NRT Inc. acquires Cook Pony Farm

Long Island Business News, Oct 24, 2003 by LIBN Staff

Marking its second major Long Island acquisition since August, NRT Inc. has acquired the East Hampton-based residential real estate brokerage Cook Pony Farm Real Estate Inc.

As part of the deal, Pamela Liebman, president and chief executive officer of The Corcoran Group, an NRT subsidiary and New York City's largest residential real estate brokerage company, will move to the Hamptons.

Melanie Ross, president and chief executive officer of Cook Pony will assume the role of regional vice president for Corcoran, while Cook Pony Vice Presidents Judi Desiderio and Michael DeSario will become vice president of education and vice president of administration, respectively.

Cook Pony's other partners, John Cataletto and Morry Blutstein, will also stay with Corcoran.

There is no other company that could match the nationwide reach that our East End market will gain from this union, said Ross.

In August, NRT announced the acquisition of The Sammis Group, Inc., and Signature Properties of Long Island LLC. The new entity will be known as Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.

The acquired companies, which respectively do business as Coldwell Banker Sammis in Huntington and National Homefinders Signature Properties in Ronkonkoma, now operate under the banner of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.

Bob Becker, president and chief executive officer of Parsippany, N.J.-based NRT, said he has been interested in entering the Long Island market for quite some time. He said the Sammis Group and National Homefinders offer tremendous local market knowledge.

NRT entered the Manhattan and Brooklyn markets in Sept. 2001 with its acquisition of The Corcoran Group.

NRT Inc., a subsidiary of Cendant Corporation (NYSE: CD), is the nation's largest residential real estate brokerage company. It has more than 900 offices and 52,000 sales associates operating in more than 30 of the nation's largest metropolitan markets. In 2002, NRT posted a real estate industry record of $149 billion in closed sales volume.