marketing. As a corporate entity and brand, Pulte-Centex needs to create an authentic and lasting bond with the homebuyer to nurture the trust required to capture referral and return purchase.

NY Daily News
The Daily News announced their 'Best of Brooklyn Real Estate' today and two of CO-OP's branded developments made the list. Toren was voted Best New Design and One Hanson Place was voted Best Retail Space. And who says branding doesn't matter?

NY Post
Jim Moran was quoted in the April 9 edition of the New York Post's Home Section, regarding the changing Manhattan buyer's psychology. "It's almost like when you're going into a grocery store, and it's 99 cents as opposed to a dollar...you feel like you're getting a deal," said Moran to the Post's reporter. CO-OP has been staying on top of the most dynamic homebuyer trends as the agency prepares to launch four projects later this year.

ISES Northeast Conference Talk
CO-OP partners, Jim Moran and Paul Newman, presented at the 2009 ISES Northeast Conference on "Branding, The One Thing You Can't Afford to Skip." The focus was on the importance of branding in today's economy and practical approaches in evaluating your own brand.

Atlantic Development Group Win
Atlantic Development Group awards CO-OP the branding and marketing of its 4.5 acre, 1 million square foot mixed-use development in the South Bronx. The $300 million market rate and affordable development is one of the newest developments that look to revitalize the community. Partnered with Boricua College, the development is scheduled for completion in early 2010.

Loews Hotel Launch
Loews Hotels launches CO-OP's new corporate re-branding to the public. CO-OP partnered with premier hotel and leisure group, Loews Hotels and Resorts, to create a new brand architecture and identity system that unifies the corporate brand with all North American properties. The re-brand brings to life Loews' uniquely local experience while expressing the future vision of the brand.

Brokers Weekly
CO-OP declares 2009 the "Year of the Residential Test Drive," citing unprecedented buyer options and the impact of this on the current real estate market. CO-OP's predictions - better product, longer and more strategic branding campaigns and increased sales training and education - are being realized as Manhattan's new developments court buyers.

Forest City Ratner Win
Forest City Ratner awarded CO-OP with the branding and marketing assignment for the $200 million developments of 80 DeKalb Avenue in Brooklyn. Designed by Costas Kondylis, the 365 foot LEED certified tower will launch in the fall of 2009.

Dora the Explorer Win
CO-OP was hired by Nickelodeon and Fisher Price for the naming of the new Dora the Explorer Girls tween line, a more sophisticated, young-adult extension of the multi-million dollar brand.

PKL Development Win
The Procida Companies hires CO-OP to brand their new affordable housing development company called PKL Developments LLC.

Brokers Weekly
CO-OP's "New Buyer Profile" was featured in the 11/24/08 Brokers Weekly cover story that included insights from not only co-founders Jim Moran and Paul Newman, but the city's top exclusive sales and marketing executives. The reaction to CO-OP's research and "New Buyer Profile" was significant. The consensus: today's buyer is as dynamic as the stock market, and new development marketing has to follow a whole new direction.

Brokers Weekly
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Cover Story
Meet the new buyer on the block
By: Bill Cresenzo
Remember that Wall Street swagger that real estate marketers, brokers, and developers found so appealing? Well, it's turned into a limp.

As folks in real estate grapple with and try to be optimistic about the changes that the economy is having on the industry, developers, brokers and marketers are rethinking their strategies.

"I tend to go with my gut and my gut instinct right now is that the audience is shifting," said Richard Pandiscio, founder of Pandiscio &Co., the agency in charge of branding high-end properties such as 56 Leonard. "There are a lot of people who had been doing well for a long time and they just wanted to ‘up' their living situation. We can't rely on that now."

Jim Moran, managing partner of real estate branding company Co-Op Branding, says that the "typical profile" of a New York City condo buyer has changed over the past year, particularly since the Wall Street crisis.

Gone, at least for now, are the days of the young Wall Streeter with pocketfuls of cash, the $30,000 watch and who is ready to spend whatever it takes to land an overpriced apartment.

The high-flyers have come back down to Earth.

"We have found that there is a difference in buyer of old and the buyer of today," he said. "Before, we would talk to our clients, and they would always try to identify that Wall Street person or that hedge fund person. The buyer of old came with that ‘Master of the Universe' attitude, and I think that swagger is gone. The world of gimmicks is over. People were buying into the flash and glitz, but not anymore."

He says that two years ago, developers and brokers looked for buyers who were identified by their "chauffeured Mercedes, the labels they wore, the brands they bought and their ‘I've gotta big bonus' confidence.

Now, Moran said, the chauffeur is gone, and the bonuses have dried up.

"It's a wake up call for these guys," said Paul Newman, creative director of Co-Op. It's also a wake up call for those on the selling end of the real estate game.

I tend to go with my gut and my gut instinct right now is that the audience is shifting – Richard Pandiscio

Stephen Kliegerman, executive director of development at Halstead Property, said that the focus is moving away from the buyers who moved only for the sake of moving up.

"I think we are certainly seeing buyers who are more cautious, but there is no question that people still have to move," said Jacki Urgo of the Marketing Directors. "They are having children, they are getting divorced and they are relocating to a new job."

Last week, Urgo hosted a "Bankers Night" at the Visionaire, a condo building in Battery Park City. Representatives from five banks were on hand to help buyers and potential buyers with their financing. Twelve months ago, that wouldn't have happened.

