Rainmaker aiming to be his own headline act

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Investment sales broker Robert Khodadadian has returned to his roots, re-launching his Skyline Properties brokerage. And his aim is to zero-in on the off-market sector...

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Newest Eastern Consolidated rainmaker aiming to be his own headline act

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Demand for multi-family fueling billion-dollar business

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Skyline Properties issues mission statement

Investment sales broker Robert Khodadadian has returned to his roots, re-launching his Skyline Properties brokerage.

And his aim is to zero-in on the off-market sector where discretion is the watchword of some of the city’s most serious property players.

“Our mission at Skyline is to create off market opportunities designed to provide sellers with complete discretion while aiding buyers in acquiring a valuable asset,” said Khodadadian, an eight-year veteran of the brokerage business.

“The Manhattan commercial market has become so competitive and aggressive that, when a buyer sees or hears the words ‘exclusive listing’ they’re likely to hit delete. The majority of the trades done in the city lately are transactions that were not sold exclusively and the sales price went above market.”

Khodadadian added, “I work with many buyers that are more than happy to pay a premium to tie up a deal before it hits the market and Skyline’s objective is to create personal relationships with buyers so that we can show them only deals they have benchmarked.”

Khodadadian — a Great Neck, Long Island, native whose parents are Persian immigrants — wound down Skyline in late 2011, but believes the market is prime for his investment strategy.

“Active buyers have constant deal flow. Skyline’s approach is to tailor-make the process so that they only see deals that match their acquisition criteria,” he said. “Most importantly, Skyline will never send out deals to clients unless we are in direct contact with the seller and have complete control of the deal.”

Khohdadadian, 30, is an honors graduate of Pace university, was previously a broker with both Massey Knakal and Eastern Consolidated. Over his career, he has amassed sales valued at close to $500 million.

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Deals & DealmakersFeatured

Newest Eastern Consolidated rainmaker aiming to be his own headline act

by REW Staff July 25, 201211032

By Sarah Trefethen

This is a summer of long weekends and automated, out-of-office emails, when the consensus seems to be that the weather’s just too warm for doing business in Manhattan.

But Robert Khodadadian remembers the rough years of 2008 and 2009, when — still in his 20s — he was running a nine-broker company based in Long Island and every deal was a test of creativity and determination.

“You’d stay until eight, nine o’clock to get people on the phone,” he says. “It wasn’t like it is now; everyone was working. There were no holiday parties, no vacation.”

He sounds almost wistful.

It’s not that Khohdadadian, a 30-year-old Eastern Consolidated associate director with a face-splitting smile and infectious enthusiasm, is anti-fun. He just likes doing deals. And he’s eager to make the most of his new position at Eastern Consolidated and his partnership with industry veteran Adelaide Polsinelli.

Khododadian and Polsinelli target properties to investors here and abroad. Russians in particular are on his radar. As Khododadian points out, they are expected to spend over $4 billion on US real estate next year.

Marketing trophy properties to the real estate game’s most serious players could seem like a big change for a young broker who got through the downturn working with small business owners in the outer boroughs.

But he says the transition has been a breeze.

“The thing is, I always knew these people, I just didn’t have anything to give them,” he says, explaining that “some people are always in the newspaper, always buying and selling. The smart broker calls them.

“The beauty of Eastern is, the platform works for the mom and pops all the way up to the $500 million development sites.”

Polsinelli, a senior director at Eastern Consolidated who brought Khododadian onto her team in 2011, uses words like “tenacious,” “gregarious” and “charming” to describe her young partner.

“Robert has the unique ability to balance aggressiveness with sensitivity,” she wrote in an email.

Khododadian grew up in Great Neck, Long Island, the middle of three children of Persian immigrant parents. His father is a jeweler in Long Island. “Khododadian” means “god-given” in Farsi.

His instinct for business was evident even as a kid in school.

“I always liked to buy nice stuff, and I would always sell clothes and sneakers to all my friends,” he says.By the time he was a 20-year-old junior studying finance at Pace University, that instinct was ready for the big time.

On a lead from an uncle, Khododadian purchased a foreclosed home in Hempstead, Long Island, with 100 percent financing. Three months later, he had completed a gut renovation and flipped the house, and his professional fate was sealed.

“I was, like, wow,” He recalls. “It was so easy to make the money that I was like, ‘this is what I have to do.’”By the time he graduated Pace and went to work for Massey Knakal in upper Manhattan, he had bought and sold seven more houses.

In 2006, Khodadadian left Massey Knakal and founded his own brokerage firm, Skyline Properties, in Great Neck. In 2010, they opened a second office on Park Avenue.

Getting through the downturn required thinking outside of the box, Khododadian says. “It was definitely rough, but my edge was staying out of Manhattan. Focusing on the smaller stuff, the more personal, mom-and-pop type people. We started doing more volume to survive.”

Khodadadian and Polsinelli met in early 2011, through a deal on the lower east side.

At first, Posinelli hesitated to add another agent to her team, but “Robert shone more brightly than any of my other junior agents. I knew he would be successful under the proper tutelage.” Within a month, the pair had done a $28 million deal.

In addition to working with foreign investors, Khodadadian is spending time canvassing Canal Street, an area that he thinks will soon undergo a retail transformation as SoHo shopping spills over to the south.

Whether working with Russian investors or Chinatown landlords, he says the key to success is finding a way for all the players in a deal get along. “A seller needs to be comfortable with a buyer on a friendly level. That’s it. And it really depends on the broker,” he says. “It’s about me making them both feel comfortable with each other.