CAPIN HAS SET HIS BROKERS “LOOSE ON THE CITY”

At the turn of the 20th Century the Young Turks of the Ottoman Empire presented the world with radical and progressive intellectual, political and artistic ideas. Some one hundred years later Luca Capin – the very model of a modern Young Turk – landed in New York and conceived a notion that he could reshape the real estate brokerage business in what is arguably the most complex and important property market in the world.

And he did it.

It’s less than a decade since he founded Capin & Associates but in that short space of time the firm has moved to the top of the top tier of brokerages in terms of both the number and the value of deals closed.

The firm is well on its way to completing more than 300 transactions in 2006—a deal a day, according to Timour Shafran, a savvy experienced real estate professional with extensive management and brokerage experience. He is part of an in-house, three person brokerage team at Capin that also includes Peter Vanderpool, a young and energetic whiz who is well versed in real estate law and who has a knack for finding and analyzing deals. The third member of the team is Lazer Sternhell, who comes from a real estate family and has extensive business experience. He knows a good deal when he sees one and has a very large and productive list of buy side and sell side contacts in the business.

“The commercial real estate sector has more than its share of brokers with a residential realtor’s mindset. They treat buyers and sellers without even trying to figure out what their individual motivations are,” Sternhell points out. People who buy houses, Sternhell says, do so for one reason: to live in them, but the people who buy and sell commercial properties do so to make money.

Sternhell’s partner, Peter Vanderpool, adds: “Our clients can count on the fact that we see the hidden values in deals that address their specific investment needs, whether their focus is residential, retail, office or development. Most brokers swamp their clients with listings as they are posted. We are client-based and we go to great lengths to find the ‘quiet deals’ that we offer exclusively to our clients.”

Shafran believes that it is “this kind of diligence and selectivity” that has earned Capin & Associates a reputation for getting deals done, gaining the firm a spot at the very top of the commercial brokerage business.

“It is also the reason that we can do the same high transaction volumes with ten brokers that other top tier firms need a hundred brokers to achieve. Figure it out, at Capin each of our brokers are closing an average of 30 deals a year,” says Shafran. “This speaks well for the caliber and effectiveness of each and every one of the brokers in our firm.”

The Capin firm has also long been known for its ability to discover emerging micro-markets in New York. The firm is active in all the boroughs and was ahead of the curve in Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood and the Bronx. Capin was doing major transactions in those parts of town long before the word “gentrification” became part of the real estate lexicon in New York. One long-time client who invested early in Bronx properties was so delighted that he named two of the buildings he bought after Capin. He bought 94 buildings and to memorialize his relationship with the firm he called one Luca LLC and the other Turkish LLC.

“That doesn’t mean there aren’t undiscovered values in midtown. For example, we sold 325 Fifth Avenue about a year and a half ago to a developer who has put up a 50 story luxury condominium tower on the site. The value of that property as a residential development was not readily apparent due to its location in a commercial center across the street from the Empire State Building,” Shafran points out.

But the real secret behind the success of the firm is Luca Capin’s ability to foster in-house partnerships such as the one that Shafran, Vanderpool and Sternhell have forged. “You don’t work for Luca,” says Vanderpool, “he makes you a member of his family.”

The firm is relatively young, but it has gained traction and visibility quickly throughout the real estate community in New York, says Sternhell. “The fact is, if you don’t know the name Luca Capin you are not in the real estate business. Period.”

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