"We didn't see the necessity a year ago," she said. "We are definitely looking for strategies to help them over their fears."

Newman and other trend watchers say that, most of all, today's buyers are looking for value, something that before was often missing in the equation for apartment hunters who valued luxury over practicality.

Does every room need an I-pod station? Is a pool really necessary? What about those fancy, high-end fixtures? And is a concierge service crucial for the day-to-day things that most people do themselves?

"They are a lot more realistic," said Steve Goldschmidt, senior vice president of Warburg Marketing Group. "And they are confused right now about what they can afford. They are not bringing in the same amount of confidence and their chests are not sticking out as much.

"I think there is less emphasis on high-end glamour and more emphasis on back to the basics. You will be seeing less emphasis that fast and sexy lifestyle. Nobody is in that mode right now. It's back to the basics of selling real estate for good value, in good buildings with good financials."

Rick Wohlfarth of Wohlfarth & Associates agreed.

"They are not looking for a showcase or the word ‘luxury'" he said. "They are looking for reasonable amenities and reasonable financials and they want to know that the common charges aren't going to go through the roof."

Savvy brokers and developers will tap into that mentality, Moran said. "You are going to see the message in an advertising and marketing shift," he said. "We notice that, all of a sudden, the value message is coming out that wasn't there before. If you are in the uber-luxury category and can sell at that level, you are less likely to shift the message, but the majority of developers out there are going to eventually have to shift their message." Yet developers who have spent years and millions developing and cultivating a luxurious image of a high-end property may have a hard time reconciling their aspirations with reality.

"Some developers are reluctant to go down that road," Pandiscio said, about emphasizing a value. "Even in a distressed market, it's not something that a luxury product necessarily wants to underscore."

The buyer of old came with that ‘Master of the Universe' attitude, and I think that swagger is gone. The word of gimmicks is over. People were buying into the flash and glitz, but not anymore – Jim Moran, Co-Op Branding

But the others do. "Right now I have one condo project-the Carriage House- and we are not promoting the amenities," said Cliff Finn, managing director of Citi Habitats. "We are promising the quality and value. That is how the project was conceived from the beginning. Because of that, we actually had two deals go through this week. There was no glitz and we are not selling glamour. It has very few amenities, actually."

Of course, luxury and practicality are not mutually exclusive.

"There are still plenty of residences that are bragworthy, but the reason residents are attracted to them have shifted," said Jasmine Mir, senior vice president of marketing at Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group. "It's because they made the right decision and it is good investment."

And Pandiscio said the decisions that buyers and sellers make now will keep New York's housing market stable.

"The market is not dead," he said. "People are still buying. The fundamentals are the same. A lot of the work that we do now will pay off handsomely when the market does turn around. And it will turn around."

Metropolis

Toren, the award-winning residential and retail project branded by CO-OP, was featured in the October issue of design magazine Metropolis, as an example of the exciting new generation in mixed-use development.

Metropolis Magazine: The Affordable Housing Complex

For decades we were told that high-density public housing didn't work. But in New York City, a new model has emerged: privately developed mixed-income projects by prominent architects that reach back into the sky.

There is a housing crisis in New York City. But it's the complete opposite of the situation in most of the country. While large parts of the United States have suffered catastrophic drops in home values, steep declines in new construction, and high foreclosure rates that have left masses of homeowners bankrupt and bled billions of dollars from banks, housing prices in New York have stayed at record levels. And even as developers persist in building the same clunky, oversize ?single-family homes with winter heating bills in the thousands of dollars—the architectural version of the SUV—the market's demands and demographics are changing. Aging baby boomers are moving from suburban palaces to condos, retirement communities, and often back to cities. Displaced workers are migrating to a handful of major metropolitan areas that are prospering as hubs of the technology, health, and service sectors. For young people and middle-class families in places like New York, Seattle, Denver, Dallas, Charlotte, and Boston—all of which gained tens of thousands of jobs in the past year and saw housing prices continue to rise—the struggle, even among those earning well above the median income, is to find an affordable place to live.

Five years ago, to compensate for nonstop demand and rising prices in New York, the city's Depart?ment of Housing Preservation and Development, or HPD, embarked on a $7.5 billion program to build 165,000 units of low-to-moderate-income housing by 2013, enough for half a million people. For the past three years, as markets everywhere went bust, New York issued record numbers of ?residential-construction permits—more than 30,000 a year, surpassing the total for the entire 1990s. And yet despite the market-rate boom and the preservation or creation of more than 80,000 affordable units in the past half decade—equivalent to building a medium-size American city in five years—the residential-vacancy rate in New York remains almost unchanged at 3 percent.

HPD's commissioner, Shaun Donovan, appointed by Mayor Bloomberg in 2004 to direct the New Housing Marketplace Plan, thinks our frame of mind hasn't quite caught up with reality. "The memory of the decline and chaos of the 1970s pervades so many things that we do in planning and real estate in New York," he says. "But what we've tried to do is look forward and plan for growth for the first time in a generation. In the affordable-housing world, we're sometimes guilty of thinking about subsidized housing in a vacuum. In a city experiencing growth like New York, along with the ‘superstar city' phenomenon that is attracting international capital and wealth, you've got to think about the housing market writ large and how to create opportunities for growth in a way that accounts for both ends of the spectrum."

