22 May 2013 www.TheRealDeal.com
AT
THE
DESK
OF:
SAMANTHA KLEIER FORBES
AND
S
SABRINA KLEIER MORGENSTERN
amantha Kleier Forbes and Sabrina Kleier Morgenstern share more than just their sisterly genes. They also share an offi ce at Kleier Residential, the boutique residential fi rm co-founded by their mother, Michele, as Gumley Haft Kleier in the 1990s. Today the brokerage is one of the city’s top boutique fi rms (see related story on page 43), and the three Kleier women have sold some $130 million worth of real estate in the past year. These days the Kleiers’ activities extend far beyond brokering deals for high-end and celebrity clients. The trio costars on the HGTV reality show “Selling New York,” and their novel, “Hot Property,” is being made into a TV movie. The sisters’ offi ce space at 415 Madison Avenue, they point out, is perfectly proximate to Bergdorf’s and Bloomingdale’s. B Y G UELDA V OIEN
This sign was bought in Florida, not far from the Kleier family’s Boca Raton home. The Kleiers now represent One Thousand Ocean, a 52-unit new condo in Boca Raton.
A documentary by Jonathan Kleier about swindler Bernie Madoff premiered posthumously at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011.
Samantha is pictured here with her seven-year-old son, Chase, ice-skating in Central Park. Chase may be the next family member to join the business, his mother said: Not only does he know how to use the listings website StreetEasy, he recently told Samantha’s friend to consider apartments in Brooklyn because “prices are lower there.” The sisters have matching purple cell phones and both still use oldfashioned day planners. The two agree on most everything — from clothes (they describe their fashion palette as “gum-ball colors”) to men (though both happily married, they are fond of Tom Cruise). “We speak in the royal ‘we,’” explained Sabrina.
PHOTOGRAPH FOR THE REAL DEAL BY CHRIS MARTIN
This tote bag is from Horace Mann, the private school both girls attended from nursery through high school. Now their children are students there, and the family has established a scholarship at the school in the name of their late brother Jonathan.
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This photo was taken when the Kleiers were shooting a so-called “sizzle reel” — essentially a pilot — for “Selling New York.” When the producers first approached them in 2008, they were adamantly opposed to participating. They began to consider it when they learned that the production company was a family business like their own.
This Kleier family photo was taken in front of a green screen for a “Selling New York” shoot. “We felt silly; we aren’t actresses,” Sabrina said.
A promotional poster for “Hot Property,” which ABC Family has begun developing into an hour-long “dramedy.” The show will draw on stories about the Kleiers’ real-life clients, but will rework them as composites. “People always call and say, ‘Oh, is that [character] so and so?’” Samantha said. “But obviously, we never tell.”
Samantha and Sabrina’s brother, Jonathan Jonathan, died suddenly in 2009 at age 26 from a heart virus. Before his death, he worked at the company helping with technology and marketing, and shared this office space with his sisters. His desk remains exactly as he left it.
5/2/13 5:18 PM