Adam Modlin only deals in headline numbers. But don’t expect to see him talking about them in the news.
In 2019, he sold financier Philip Falcone’s home on East 67th Street for nearly $80 million, the priciest townhouse ever sold in New York City. Two years later, he brokered a $105 million deal for a Southampton estate, marking the most expensive single-parcel sale in Hamptons history. He later broke that record again, when he sold former Warner Brothers and Yahoo CEO Terry Semel’s Amagansett estate to developer Len Blavatnik for $115 million.
His personal track record is only outdone by his firm, the Modlin Group, which claims the highest average deal size among Manhattan brokerages, according to data analyzed by The Real Deal. In TRD’s most recent ranking, the firm claimed more than $213 million across just 26 deals, for an average of $8.2 million.
Through three decades in the business, Modlin has typically skipped interviews with the press, including for this story. His deals make news, but he rarely, if ever, comments.
“Sometimes I learn about a deal that he’s worked on from reading about it in The Real Deal,” said Jason Katz, who’s been an agent with the Modlin Group for more than a decade. “That’s how private the office is. I don’t even know what Adam’s working on.”
Modlin is a singular character, but an independent brokerage is increasingly rare in New York. Consolidation has pushed much of the luxury scene under the same umbrella as the industry appears locked in a race for listing inventory.
But even in a new ecosystem where size equals dominance, Modlin’s firm is most likely to weather the storm.
“He has access to listings through his relationships, and he has a lot of inventory that he brings in,” said Corcoran CEO Pam Liebman. She added that his boutique operation is an advantage in a consolidation–heavy landscape, where mid-size firms face existential threats. “His secret sauce is that he can say he’s his own man with his own shop.”
And unlike Liebman and the other brokerage heads whose jobs involve them going to bat over industry-wide issues, Modlin has stayed away from the noise.
“He is impervious to it,” said R New York’s Stefani Berkin. “There’s a lot going on that I think is hurting us as an industry. To me, the way Adam is, is helping us.”
Building a brokerage in style
Modlin has a reputation for curation, in business and in how he presents himself. He is fond of pocket squares from the London-based Anderson & Sheppard and has an affinity for Patek Philippe watches, a passion he shares with Liebman. On a recent trip to Miami, the two went shopping at its Design District outpost.
Modlin began his professional life at Bergdorf Goodman, first as a summer job while he was studying at Baruch College and then as a full-time stylist. He began to build relationships with a roster of A-listers, including Yankees royalty Alex Rodriguez. By 1999, after a stint working with Jules and Eddie Trump, connecting his New York clients to their South Florida developments, he and his brother, Avery, founded the Modlin Group.
The duo quickly cemented their place among the top producers in Manhattan, thanks in part to his networking skills. Avery told TRD in 2010 that back when Modlin still worked for Bergdorf, his brother walked over to a Rolls-Royce convertible at a red light and handed the driver his card, saying, “Anyone who can appreciate such a beautiful automobile would certainly appreciate what I do.”
“You ask for Adam, you get Adam. That’s rare in this industry.”
Some say Modlin’s sustained momentum comes from his ties to the people making decisions for the world’s richest. He doesn’t just seek out the big names, but he spends his time cultivating relationships with attorneys, money managers and other advisors.
Over the years, that has allowed Modlin to grow his client list to be even more star-studded, including Britney Spears, Usher, Will Smith, Madonna and Amy Schumer. Modlin has also become the go-to broker for many titans of industry, those whose names are hidden both behind his tight lips and layers of shell companies. Hints of their status are revealed only through the sky-high sums they shell out for coveted properties.
Modlin’s foothold in Manhattan has also been buoyed by a luxury market riding the rapidly growing wealth of the top .01 percent. That rise is expected to continue, especially as major artificial-intelligence companies move toward IPOs, minting new hundred-millionaires, many of whom will likely be setting up homes in New York City.
“It becomes like a snowball rolling down a mountain,” said Serhant’s Ravi Kantha. “You start getting the incoming calls because you’re the person for this asset class or this price point or this neighborhood. That’s how he’s maintained. He never took his foot off the gas.”
