A nearly 20-year fixture at Douglas Elliman is going solo.
Neal Sroka, whose latest role at Elliman was special projects advisor, is leaving the firm to focus on his independent consulting business, Sroka Worldwide, which he founded in 2016.
Sroka is exiting the brokerage following a number of high-profile departures and after a year that saw the company endure mounting losses and executive turnover, including the abrupt retirement of longtime CEO and chairman Howard Lorber
“The timing is right,” Sroka said of his departure, almost a year after Elliman board member Michael Liebowitz took over the helm of the brokerage.
“It’s a new beginning,” he said of his move. “I’ve got one more in me.”
Sroka will hang his real estate license with his consulting firm, though he said his focus will not be on selling properties himself but on advising developers and other clients on marketing their products internationally.
“Douglas Elliman is grateful for all of Neal’s contributions over the last two decades and we wish him all the best in his next endeavor,” a spokesperson for the brokerage said in a statement.
Sroka said he’s built a network of brokers who service ultra-high-net-worth individuals and that his consulting firm helps developers tap into that web. Now unattached to any specific brokerage, he said his independent status will allow his firm to be “more agnostic.”
“[Developers] don’t care what firm you work for,” Sroka said, but rather, “who can put me in touch with the end user or their trusted advisors.” He added that he has a “tremendous understanding of the movement of money.”
Aside from his role as an advisor, Sroka’s tenure at Elliman included leading the Sroka Worldwide Team, a cohort of agents focused on selling luxury properties, new developments and commercial deals. He described his team as the launching pad for several top producers, including Michael Lorber, co-founder of his eponymous team, and Eleonora Srugo, the star of Netflix’s “Selling the City.”
Before his departure, Sroka was advising the firm on its international expansion, a move CEO Michael Liebowitz announced earlier this year after ending a 15-year partnership with London-based Knight Frank.
Sroka’s exit follows leaders of some of Elliman’s top-producing teams, including Holly Parker, who left to join Compass in February, and Noble Black, who returned to the Corcoran Group earlier this month.
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