Signs of the market-driven end of the boom are visible everywhere in New York: high-rise condos leaking into the sky above tenements and brownstones, cranes perilously swinging construction materials over sidewalks, plywood awnings festooned with real estate placards announcing yet another loft-style condo. Less evident is where those elusive 165,000 affordable units are being located. A handful of new projects breaking ground or opening their doors this year offer a surprising glimpse at the results midway through the city's ten-year plan to improve the quantity, quality, and sustainability of housing in New York. These projects have enormously benefited from the participation of good design firms, such as Della Valle Bernheimer, Behnisch Architekten, Polshek Part?ner?ship, FXFowle, and Grimshaw Architects, that are bringing a high level of quality to a building type largely abandoned as a lost cause.

"The failure of public housing, as viewed by the public, policy makers, and Congress, has for too long frightened away architectural innovation," Donovan says. "I've tried to push that here, to help make experimentation in affordable housing acceptable again. But I strongly believe that not every building should be a work of architecture. What we aspire to is to create buildings that add to the urban fabric, and by and large our buildings do. The quality has improved to the point where there's a higher level of design, better materials, and better construction than what the market is building, particularly in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods."

The $19.5 million David and Joyce Dinkins Gardens, which opened in March on a series of donated abandoned lots in the Bradhurst area of northeast Harlem, is an 85-unit project for youths too old for foster care and families earning less than 60 percent of the median income (in the state, less than $43,302 for a four-person family). Funded by federal tax-exempt low-income-housing credits, tax-exempt bonds, HPD's mixed-income rental pro?gram, and a half-dozen other programs, it was devel?oped at a cost of $190 per square foot by the nonprofit Harlem Congregations for Com?munity Improvement with Jonathan Rose Compan?ies, a socially oriented developer.

The developers wanted to use the project to test the limits for quality and sustainability in affordable housing, so they brought in the trusty specialists at Dattner Architects, who started from their standard playbook for the type: concrete-masonry block, and plank covered with precast brick. "You know how they say in real estate there are three things that matter: location, location, location?" asks William Stein, the project architect. "In affordable housing there are three things that matter: budget, budget, budget. The projects are built on extremely tight budgets, and our approach is to design a building that is in many ways as simple and as typical as possible, but then try to tweak it in some way to make it a little more interesting."

Through its choice of materials, Energy Star–rated fixtures, and modest interventions in the building envelope, Dattner took a textbook affordable midrise and tweaked it with small aesthetic and environmental details to get a green building from what is essentially a brick box. On the facade, three colors of brick and a section of window wall—a nod to the curtain walls typical in high-rise condos—break up the building's mass and set off its entrance. The project's sustainable features, funded by a $50,000 Enterprise Green Commun?ities grant, include sunshades projecting above slightly oversize double-hung windows with insulated low-emissivity glass and trickle vents, a green roof (funded by Home Depot) composed of rows of planted plastic trays, and insulation between the concrete block and brick to reduce energy use. On the ground floor, a wing of classrooms is used to train neighborhood residents in building trades, and in the backyard a landscape design by Lee Weintraub, with custom furniture and community-gardening plots, elegantly weaves the building into the sloping site.

"You try to do as much as you can with the re-sources that are available," says Whitney Foutz, the project's development manager at Rose. "The low-income-housing tax-credit program basically sets your rents, so you're not in control of what you charge. But in return you get all this money that you're able to use to build the project, and you have to work backward from that."

On the edge of Brooklyn in East New York, Della Valle Bernheimer's $2.3 million Glenmore Gar?dens, completed early last year, inserts ten modern moderate-income duplexes into a block lined with distressed rowhouses and storefronts with roll-down metal gates. One of the rare young New York firms that managed to get into the ?affordable-housing game on their own initiative, DVB responded to a 2002 RFP to develop a series of abandoned lots through HPD's New Foundations program, which encourages homeownership on in-fill sites in transitional neighborhoods. "The process is really not set up to allow people like us to get involved unless you're willing to dive into this huge process," says Erik Helgen, the project archi?tect. "HPD requires that you have drawings before you even submit for the lottery. Developer-?builders have stock plans that they've already built twenty of, but for architects to come into the process, it's a huge amount of work before you know if you're getting the lots."

Spurning the affordable-housing convention of precast-brick facades, DVB specified corrugated-aluminum, cedar, and fiber-cement panels over wood-framed structures. The firm invited three other young studios—Lewis.Tsuru?maki.Lewis, Briggs Knowles, and Architecture Research Office—to design buildings using its basic plans, letting them play within the parameters of either a slab-on-grade house or one with a ground floor sunken halfway below grade. The units, which sold for an HPD-prescribed $330,000 each—?corresponding to mortgage rates affordable to families earning 110 percent of the median income ($79,387 for a four-person household)—set a new aesthetic standard in New York for a project of their type but fell a little short of DVB's sustainability goals. "We started with a much more ambitious green-building vision that we picked away at," Helgen says. "The appliances are fairly energy efficient. You could buy more expensive windows that are way more efficient than these, but we did the best we could do with the budget. It could be better, but it's better than most of this type of housing."

