Inside The Hollywood Reporter’s Energy Dealer Awards Hosted by Mauricio Umansky

“You’ve reworked a room filled with enemies right into a room filled with buddies,” Aaron Kirman, of AKG | Christie’s Worldwide, quipped. He was surveying the scene at The Hollywood Reporter’s third annual L.A. Energy Dealer Awards, introduced by The Society Group and hosted by The Company’s Mauricio Umansky. This fairy-tale feeling of camaraderie hung within the air all night, little doubt enhanced by the enchanting setting of the legendary Castillo Del Lago property, previously owned by Madonna. The house is at the moment co-listed (for $18.9 million) by Linda Might and Brett Lawyer of Carolwood Estates.

The honors had been held together with THR’s 2023 listing of Hollywood’s High 35 Actual Property Brokers, which honors prime sellers within the higher Los Angeles space primarily based on MLS-listed gross sales to Hollywood shoppers, general deal quantity and media visibility.

Searching over views of Lake Hollywood, brokers sipped on cocktails to the soothing sounds of a string quartet, within the Spanish Colonial Revival fortress inbuilt 1926, with a transparent view of the Hollywood signal. “It’s the quintessential previous Hollywood home,” Might defined. “And the enjoyable factor is that the rationale the developer constructed this home and the 2 others which can be subsequent door is as a result of actors and actresses had been thought-about riffraff in Beverly Hills and Bel-Air, and the studios had been over right here. So, they constructed this for the Hollywood neighborhood.” 

Castillo Del Lago held particular reminiscences for a number of of the listing’s honorees. Umansky recalled selecting up his daughter Alexia from the house after playdates with Madonna’s daughter, Lourdes Leon. The all the time entertaining Juliette Hohnen of Douglas Elliman remembered throwing Rosie O’Donnell a child bathe within the manse, throughout Madonna’s tenure, and plenty of different enjoyable occasions. “[Madonna] used to have gardenias in every single place and he or she would scent of gardenias,” Hohnen stated. “You felt such as you had been going into heaven, and it was actually an expertise.”

Umansky served as emcee for the awards ceremony — held throughout an beautiful out of doors candlelight dinner — regardless of having debuted on Dancing with the Stars the evening earlier than. “I’m exhausted,” he stated. “I’ve been icing my knee all day lengthy. It appears like a watermelon immediately. And thank God I made it by way of. I used to be very fortunate to make it. I used to be all the way down to the underside two, however I did make it by way of, and I’m glad I did as a result of I’m having an absolute blast.”

He continued to have a blast on stage, the place he good-naturedly roasted everybody — together with himself — and even did slightly jig. Of the delightfully flamboyant dealer Branden Williams of The Beverly Hills Estates, he stated: “He appears to be like like Elvis Presley, however from Vegas years.” Rival brokerages had been additionally honest sport, as Umansky joked, “because of Dancing with the Stars, my dance scores and my abdomen, they’re as flat as Compass’s inventory.”

Umansky was additionally a winner of the night, receiving the Media Maverick Award from final 12 months’s co-recipient Matt Altman, who playfully held up a replica of Umansky’s e-book The Dealmaker as Umansky gave his speech.

Aaron Kirman — honored with the Agent of Historic Structure Award —for promoting such homes as John Lautner’s Garcia Home and the previous residence of Steven Bocho, designed by Paul R. Williams — had the friends in stitches recalling his early ignorance of architectural pedigree. “Humorous sufficient, after I began promoting houses after I was very younger, 18 years previous, I knew nothing about structure or homes,” he recalled. “And I keep in mind I received a telephone name and anyone stated, ‘I need a Neutra.’ And I stated, ‘Oh my God, I’ll get you so many Neutras. It’s not an issue. It’s really easy to discover. I actually hung up the telephone and I keep in mind going, ‘What’s a Neutra?’ I had no concept.” 

