'Million Dollar Listing New York' Recap: Disappointments Abound

This week's episode of Million Dollar Listing features aggressive developers and flaky deals

It's Season 5 of Million Dollar Listing New York, where three brokers, Fredrik Eklund, Luis Ortiz, and Ryan Serhant, show the world what it takes to sell high-priced New York City apartments. Check in each week for recaps by Angela Bunt. Episode air date: 6/16/2016.

This week's episode of Million Dollar Listing New York kicks off with a trip to Tribeca starring the one and only Ryan Serhant. He's meeting Jason Lee and Johnny Wan to check out their new development at 56 Walker Street. After having very publicly fired a certain Fredrik Eklund from the project, the pair are in the market for a new broker and they think Ryan is their man. The development features four large homes, all of which are tricked out with the most high-end gadgets and furnishings on the market. But when they sit down to discuss pricing, Ryan tells them that not only are they priced too high, but their dark brown décor is not doing them any favors. (This isn't the first time Freddy and Ryan have disagreed on aesthetic.) They'll need to fix the design and lower the blended price per square foot to $2,500. They agree, but on one condition: no traveling while the building is being sold. Not saying anybody else does that or anything.

Next up is Luis, who got himself into quite a pickle last week after making false promises to his current client, Natasha. After a failed attempt at stealing a buyer mid-contract from the eighth floor at 1045 Park Avenue, he's back to square one in his efforts to sell the 15th-floor unit. You know what that means? It's time for an open house! Luis uses the recent sale to his advantage, telling the crowd of brokers that for $750,000 less than the eighth floor, you can be on the highest floor of the building—all it needs is a few pesky renovations. During the party setup, Luis reflects on his early days as a broker, when he used to throw casino nights and costume parties. Now he keeps it simple and plies his guests with high-end meats and cheeses. (And whiskey. Lots and lots of whiskey.)

Remember our villain, Nick, from the end of last week's episode? Well, it's time for he and Fredrik to face off—over cocktails and a bread basket, of course. Freddy asks Nick why he thinks it's OK to try and steal his clients from him, and Nick points out that just because Fredrik has sold seven buildings with Zach Vella doesn't mean that he owns him for life. The scene ends with Nick saying, "On your way out get a price reduction," as Fredrik storms out of the restaurant. "You get a new suit," says Fredrik. Boom roasted!

Luis is on a high after a successful open house as he greets Ronita at the office. He's willing to do anything it takes to get the 15th-floor unit sold—even bringing back his trademark fedora. But after receiving a phone call from broker Francis with a full-ask offer, it looks like he won't have to. The buyer seems perfect; now all that's left to do is get approved by that pesky co-op board.

Down in Tribeca, Ryan is meeting with his go-to stager, Taylor Spellman, to check out progress on the 56 Walker Street model unit. All the dark walls have been painted white and the space already looks 100 times better. Of the previous staging, Spellman says, "I've never seen something more botched in my entire life." So she's saying she's not into Fredrik's vision?

Speaking of, Fredrik is on his grind trying to get the penthouse at 11 North Moore sold, for fear that he'll be fired from the listing. But as whacky as some of these $30 million buyers are, none of them are crazy enough to drop that much money on a place that doesn't even come with the garage included. A garage in which Fredrik has staged a luxury car that costs $15 thousand a week to rent. Hashtag #worth it!

Luis meets with Natasha to deliver the good news regarding the listing at 1045 Park Avenue. But first he decides to punk her and he pretends he has had no offers on the apartment. Just kidding! (Wait a second, was that Luis trying to flirt?) Natasha is just happy he was joking, and tells him as long as they cross all of their Ts and dot their Is they should get board approval. Apparently, board approval is this really long and difficult process that involves a lot of paperwork. "You can be Bill Gates married to Warren Buffet having a son with Mark Zuckerberg, and all that wealth together does not matter," says Luis. He assures her that the buyer is "board material" and they enjoy lunch, although I think Luis might think it's a date. Mostly because he asks, "so this is a date?"

Taylor has finished staging three of the four units at 56 Walker Street, so naturally it's time for Ryan to throw a killer open house. Almost a thousand people have RSVPed and are flooding through the door. Jason and Johnny show up, and although they're happy to see such a large turnout, they're jaded from their experience with Fredrik. "A lot of brokers just come for the free food and alcohol, you know," says an unconvinced Jason. "I just don't want to have to switch brokers again."

Fredrik is stressed to the max with the penthouse at 11 North Moore, and is wondering what the future has in store for he and Zach Vella's relationship. The two meet, and Fredrik presents a $25 million offer. But it's not high enough for Zach (who is notoriously hard to please), and he drops a bomb. If Freddy can't get the offer to full-ask, he is going to buy the development himself. He says it's too unique of real estate to let it grow stale on the market. A desperate Freddy pleads with the potential buyers to come up in price, but it's no dice. Fredrik tries to feign happiness for his friend, and Zach reassures him that he did a great job on the project. Onto the next one.

When we catch up with Ronita and Luis, they have a special friend in tow: Lucy, their potential new buyer's dog, who they are bringing to meet the co-op board. The pooch is just over the weight limit at 33 pounds, and they wonder if two hours is enough time to get her to jog off a couple extra pounds. (Ah, if only life were that easy.) Cut to a montage of Luis in a suit, jogging Lucy around Central Park—yes, we're serious. But will two miles make enough of a difference to get board approval? Eh, probably not.

Ryan has received two offers on the development at 56 Walker Street. The first is $5 million for the third floor ($1 million under ask), and the second is $7.5 million for the penthouse ($1.5 million under ask). When Ryan presents the offers to Jason over drinks he's unimpressed, calling them "the worst deals he's ever heard." Ryan urges him to reconsider, telling him that the market is oversaturated and they need to get at least one unit in contract to get the momentum going. After telling Ryan "not to give him a line of shiit," Jason relents and they have a deal—but only on the third floor, not the penthouse. Jason also tells Ryan he should have another party for the penthouse, despite the fact that Ryan just threw a massive open house that Jason seemed completely unimpressed by.

Fredrik isn't having the greatest week. After suffering the loss of the 11 North Moore penthouse, now he and Derek are suffering the loss of another set of embryos. Their fertility doctor breaks the bad news to them in his office, reassuring a tearful Fredrik that he's "really confident" they will have children, and that he had his son Matt after seven tries. "We just gotta' keep trying. There's no point in giving up," says a wise Derek. But Freddy isn't so sure, telling the camera privately, "I think I'm done."

So it turned out the weight of Lucy the dog was totally fine, now Luis has run into a new problem. Although his buyer was a seemingly perfect candidate for the co-op, 70 percent of her net worth was based on her company stock, and the stock plummeted overnight. Thus, the deal has fallen through. Natasha is waiting to see if she's being punked again, but sadly this is for real. She scolds Luis, telling him that time is money and he's wasting her time. "When I don't see results, I can't sit here with you on the listing anymore," she says, winding up to fire him. But she suddenly has a change of heart, telling Luis: "I trust you, and in this business trust is before anything else." She's gives him three more months to sell the apartment, no excuses. With a new lease on life, Luis bounces out of her office.

That's all folks, stay tuned for next week!

from
http://ny.curbed.com/2016/6/17/11962930/million-dollar-listing-new-york-recap-disappointments-abound