Former Compass New Dev Employee Sues Firm

13 minutes read

Compass Development Marketing Group and Naftali Group have a good thing going.

Compass’ new development group has launched sales for a number of Naftali projects in recent years, including the Henry at 211 West 84th Street, the Willow at 201 East 23rd Street and 255 East 77th Street.

But the group’s project pipeline with one of the city’s top developers is at the heart of a former employee’s lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York. Former managing director Gary Cicerello, who worked at Compass Development Marketing from 2023 to 2026 before being fired, claimed he was instead shunted over to the firm’s other condo developments with little support or training.

Cicerello, 62, alleged the reason was his age and sex, claiming he was “completely excluded from any involvement with the Naftali Group business.” Instead, the Naftali portfolio was managed by co-head of new development, Dan Parker, and his preferred support staff, two women decades younger than Cicerello.

Cicerello is seeking back pay and, instead of being rehired, front pay, as well as compensatory damages for emotional distress and professional harm and liquidated damages for allegedly violating federal age discrimination laws.

Cicerello also claimed he has not been able to secure a new job because of Compass’ monopoly in the real estate and development market. (Compass acquired Anywhere Real Estate for $1.6 billion in January, combining the two largest brokerages in the country by sales volume.)

A spokesperson for Compass declined to comment.

Parker and Sarah Patton, the other co-head of new development, directed “substantive career development, organizational support, staffing resources, professional mentorship, and advancement opportunities to employees under the age of 40,” the complaint claims. At the same time, Parker and Patton, who were named as defendants along with Compass and its new development group, were “systematically depriving senior employees of the project

management resources necessary to perform their jobs.”

The claims in the complaint paint a picture of a split between the Naftali teams and the rest of the division, with staff members working on Naftali-related projects allegedly receiving frequent praise and training while employees like Cicerello were left out to dry.

Naftali Group projects made up anywhere from 60 to 75 percent of all of Compass Development Marketing’s business, according to Cicerello. Meanwhile, Cicerello oversaw a non-Naftali portfolio including 33 Park Row, 250 West 96th Street and 118 West 13th Street, also known as The Katharine, the complaint stated.

Cicerello claims that several departures from his team left him with “virtually no project management or administrative support.”

After two project managers on his portfolio resigned in 2025, an administrator for 250 West 96th Street left at the start of 2026, according to the complaint. An on-site administrator role for 33 Park Row was also eliminated by the developer at the end of 2025 with the employee later reassigned to Parker’s projects, and a senior project manager that was “nominally” overseeing 33 Park Row was gradually reassigned to Patton’s rental projects.

Cicerello was terminated in February for reasons he claims were “pretextual, manufactured, and

directly attributable to the support-staff vacuum.” Those reasons included discrepancies in what was available at 250 West 96th Street and incorrect Fair Housing and Agency Disclosure forms, according to the complaint. Parker also cited an incorrect development report shared with the team for 33 Park Row, the complaint claims.

In May, a Corcoran team took over sales for 250 West 96th Street, according to StreetEasy. The development is still roughly one-third unsold, according to Marketproof. The Katharine sold out its eight units in under a year, and 33 Park Row has just two of its 30 units left to sell.