Former Massey Knakal Retail Director Lands at JDF Realty After Resignation

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Ellaina Dreifach, the former director of retail leasing for Massey Knakal who left the firm after only nine months following a public dispute, has landed a job at JDF Realty, she told The Commercial Observer.
JDF Realty principal Robert Frischman confirmed the hire in an email to The Commercial Observer, adding that she will be a “director” at the firm.
ellainadreifach part ii Former Massey Knakal Retail Director Lands at JDF Realty After Resignation
The former Massey Knakal Retail Director: back at work.

“I am going to JDF Realty and I actually start tomorrow,” Ms. Dreifach said yesterday. “But I am still at this very moment extremely angry at Massey Knakal.”

In an interview with The Real Deal yesterday, Ms. Dreifach said she quit Massey Knakal because of her objections to the firm’s recently-launched territory model, which breaks New York City into 50 territories and assigns a broker and an associate to each area.

“I wasn’t sold on the fact that this territory system works – not for retail,” Ms. Dreifach told The Commercial Observer.  “It worked for sales, but not for retail.”

In her conversation with The Commercial Observer, Ms. Dreifach said the company unfairly took a chunk of her commission, and limited her earning potential by forcing her to work with only landlords instead of with tenants, too. “In the retail business that is fifty percent of your business,” said Ms. Dreifach.

Massey Knakal was co-founded by Robert Knakal, who writes the weekly column “Concrete Thoughts” for The Commercial Observer.

Both Mr. Knakal and Paul Massey, Jr., who also co-founded the firm, declined to comment for this story.

Ms. Dreifach will start her new job at JDF Realty Wednesday, she said.

drosen@observer.com