Stunning nobody, Kurt Rappaport of Westside Property Company received the Stratospheric Sale of the Yr Award for representing either side of the historic Beyoncé and Jay-Z buy of the $200 million Tadao Ando-designed Malibu property offered by artwork collectors and producers Invoice and Maria Bell.

Drew Fenton, founding father of the brand new energy brokerage Carolwood Estates, received the award for Workforce of the Yr. Chris Cortazzo of Compass was honored with the Philanthropic Influence Award for his help of organizations together with The Boys and Ladies Membership of Malibu and the Elton John Aids Basis.

Some of the emotional moments of the evening was when childhood buddies Michael Fahimian and Jack Harris of The Beverly Hills Estates received the Rising Star Award. That they had tears of their eyes as they expressed their appreciation for the business.

Gratitude abounded when James Harris of Bond Avenue Companions, who received Rental Sale of the Yr for his or her $21 million rental sale at The Century, accepted the award on behalf of himself and associate David Parnes. “The Hollywood Reporter was the primary listing David and I made in 2016,” he stated. “And I keep in mind simply pondering to myself, that’s it. I’ve made it. We’re carried out. We’re nice. That is the very best factor ever. And it’s the one listing that will get printed yearly that has a sentimental worth to us and that we all the time need to make.”

In an more and more robust actual property market — battered by rates of interest, the much-maligned ULA tax and the proposed Wildlife Ordinance — Harris inspired his fellow brokers to maintain the religion. “I feel we have to come collectively and have a half glass full mentality, not half empty,” he stated. “I feel it’s very simple for us to dwell on the negatives and it’s very simple for us to all exit to our shoppers and dwell on the negatives. However I feel if all of us come collectively and we concentrate on the positives, which is that we stay right here in Los Angeles, which is I feel the very best way of life on the planet, I feel if we put that optimistic message out, if we breathe that positivity on the market, solely good can come from it.”

It was a sentiment shared by the Kardashians’ go-to Tomer Fridman of Compass when he took the stage to simply accept the Superstar Property Portfolio Award. “I feel it’s simply so necessary for us to, as James stated, to type of uplift everybody, particularly on this market,” he stated. “On the finish of the day, all of us depend on each other and the one strategy to make it actually by way of is that if we collaborate.”

For no less than one magical evening — together with on the after-party, held on the beautiful, new $38 million Californication Home, developed by Branden and Rayni Williams and Jason Somers — this spirit of unity and appreciation reigned.

Extra pictures to come back.

The 2023 L.A. Energy Dealer Awards Winners

Workforce of the Yr

Drew Fenton, Carolwood Estates – WINNER

Philanthropic Influence

Chris Cortazzo, Compass – WINNER

Stratospheric Sale Of the Yr

Kurt Rappaport, Westside Property Company – WINNER

Aileen Comora & Paul Lester, The Company

Jade Mills, Coldwell Banker

Agent of Historic Structure

Aaron Kirman, AKG | Christie’s Worldwide Actual Property – WINNER

Josh Flagg, Douglas Elliman

Brett Lawyer, Carolwood Estates

Media Maverick

Mauricio Umansky, The Company – WINNER

Rochelle Atlas Maize, Nourmand & Associates

Jade Mills, Coldwell Banker

Rental Sale of the Yr

James Harris & David Parnes, The Company – WINNER

Leo Medeiros & Bridget Reeves, The Company, and A. Demitrous Walker, The Hills Premier Realty

Jason Oppenheim & Heather Younger, Oppenheim Group; Tomer Fridman, Compass; Cassandra Petersen, Coldwell Banker

Superstar Property Portfolio

Tomer Fridman, Compass – WINNER

Santiago Arana, The Company

Brett Lawyer, Carolwood Estates

Rising Star

Michael Fahimian & Jack Harris, The Beverly Hills Estates – WINNER

Alexander Howe & Weston Littlefield, AKG | Christie’s Worldwide Actual Property

Zac Mostame, Carolwood Estates

Bryce Pennel, Compass

Nichole Shanfeld, Carolwood Estates