The Northside Piers/Palmer's Dock development, which was designed by FXFowle and opened this summer in its first phase on a formerly industrial waterfront site in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is an ideal case study of the two extremes that define New York's current housing market. Both parts of the development share a five-acre site between the East River and Kent Avenue, but One Northside Piers, a 180-unit, 29-story, reinforced-concrete, curtain-walled high-rise, can be sold for as much as the developers think they can get, while Palmer's Dock, a 113-unit, six-story, concrete-masonry-and-plank building with a brick facade, was built to fulfill a zoning mandate requiring that at least 20 percent of the built-up area be used for low-to-moderate-income rentals. One Northside Piers has open-plan interiors outfitted with custom cabinets, Kohler fixtures, and a combination of Thermador, Bosch, and SubZero appliances, with prices ranging from $350,000 for a studio to almost $2 million for two bedrooms with a view. At Palmer's Dock, the floor plans and fixtures are all straight out of HPD spec sheets—ready-made cabinets, Delta faucets, GE appliances—and the two-bedroom apartments rent for $1,200. Northside Piers will have an indoor pool, a hot tub and sauna, a pri?vate deck, and a restaurant; Palmer's Dock has ground-floor retail, a shared laundry, and a green roof on top of the parking garage. And yet the difference in construction costs is only about $100 per square foot—the condos were $300 per square foot, compared to about $200 for the rentals.

"The towers are a typical poured-in-place-concrete structure, but when we came to the affordable housing, because of the six-story height limit along Kent Avenue, it's more economical to use a masonry-wall-and-plank system," says David Lee, the project architect. "The windows are different, but the glass for the affordable part is the same low-emission type as the tower. We had to fight a battle with the developers because it wasn't necessary to use them—we passed the energy code—but we argued that if we don't have the low-E glass, you will see a difference. We were persistent."

Small victories aside, the contrast between the two parts of the development in terms of quality of design and materials not only marks a gap between the high and low ends of the housing market but also an abysmal void in the middle. The greater part of the public is neither poor enough to qualify for subsidized housing nor rich enough to pay what the market will bear; we just have to live on top of one another or move to areas with high crime rates and hope conditions improve.

But a new development opening this fall on a block straddling slightly sketchy downtown Brooklyn and utterly bourgie Boerum Hill points to a hope??ful possibility in the middle range of the market, and suggests that the choice between precast-brick low-rises and glass-walled condos isn't as predetermined as it seems. The 11-story high-rise, designed by Polshek, defies all expectations for affordable and supportive housing in New York. Developed by Common Ground, a nonprofit that has retrofitted several hotels and SROs for the homeless over the years, the 217-unit Schermerhorn House is the organization's first purpose-built structure, and its ambition in terms of scale, quality, and reimagination of the status quo humbles everything else out there. Its site, a donated plot of land above four functioning subway tunnels, presented some unique architectural and funding challenges but also an amazing opportunity for innovation.

"We couldn't do a block-and-plank building for this site because the weight of the building couldn't rest on the subway tunnels beneath it," says David Beer, Common Ground's director of real estate development. "The building is cantilevered over the tunnels, so we needed to use a system of four massive steel trusses supported by two rows of caissons drilled just to the south. Two factors that helped us were that the land was for free, and the city and the state make sizable investments for supportive housing with on-site services. Because it's a special facility, the zoning allows us to create a higher density than if had we just built affordable housing, and because of the compact unit sizes, the public investment on a per-unit basis is comparable to other plain affordable housing with conventional-sized units."

The building contains 9 four-bedroom suites and 180 mini studio apartments, each renting for $635 a month to individuals earning less than 60 percent of the area median income, or between $21,000 and $30,000. One hundred of the units are prioritized for members of the local community or employees in the entertainment industry (the Actor's Fund for America was one of the project's partners), 84 are reserved for people who are chronically homeless and have a history of mental illness, and 32 are left for people who are HIV-positive, or have HIV/AIDS and are at risk of homelessness. At $590 per square foot, or $59 million in total development costs, largely funded by federal low-income-housing tax credits, tax-exempt bonds, HPD's ?supportive-housing loan program, and the state's Homeless Housing Assistance program, the project was not cheap. But despite its small units, the design quality and custom-made fixtures compare favorably with a lot of loft-style condos. If anything like it could be reproduced in a market-rate development for the middle class, it could help square the circle in the history of high-rise housing—once regarded as the great hope for eradicating poverty, later rejected as inhuman in scale, and recently reclaimed by the upper classes as the urban answer to gas-guzzling McMansions.

The Schermerhorn House is just the beginning of a new wave of tricked-out affordable housing currently under construction or breaking ground in New York, including the 38-story Toren Tower, by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, in downtown Brooklyn, and the 38-story Brooklyn Arts Tower, by Stu?dio MDA and Behnisch, in Fort Greene, both of which merge mixed-income units into a single high-rise development. In the Melrose section of the Bronx, the Via Verde project (by Grimshaw in collaboration with Dattner), which won the New Housing New York competition last year, joins 221 mixed-income units in a descending arrangement of high-rises, midrises, and townhouses with green roofs that step down into an angular courtyard. And on the Lower East Side, the Pitt Street Residence, by Kiss + Cathcart, will house 264 low-income individuals in a 12-story tower with compact studios, shared suites, and social services.

