Phoenix Rising: Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s Jeff Rosenblatt, Post Kent Swig
By Daniel Geiger August 14, 2012 7:45 am
reprintsAnd then, not long after, a real estate lawyer who was an acquaintence of Mr. Rosenblatt’s called and wanted to know how everything was going. His tone was grave.
“He said, ‘This guy is in big trouble,’” Mr. Rosenblatt recalled. “I was like, what are you talking about? This guy is a billionaire. And he just repeated: ‘This guy is in trouble, you’ll see.’”
Mr. Rosenblatt didn’t know it then, but he had a front row seat to one of the biggest collapses of the real estate downturn.
Mr. Rosenblatt grew up in East New York, one of the city’s roughest neighborhoods, the son of working class parents.
“It prepared me for the brokerage business,” he likes to joke.
Mr. Rosenblatt’s career began inauspiciously; he was referred to the business by a friend after graduating from college. He was immediately struck by the real estate industry’s hierarchies and cliquishness, which seemed to create daunting barriers for a young broker with few connections.
“As a newcomer, I remember feeling like many of the successful people in the brokerage business came from families who were involved in real estate or were wealthy,” Mr. Rosenblatt said.
The hurdles are even more profound for young brokers trying to negotiate their entry into a commission business. Many usually have to brave months, even longer, of earning little or no money while they build the knowledge and relationships to finally start doing deals.
“The first six months were brutal,” Mr. Rosenblatt recalled. “I wasn’t making any money.”
He happened into the right firm, however, starting at Newmark (NMRK) in 1980. At the time, the company, led by Barry Gosin and Jeff Gural, was a scrappy startup. The firm had an atmosphere and ethos that he clicked with: brokers who hadn’t been handed any advantages but were determined to make their way in the business nonetheless. Mr. Gosin himself was an early archetype for both him and other young brokers.
“Barry was a self-made guy and he was an early mentor to me, a super-driven and super-motivated guy,” Mr. Rosenblatt said. “He was motivating to be around. He had this attitude that nothing was going to stop him and he was super passionate about the business. I could relate to that and draw a ton of motivation from that. You could actually make it if you worked hard, even if your dad wasn’t some real estate executive. My dad drove a taxi.”