Unshakable Adam Modlin
Those who work closely with Modlin say that his guarded image is what keeps people coming back to the firm.
“We pride ourselves on not having our faces in front of the camera every time we show or sell a property,” said Andrew Nierenberg, a Modlin Group agent who described himself as Modlin’s “right-hand man” and the head of the company’s creative department.
Though Modlin doesn’t run his business on his own, he still maintains a touchpoint on its operations. Brokers who’ve worked on eight- and nine-figure deals with Modlin say his agents handle showings and the other aspects of the early phase of a sale, but once it comes time for the negotiation, it’s Adam in the driver’s seat.
“You ask for Adam, you get Adam,” said Berkin. “That’s rare in this industry.”
Looking back on her two years working at Modlin’s firm, Berkin said what she learned most from him was silence.
“He’s not an overtalker, which I think a lot of people in this business are,” she said. “Everything that comes out of his mouth is meaningful.”
Adam Modlin has built his reputation in Manhattan’s luxury real estate market through relationships with some of the biggest names
in entertainment, including these clients.
By multiple accounts, Modlin is unflappable.
“I’m sure everyone gets stressed, but I’ve never seen him insanely stressed out,” said Compass’ Carl Gambino, who ran the New York side of his business through the Modlin Group before expanding his team to the city with Compass.
The two are still friends. They also occasionally go head-to-head on listings, a daunting prospect for Gambino when the property is on the Upper East Side, where Modlin spent his childhood, raised his daughters and still lives with his wife.
“He knows every building, every block,” Gambino said, recalling a recent stroll with Modlin down Madison Avenue. “We can’t walk for five blocks without running into someone he knows.”
Gambino said when he recently lost out on listing a $25 million home on the Upper East Side, the clients said it was because they were going with a broker who they felt was a true expert on the neighborhood.
“I was like, ‘You mean Adam?’” he asked. The client said yes. “I texted him, and I was like, ‘I knew it was you.’”
But Modlin’s reputation as a congenial boss doesn’t mean he’s not a competitor. Some in the industry, who declined to be quoted by name for this story, say he won’t hesitate to swoop in when a high-priced listing seems to be in play, such as when an exclusive agreement is heading toward expiration.
But Liebman waved the criticism of Modlin off as “jealousy.”
“Not everyone loves everyone,” she said. “If I’ve ever had an issue with him, he’s handled it immediately.”
Signs of growth
While his agents do have their own clients and listings, often below the $5 million threshold, most if not all of the firm’s ultra-luxury dealmaking runs through Modlin himself.
That the firm is so small can sometimes feel like a challenge to brokers who work with Modlin.
“It’s not easy going up against these household names,” Nierenberg said. “You’re the single-door bank that the average person hasn’t heard of, and then all the sudden JPMorgan Chase comes along.”
But staying small still comes with its advantages. Leslie Garfield’s Matthew Lesser said he considers his firm and the Modlin Group as likely the only two boutique companies in the city that “have not succumbed to a conglomerate,” and while that may come with its challenges, “the reality is we’re much better positioned to maneuver with the market.”
But even while staying lean, Modlin has his eyes on growth. In 2023, Modlin quietly expanded, opening an outpost in Bridgehampton and tapping former Compass agent Christopher Covert to head the office.
Though Modlin still tackles his own deals on the South Fork, it’s Covert’s business that takes center stage. And in the years since its opening, the team has grown to a similar structure to the city, with eight agents and an operations director.
“For us, we’ll never lose the boutique vibe. We’re not looking to fill seats or open more offices,” Covert said. Growth is just “building a larger client base.”
Earlier this year, Modlin also inked a partnership with Knight Frank, cementing a referral relationship between his firm and the London-based real estate company. In doing so, Modlin secured a place on the international stage, landing access to Knight Frank’s 700 offices across Europe, the Middle East Asia and the Americas for his clients, while at the same time serving clients of Knight Frank shopping in the city and out East.
Though it appears that Modlin plans to stay the course as an independent brand, it isn’t for others’ lack of trying.
“I hope one day we could buy his company,” Liebman said. But when asked if she thinks he would ever take her up on the offer, she wasn’t so sure. “One can only hope.”