More than anything, these new developments call into question the opposition to density that has pervaded urban activism for the past decade, despite a general acknowledgement of its environmental benefits. If cities are going to grab the initiative from suburbs and exploit their cultural and economic resurgence, they need to take a fresh look at how to plan large-scale development to compete with suburban houses that still cost, on average, less than $100 per square foot. "Change is hard," Donovan says. "Nobody wants density. But there's an increasing understanding that density is positive. So how do you do it in a way that isn't completely homogeneous? On the national level, with the election, energy prices, and the foreclosure crisis, there is a growing appreciation for the value of cities. The crisis of the single-family house is a crisis of the American Dream, and there has been a new questioning of that form of homeownership, which is a tragedy but also presents an enormous opportunity."

Wall Street Journal

The financial world's "paper of record" took note of CO-OP's advertising campaign for Toren, calling the "Believe" slogan a masterclass in turning market adversity into opportunity.

The Wall Street Journal

This Bud's for InBev. Anheuser-Busch shares have been rallying in recent days, closing up $1.11 to $65.69 on Friday, a sign that doubts may be receding about InBev's ability to close its $70 a share takeover of the iconic U.S. brewer by its year-end target. Market volatility had created jitters about the deal, sending AB stock down as low as $56.93 in late October. Word is the deal will close by the end of this month. When all else fails, there's always faith to fall back on. Toren is the name of a shiny new condo going up in Brooklyn, N.Y., due for completion early next year. Recognizing that this is not exactly the most propitious time to be selling new apartments, the advertising slogan offers a masterclass in trying to turn adversity into opportunity: "Believe. Now is the time to buy." Amen. And good luck.

Period Homes Magazine

CO-OP's branding and image work for One Hanson Place were highlighted in the November 2008 cover story of this leading residential architecture publication.

Devonshire House Win

Sterling American Properties and Chesire Group hires CO-OP to brand and market its pre-war Emery Roth icon in Greenwich Village, NY. The launch will occur in 2009.

Womens Wear Daily/ Maesa Launch

CO-OP's branding work for Maesa, t he global beauty company, launched in a WWD feature on September 12. Jim Moran and Paul Newman express how the new positioning for Maesa will reinvent the private label beauty business.

A Bid to Reinvent Private Label

Maesa - Womens Wear Daily

Friday September 12, 2008

by Faye Brookman

NEW YORK -- At a time when many U.S. retailers are importing European products to provide a point of competitive difference, a French-based company has arrived on America's shores with a turnkey private label program.

Gregory Mager, chief executive officer of Maesa in the U.S., has seen many private label programs succumb to market conditions in America, and he hopes his company and its business model will help retailers in all channels finally crack the proprietary beauty business.

To help oversee the corporate brand structure and primary brand message, Maesa linked up with New York branding agency CO-OP. Four components of the company were identified: turnkey manufacturing solutions, creative vision, complete customization and manufacturing excellence. The company's offerings are also divided into four divisions, namely beauty, home fragrances, promotions and packaging. CO-OP helped form the branding of Maesa by examining its attributes versus the competition. "We decided to convey that they are beauty engineers, where art meets science," said Paul Newman, co-founder of CO-OP. Added Jim Moran, also a co-founder, the goal was to present to clients the fact that Maesa can help proprietary lines succeed where others have faltered.

There are, of course, success models of retailers building successful private labels, such as Victoria's Secret Beauty, Target's Sonia Kashuk and Ulta's house brand. But there are also programs that have been a slow build, often a victim of retailers trying to behave too much like marketers versus merchants. For the most part, the invasion of European skin care has been slow, most cosmetics lines from Europe haven't hit full potential and some lines, such as Duane Reade's Apt. 5, have been eliminated.

But Mager sees huge potential for private label and even cites how major chains have succeeded with Boots the Chemists from the U.K. even though it has limited recognition in America. But retailers, he suggested, have to turn the process over to experts and focus on what they do best - in-store presentation and promotion.

His firm expanded in the U.S. two years ago and added to its New York office with the acquisition of a home fragrance company in Los Angeles. Headquarters are in Paris with offices in London and a facility in Shanghai. The acquisition added home fragrances to the portfolio including fragrance, color cosmetics and bath and body. "We really are a turnkey operation," said Mager. Too often, retailers get mired in the marketing and conceptualization of house brands. That can be detrimental to success."

Each customer needs a different approach, he added. For example, specialty apparel chains need to change the offer frequently and treat the category like accessories. These shoppers aren't necessarily looking for something they'll come back and buy. They want a one-time unique product. To that end, his firm can handle small quantities. "We have more than 3,000 products - none are the same," he added about customization.

The cross-category function of Maesa is also key. The company can carry out a theme across everything from a beauty product to a home fragrance to a holiday gift assortment. He said the company will even work to secure an endorsement for the brand - a factor that can certainly make a hit item in today's celebrity-driven market.

Recently, Maesa has been very involved in developing organic lines. In fact, the company created a line for Lloyd's a United Kingdom drug chain called Your Organics.

Among Maesa's clients are Laura Ashley, Super Drug, Galeries Lafayette, Asda, Carrefour, Pier One, Williams-Sonoma and West Elm. Mager believes there is huge potential in the mass market, even for home centers with house brand home fragrances. "I could see a Home Depot brand," he added. "Imagine it with a famous designer as the spokesman. There's so much that can be done."

CO-OP's branding work for Maesa, the global beauty company, was profiled in a WWD feature on September 12. Jim Moran and Paul Newman express how the new positioning for Maesa will reinvent the private label beauty business.

