Category — The Excelsior

New York Judge Abraham Gerges and art educator Laurel Danowitz Gerges bought a 2800 square foot 4-bedroom, 4 bath co-op apartment for $1.4 million at the Excelsior on 303 East 57th Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, according to New York City public records.


The apartment was sold by Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy broker Elayne Reimer and her husband Leon M. Reimer, a CPA.

This was a very unusual transaction since, according to N.Y.C. public records, the Reimers sold the co-op for $500,000 less than the $1,900,000 they paid for it in May 2006.

Did this experience Manhattan broker and her accountant husband overpay, or did were they able to work some legal accounting magic into the transaction? That’s the question that many real estate and accounting professionals may be asking themselves when looking at the deal.

Elayne Reimer’s real estate slogan is “Make Them Happy and Never Give Up!” Having lived in the building for so many years, she has extensive contacts in the co-op.

A year and a half ago, the New York Sun quoted Reimer saying that “Once people realize the [housing] bubble talk is a lot of nonsense, they come back and buy.”

Did that apply to Reimer’s sale?

In an interesting twist, Leon Reimer’s CPA expertise includes advising individual clients and law firms by “provid[ing] litigation support, forensic accounting and investigative accounting services to many law firms; supervise high level technical tax research and planning projects for businesses and high net worth individuals,” and more.