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A year after former Keller Williams market center owners Ilan Bracha and Haim Binstock lost their final bid to stop foreclosure proceedings on their former Midtown Manhattan office, the property is in the hands of a new owner.
Crain’s New York Business was the first to report the news on Thursday, two days after the purchase deed appeared in New York City’s City Register. The new owners submitted a winning bid of $11.3 million — $300,000 shy of the $11.6 million financial firm Wilmington Trust said Bracha and Binstock owed in a fall 2020 foreclosure suit against the duo.
Ilan Bracha | LinkedIn
Inman reached out to Bracha for comment, but he did not respond.
Bracha and Binstock were responsible for bringing Keller Williams to New York City, with the duo opening the Texas-based brand’s first Manhattan franchise in 2011. The outfit experienced exponential growth during its first several years, with the agent count ballooning to more than 900 agents, Crain’s report reads. To accommodate their team’s needs, Bracha and Binstock purchased a Tribeca retail office in 2014 for $10 million.
A year after purchasing 377 Broadway, the duo refinanced their mortgage with Ladder Capital Finance, according to the report. The $11.8 million deal required Bracha and Binstock to charge more than $1 million in rent per year from tenant Keller Williams. The Ladder Capital Finance loan was eventually folded into a commercial mortgage-backed security from financial firm Wilmington Trust.
The deal seemed like a smart move; however, a precipitous dip in condo and co-op sales in 2018 restricted the brokerage’s cash flow. Bracha lowered the annual rent to $900,000 — a decision Wilmington Trust said Bracha made without their permission.
“Without the lease, and the cash flow it ensured borrower would have under its original terms (prior to improper modification), the loan would not have been provided to the borrower,” court documents read.
In 2018, Bracha and Binstock failed to sell 377 Broadway for $19.5 million. Unable to unload the property and complete several other cost-cutting measures, the brokerage made a round of layoffs and lost its interim team leader, according to Inman in 2018. The duo eventually sold KWNYC in November 2019 to KW franchisor Richard Amato, who owned several offices in Nassau County. Amato moved KWNYC into one office at 99 Park Avenue, where the brokerage still operates today.
At the time of the sale, The Real Deal reported that Keller Williams Realty International had pressured Bracha and Binstock to sell KWNYC due to an “alarming number of questions and concerns about the leadership and viability.” Despite TRD claiming they had a letter substantiating the claim, KWRI denied the allegations.
Although they left KWNYC behind, the duo continued to fight for 377 Broadway which they owned through their investment firm B+B Capital, according to Crain’s report. However, Bracha and Binstock lost their final appeal in April 2023, when a judge gave the green light for the auction to proceed.
Binstock has kept a low profile, while Bracha returned to Corcoran Group as the team leader of The Bracha Team.
He also owns IB Global, a holdings company for his “numerous real estate subsidiary divisions,” including IB Venture and B+B Capital. Although B+B Capital’s website seems to have not been updated since 2016, Bracha said he’s invested in 172 Madison Avenue, 251 West 14th Street and 16-18 West 57th Street through the company.