NY Daily News

CO-OP's work for be@william, the highly successful branding of the SDSProcida development in Manhattan's financial district, was mentioned in the September 11, 2008 issue of the NY Daily News. The article describes the strategy behind the be@ brand and how be@william recorded the highest amount of sales office traffic for a six-month period of any Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group project in 2007.

Daily News Real Estate Correspondent - September 11. 2008

be@schermerhorn is latest be@ residential building

With three up and running, one for sale, and two in the pipeline, Mario J. Procida and Louis V. Greco Jr.'s be@ product of residential buildings is New York's first multiple property building brand.

Launching sales last week for be@schermerhorn, the fourth in a series of amenity-heavy buildings priced for young professionals, parent company SDS Procida Development Group has turned the

brand into a string of successes.

Three years ago, its be@clintonwest project sold out 147 units in eight days.

"It was absurd," says Procida, a lower East Sideborn developer and leader in building Bronx housing. "We were getting stacks of contracts piled 2 feet high every day. We took a chance on the neighborhood, thinking it was ready to sell. We were glad we played our hunches."

Eighteen months ago, be@william, the company's 113-unit conversion in the Financial District, recorded the highest amount of sales office traffic for a six-month period of any Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group project in 2007.

Ranging in price from $350,000 to $1.795 million, the units at both be@ projects were scooped up by New Yorkers looking to get value for their real estate dollar in markets where they thought they were priced out.

"Our broker called us and said bring your checkbook and meet me at the corner of 47th St. and 10th Ave.," says Ginger Gilden, who was living in Bayside with her husband and infant son. "We had given up on central Manhattan. We looked in Inwood and other neighborhoods for 18 months. The broker said if we don't put money down now, we'll lose the chance to live here."

Gilden, an architect, says the combination of price and amenity drew her to the Clinton West project.

"We wanted a doorman, a place for our child to play and a gym," says Gilden who, like other buyers, bought the apartment in the construction stage. "We never thought we'd find something with all that in a good location."

The idea behind be@ brand buildings is affordability, social-based shared amenity spaces, location and solid construction. Geared toward first-time apartment buyers in a normally inflated sales environment, marketers aren't surprised at the success of the project.

"The be@ brand created its own space in the market," says Kelly Mack, CEO of Corcoran Sunshine, who marketed be@William and is currently selling the 245-unit be@schermerhorn, where units start at $350,000 for large studios. "It's affordable, stylish, contemporary, and offers quality construction. People don't want to spend money on a poorly built project. Even though priced lower, these are very well built."

All be@ projects include resident-only outdoor spaces such as rooftop on William St. and outdoor putting green at Clinton, free Wi-Fi in the common areas, gyms, quality appliances, television lounges, 24-hour doormen and spacious units usually ranging from studios to two-bedrooms. In most cases, monthly common charges are kept below $350 to $700.

Procida, who owns the construction company that builds be@, walks around his buildings with strong, sturdy steps. He horses around with construction workers, and he's quick to show someone how to do something better, such as apply caulk to a leaking pipe. Starting out as a laborer in his father's construction business, Procida likes the reach of the be@ concept of living, something he and Greco developed almost by accident.

Seven years ago, the two began their investment

partnership with less than $1 million in capital.

Six projects later, they have a growing portfolio of

approximately $600 million in real estate, including

the be@ brand's four buildings, 405 W. 53rd St.,

and Richard Meier's On Prospect Park, Brooklyn's

most luxurious architect-driven property.

"We look for projects on the edge of central neighborhoods,"

says Greco, born in Queens and now

living in and operating out of Brooklyn. "The neighborhoods

are a little raw when we first see the land.

It takes time, usually nine to 12 months, but you can

tell people are coming. You see a coffee shop open

up, a bank isn't too far, and transportation is close.

I go there and stand on the corner to watch. When

I see people walking the extra block and the energy

picking up, I know we're somewhere that will grow."

After acquiring a parking lot in 2001 at 53 Boerum

Place in downtown Brooklyn, Greco and Procida

decided to build an inexpensive rental property for

young people flocking to Brooklyn. Titled Boulevard

East, the name of the property was shortened for

marketing purposes to a B and an E, after which

Procida and Greco added the @, using technology

terminology to reach a younger market.

When the condominium market exploded in 2003,

the units were put up for sale. They sold well,

prompting a similar social amenity, solid construction

and affordable price strategy on the 47th St.

and 10th Ave. location.

When sales exploded there, the be@ brand was

born. Future projects could include Carroll Gardens

and Park Slope.

On a recent Friday at be@clintonwest, buyers gathered

for cocktails, eats and television. Families and

singles enjoy the social atmosphere. Gilden says

it's a great place to raise a child, with a park along

the West Side Highway and Central Park a walk or

bike ride away. Single residents are ecstatic to be

Manhattan apartment owners.

"I had been complaining for years about the prices of Manhattan real estate and how there was nothing of quality available for a good price," says Wendy Miller, a be@clintonwest buyer and president of the building's condominium board. "This building was built over train tracks, so I came here and listened before I bought. When I heard nothing, I knew I was good. Construction-wise, we have none of the problems of other buildings."



Procida, ever watchful of a changing market, says he hopes be@schermerhorn sells as well as the other properties, but he has contingency plans if current buyers remain passive.



"If we have to rent the apartments, we will," he says. "That's how this all got started. But with these prices, views and amenities, these should sell."



