Melissa Libner, who had worked for SL Green and its subsidiary eEmerge for nearly 12 years, is excited to be joining VTS.

Melissa Libner (R) with CBRE's Brad Gerla (photo from Real Estate Social Network)

"From the minute I saw their product, I knew this is where the world was heading," Ms. Libner, 35, told The Commercial Observer. 

Despite spending most of her career at SL Green, Ms. Libner felt she had taken her job at the REIT as high as she could.

"SL Green is never going to value marketing and ideas and innovation the way a start-up like VTS would, because they have so much to grow in this marketplace," she said. 

VTS offers "online-leasing evaluation" that showcases office and retail vacancies with high-definition video tours. The site, which was profiled last week in The Wall Street Journal, featured several vacancies operated by SL Green as its first  listings. The firm made waves in April when it poached Jones Lang LaSalle Vice President Andrew Flint away from the brokerage firm as the new head of business development for VTS.

Looking ahead, Ms. Libner admits that VTS needs to define the route it wants to take to get to the next level.

"If there is a way for us to harness this data of activity, we become the leader of information as far as market reports go and real-time market data," Ms. Libner said.

In addition to her new gig at VTS, Ms. Libner has pursued her love of yoga and recently became a certified Bikram yoga teacher, a passion of hers.

She spent the past summer teaching Bikram yoga at Hamptons Hot Yoga in Bridgehampton, NY, and is now auditioning for teaching jobs in Manhattan.

"My long term goal is to open my own yoga studio," she admitted. "Therein lies the real estate of my yoga, but for now I am focused on VTS and driving VTS' growth."

drosen@observer.com