Bertrand de Soultrait, Bertwood Realty LLC

What was the best thing that happened to you or your firm in 2014? Being elected in the top 10 small New York City retail brokerages by The Commercial Observer earlier this year. Introducing high end retailers such as: Aux Merveilleux, Arianna Skin Care, Crepes&Delices to the New York City market. Our first building sale on West 143rd St in early summer 2014. On the landlord side of our activity, being part of the transformation of an entire block on Bleecker St. What was your most notable project, deal, transaction or personal achievement in 2014? Besides the dozen retail transactions we realized at Bertwood in our first year, having the honor to be up and running in my own office with a great team of professionals surrounding me and helping taking Bertwood to the next level. What are you looking forward to accomplishing in 2015? We have a few nice investment sales deals that are in contract and supposed to close in early 2015. We also have the honor to represent the famous "Laduree" in two different markets on the East Coast. We are getting more and more inquiries from international fashion retailers to break in the NY Market, we are here to help them and this is what we focus on at Bertwood. What are some of your real estate predictions for 2015? A tougher and tougher economic climate in Europe especially in France which is beneficial for us in our industry, we are seeing a lot more interest from retailers to expand in New York. Same phenomenon on the investment sale side, we have lots of foreign funds to be invested here however it's challenging to find realistic sellers! New York City retail rents are at an all-time high, we will probably see a light decrease in asking rent. In this market, for non-food retailers it is becoming hard to be profitable.