For information on be@Schermerhorn, call (718) 246-0189 or visit www.beatschermerhorn.com.



Brokers Weekly

The September 3, 2008 issue of Brokers Weekly featured important lessons in branding real estate, in an article by CO-OP's Managing Partner, Jim Moran.

Branding does more than sell units

Brokers Weekly
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
By Jim Moran, Managing Partner and Co-Founder, CO-OP


Branded real estate isn't new. The experienced developers and marketers have been doing for decades, starting first in the commercial arena with eventual trickle down into the residential market in the past 10 to 15 years.

Today, branding has never been more important in a slower market exacerbated by tighter financing and a buyer with a new psychology: "I can wait, I can choose and I can buy at my price."

As we enter a new period for real estate marketing, strategic branding-the kind that engages your audience immediately, supports long-term business objectives and continues to connect to prospective buyers even after they visit your sales office-is critical.

Some good advice:

Know the difference between marketing and branding. There are many real estate marketing firms who do little more than design and produce marketing materials-brochures and Web sites. This isn't branding, A true branding agency develops a strategic roadmap, identifies your audience and then articulates your story through multiple channels. This connection builds over time and lads to the ultimate decision to buy, or an ongoing new buyer referral based on the strength of that brand connection. You wouldn't start digging the foundation of your development without architectural plans; why would you sell your building without a branding and marketing plan?

Developers need branding too. While some companies understand the importance of corporate branding, it's new territory for other developers in New York, investors want to see past the new residential tower and see the face behind the cranes-the executives and their team who running the development. In other words, banks want to know and trust whom they're lending to. Showcasing a compelling story that articulates a developer's overall vision is critical to success in new development today because buyers and investors need to trust you. CO-OP has consistently positioned its developer clients and their buildings as cohesive brand statements that connect with the target audience: BFC Partners and Toren in Brooklyn; SDS Procida and be@William in Manhattan; and The Dermot Company and One Hanson Place in Brooklyn.

Don't fall for gimmicks. We've all seen the recent gimmicks associated with real estate marketing and branding: talking beaver, Jagger Pods, 24-hour beauty treatments and butlers. While it may create some "buzz," it usually dies quickly when the next "buzz" comes along. An effective brand is grounded in authenticity, immediately connects to your buyer and respects your intelligence. It balances the tangible side of what you're selling (i.e., cost, location, amenities) with the emotional drivers that create differentiation. Be real and talk to buyers with respect.

Watch out for typical ad clichés. Typical ad #1: the floorplan, the rendering and the view. Typical #2: the ad with the happy couple. Both are overused branding clichés that create little differentiation. With qualified buyers today in the driver's seat, developers and their sales and marketing agencies have to push the boundaries of their comfort zone to make their properties stand out.

CNBC Worldwide Property Awards

August 2008: The CNBC Worldwide Property Awards announced that CO-OP won the "Best New Developer Website Nationwide" for BFC Partners (www.bfcnyc.com).

Brokers Weekly

Paul Newman, CO-OP's creative director, was quoted in an August 20, 2008 feature story about new development marketing strategies, citing his successful work at Toren in Brooklyn.

NY Metro

CO-OP's Jim Moran was quoted in the August 6, 2008 issue of Metro newspapers, in a feature about business centers as the hot new trend in Manhattan new residential development. Metro is the nations fastest growing print newspaper.

Wells Woodwork Win

July 2008 - Wells Woodwork, the Lousiana based cabinet company that worked with Brad Pitt's Global Green Holy Cross Project hires CO-OP to re-brand the company.

New York Observer Win

June 2008 - The New York Observer taps CO-OP to re-brand and market this September's fall real estate condo showcase at the Metropolitan Pavilion.

Globestreet.com

CO-OP's Jim Moran was quoted in the May 30, 2008 online article of Globestreet.com feature discussing how branding a development can shift the prospects of many developments in the current economic climate.

GLOBEst.com

Jim Moran on Last Weeks Poll

May 30, 2008

Can a Branding Shift help a Real Estate Firm During a Downturn?

Jim Moran on last week's poll The greatest products in the world can collect dust if nobody is out there telling people about them. Customers can distinguish a re-branded company from all the stale competition out there. This week our voters were split almost down the middle about branding. More than 53% don't think branding can help a company in this economy, while 47% of our readers believe a new look, style and profile can boost a company past the rest. Jim Moran, the managing partner at Co-Op Branding, who has worked with some commercial as well as residential real estate firms, spoke to GlobeSt.com about how his firm polishes up companies.

"We got into real estate as we saw that so many developments were marketing themselves so generically: show a rendering or a view, give a competitive price and say 'this is branding our development.' There was an opportunity to leverage our lifestyle branding experience outside of the real estate category. We've seen so many of the big names confuse gimmicks for branding. They just don't get it. As a branding agency, we focus on real estate branding (residential, mixed use and commercial) as well as outside of the category.

"If only I had a dollar for every time a developer talks about if they should go 'green.' I believe some consumers care about this as part of their overall package of amenities. Do location and price still lead the way? Of course. But, I believe that green is more than just a cool trend. It's our future and something that most people care about. My advice is: if you're trying to ride a trend for sales, then don't waste your time. Consumers have an ability to sniff out a phony.

