Halstead Property

John Wollberg
Executive Director of Sales, Park Avenue Flagship
jwollberg@halstead.com
(212) 381-3300

Wollberg Brings Passion To Ues Office

BY Maggie Hawryluk

Halstead Property's John Wollberg is living in career-choice marital bliss with his latest step as director of sales at the firm's Eastside office.

"I married two loves and two things I studied in college, frankly," Wollberg said. "One was architecture and the other was business."

But Wollberg admits he had to kiss a few frogs before he found his perfect fit in the residential industry. He began his career in automobile testing, "because I loved cars as a kid," before switching gears to the information technology industry while it was in its infancy.

"I was there for two years and finally realized that was just not where my head was," he recalled. "After spending about a month on the beach in West Hampton, staring at the ocean to help me decide exactly what I wanted to do in my life, I had figured it out."  And he said the answer was in real estate. 
 
Wollberg returned from his hiatus, quit his job in IT and took a position as the assistant to the head of marketing at Rockrose Development. There, he literally learned the ins and outs of conversions, eventually taking on his own responsibilities as he arranged and oversaw conversions for Rockrose and later with other well-known firms, also providing consulting services with several banks after the stock market crash in the late `80s.

He was then hired by a French family to help them convert a failed condominium on the Upper West Side into a Flatotel, essentially retrofitting the building for a hotel.

"It was somewhat of a departure for me in terms of real estate," he said, adding that the family wanted him to stay on as the hotel's general manager. "And I went back into real estate as fast as I could."

Realizing he always had a love for residential architecture — in addition to earning degrees in marketing at the University of Maryland and business administration at George Washington University, Wollberg also studied architecture at Tulane University — he focused his energy on brokering residential spaces. He then signed on with Goodstein Realty where he managed up to 40 agents, and later joined DJK Residential where he managed an office of about 60 brokers. Through his knowledge in architecture and experience in conversions, Wollberg found a particular niche in the residential business in helping clients combine apartments and renovate loft spaces.

Although he was pleased with the work he and his fellow agents were doing, Wollberg said he knew there was more on the horizon for him.

"People had always said to me, 'Why don't you open your own firm? Why are you doing this for other people?"' he said. "Finally, I decided they were right."

So, with the backing of the Hemmerdinger family— while with Goodstein, Wollberg represented two of the family firm's residential buildings, 40 Central Park South and 41 West 58th St. — Wollberg helped found ATCO Residential Group in 1997 where he served as executive vice president, managing director for 11 years.

"While I was at ATCO, I was wearing four different hats. I was the consultant to the owner of the building for 40 Central Park South on all of their renovations and operations on the building, running and developing the company, brokering and doing a lot with the real estate board," he said. "It was very difficult. The were four big hats to wear and my time was very tight."

Although time was tight, Wollberg always made a point to dedicate time to the Real Estate Board of Ne York, as he strongly feels that all brokers should get involved with an industry-related committee. Since his days at Goodstein, Wollberg has been a key player w REBNY. He chairs the REBNY Listing System (RLS and Technology Committees and until recently, serve as the co-chair of the Residential Board of Directors. He played a crucial role in developing and launc ing ResidentialNYC.com, and currently co-chairs the board of ResidentialNYC. Also, he is a member of the REBNY Admissions Committee as well as a judge fo the Residential Deal of the Year.
And it was through his dedication to REBNY that Wollberg got this latest opportunity with Halstead.

Wollberg said he was both "floored and flattered" when Diane Ramirez, president of Halstead Property, approached him about managing the Eastside office. Though he admits the "opportunity came to me over my left shoulder," coming to an ultimate decision wasn't all that difficult.

"One of the reasons I came to Halstead was Diane and because I admire what she has done with Halstea I admire her work ethic," he said. "We see eye-to-eye on many things. From the real estate board perspective we worked on a number of things together, and as a result, we felt that this would have been a good match."

And Wollberg was eager and willing to take on the task of expanding the office's depth and reach on the Upper East Side, along with helping the more than 70 fulltime and 37 virtual Halstead brokers service their clients better.

In addition to growing Halstead's presence in the neighborhood, Wollberg is also working to build a community between brokers on the Upper East Side. Surprisingly, REBNY has Downtown and Westside Committees, but nothing for brokers on the East Sick As a result, he will be helping to develop a group.

"We hope that it will bring a lot of the Eastside brokers together for the real estate board and form a community feeling to help them to work for the community, in the community and with the community," he said. "I think it will be a good thing."

Wednesday, July 23, 2008