"I think the LEED certification standards make the green building movement a much more tangible proposition. You can't fake this. The latest building we've branded is Toren (www.torencondo.com)--a LEED Silver-certified building, soon to be LEED Gold. We utilized the responsibility aspect of our buyer as one of the three pillars in our brand positioning. It's true to the builder's vision. From what we're hearing, it's paying off.

"I believe the average American is exposed to roughly 3,000 marketing messages per day in one form or another. With all this marketing, it's no wonder that companies are looking beyond the typical marketing push that most agencies offer and trying to differentiate themselves. Having the ability to develop a unique brand positioning for both consumers brands and corporate brands and then deliver marketing touch points that resonate with an audience and get real results is what clients want. It's really simple.

"Developers/brokers are looking for 'image' in an over-image-saturated market. I think that's the problem - 'image.' Buyers can see right through this. That's why there's so much fluff out there and partly why we're dealing with a slow down. What you need is honesty about your product and a message that resonates with the buyer. People marketing any kind of development need to balance the factual points of their development with the emotional needs of the buyer. Otherwise, the buyer will see through the gimmick.

"I think the difference now is that branding wasn't a known quantity like today. The early 1990s experienced a similar slowdown. Overall, I believe this is good for the real estate industry. The last few years have seen such highs-it's like the dotcom days of the late '90s and early 2000s. This is a classic case of Darwinism at its finest. The best will survive and we're excited about this."

BFC Partners Win

May 2008 - BFC Partners and CO-OP launch Toren, the 38-story SOM designed iconic building in Downtown Brooklyn.

Maesa Win

April 2008 - French creative beauty group, Maesa, hires CO-OP to re-brand and position the company globally after one year of corporate expansion and buy-out.

Dermot Company Win

March 2008 - The Dermot Company hires CO-OP to market One Hanson Place's Clocktower Penthouse Residences.

IMAX Win

March 2008 - IMAX, the big screen giant, taps their branding agency, CO-OP, to shape corporate messaging.

Johnson & Johnson Win

February 2008 - Johnson & Johnson re-hires CO-OP for the naming of a revolutionary new beauty product.

Procida Companies Win

January 2008 - Richard Meyer partnered developer, Mario Procida, hires CO-OP to re-brand Procida Construction and Realty.

BFC Partners Win

December 2007 - New York real estate developer, BFC Partners, hires CO-OP to re-position their corporate brand.

Development Du Jour: Devonshire House

Monday, August 31, 2009

Location: 28 East 10th Street at University Place

Size: 131 units and shrinking

Prices: 7 listings so far, from an 806-square-foot 1BR/1BA for $1.05M to a

2,720-square-foot 4BR/3.5BA for $4.75M

Developer: Cheshire Group/Sterling American Property

Architects: Emery Roth (c. 1928), ARCT Architecture and Victoria Hagan (interiors)

Sales & Marketing: Stribling Lowdown: The blockbuster condo conversion of the Central Village's Devonshire House has its first big controversy. The Wilpons snapped up the pre-war rental building before Bernie made off with their money, and the market-rate renters were soon excised without much of a fuss. Even the remaining rent-stabilized tenants have been largely quiet. But the lobby! Emery Roth's crazy creation of faux wood, family crests and Corinthian columns is being seriously messed with, and that has some folks ticked off. When told the faux-wood floor was being replaced with a checkerboard, the building's previous owner told the NYT, "That could be fairly atrocious." But a tipster sent along a current shot of the lobby renovation (above), and the floor could be a lot worse, right? And besides, there's bigger Dev news to get to.

The website for the conversion has recently gone live, and there are all sorts of goodies, including model unit photos and a handful of floorplans and prices (Stribling's listings aren't online yet). Crews have been busy tearing apart and combining units for months-the Devonshire was originally all 1BRs and 2BRs- and the results show: The early examples are already winning raves on StreetEasy.

As for prices, a polished pre-war gem like this would've easily commanded jawdropping prices back in the good ol' days, but now we'll classify them only as eyepopping: most units are between $1,300 to $1,600 per foot, and the one 4BR, 3.5A unit currently listed creeps all the way up to $1,746/sf (albeit on the second floor, so prices have the potential to go way higher). The renovation of the building will add a landscaped roof deck, concierge, gym, playroom, refrigerated lobby storage and a renewed focus on the interior courtyard. It's an Uptown vibe in a Downtown locale, in a city that greatly needs a success story. So how will it sell?

Curbed Inside: Old Meets New at Devonshire House

Monday, October 5, 2009

Would you look at that? A $4.1 million apartment just went into contract at the Devonshire House, the renovation and condo conversion of the Emory Roth-designed rental building at East 10th Street and University Place. It's the first sale in the building, and it just so happens to coincide with our visit to the Dev House to get a look at that controversial lobby and 4BR, 3.5BA model apartment. Why'd we scope out the model? Curiosity, mostly.

There are a few interesting things at play here. While top-to-bottom pre-war renovation with hefty price tags are nothing new, this one is in the heart of the Central Village. A downtown Apthorp, if you will. The model unit is a 2,720-square-foot sprawler up on the fourth floor, combined from three apartments (most Dev House rentals were studios-2BRs). It hasn't yet been released for sale, but expect an asking price around $5 million. Handling all design duties is Victoria Hagan, a big name with the Architectural Digest set. Is the market ready to absorb this bad boy? We'll see if other sales follow, but a slightly testy StreetEasy thread does mention some packed open houses.