(L-R) Anthony Lolli, Founder/CEO, Luis Santa (Sunnyside franchisee) and Carlos Angelucci, COO
June 27, 2013 By Christian Murray
A new real estate firm is about to open on the corner of 43rd Avenue and 49nd Street, where a battered grocery & convenience store was previously located.
The firm, called Rapid Realty Sunnyside, is expected to open in two weeks and will employee about 15 agents. Rapid Realty is a franchise operation where it has more than 50 real estate offices around New York City, with most in Brooklyn.
Luis Santa, the owner of the Sunnyside franchise, said that his focus will be on rentals. “Our company has contacts with building owners across the city and we will get their Queens listings,” he said.
Rapid Realty, companywide, generates about 80% of its revenue from residential rentals, with commercial rentals and property sales each composing 10% of the remainder.
Rapid Realty was founded by Anthony Lolli in Brooklyn in 1998.The firm began franchising in 2009, and now has more than 60 franchise locations in the Tri-state area, with several about to open in Boston.
However, the Sunnyside location will only be its third in Queens. Its other Queens locations are in Astoria and Forest Hills.
“We want to get into the Queens and this [Sunnyside] is a good neighborhood for it,” Santa said. “The area is beautiful and it is great for transportation.”
The company is known for providing its employees with a 15% raise if they get a tattoo that sports the firm’s logo.
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47 Comments
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Congrats Luis!! No matter what is said your office and agents WILL Prosper.
Wishing you all the best!!! Show Sunnyside YOUR RAPID REALTY GREATNESS!! See you at the TOP!
“And they need to invite stores that will do stuff for the community , not stores that want to make this place look like a cheap alternative to a night out in manhattan.”
hahah! Do you know how capitalism works? you’re complaining that stores on the south side are empty, then complaining about the type of stores moving in to the north side.
Also, you’re not an “old timer” if you moved here during the Dinkins, Giuliani or Bloomberg administrations. Maybe even Koch. I f you were a real old timer, you’d remember when things were downright sh#tty, and welcome any improvement.
Why does someone always have to bring up the race card?! Chip on your shoulder much? As far as I can see, the comments about how they look, relate to them not looking very classy, and not a racial slur. People need to realise class, religion and race are not all the same thing. You can be classy or a scum bag in any color.
It is obvious these are the people who will call CL listings and offer them “a very suitable tenant with money on hand and good income” just to get place rented and not care about tenant or the LL.
There are truly awesome places like Olympic Real Estate, they have very nice people and they care about who they offer and care about both prospective tenants and landlords. Welcome Home is also nice but they tend to use multiple agents offer against each others tenants or prospective buyers when it is a sale, I didn’t really find that an honest approach.
@ann: I think you missed his point about the tattoos. Some of their agents happened to get tattoos, and the CEO wanted to compensate them for their commitment. The media spun it as if there’s a policy that if you get a tattoo, you get a raise. He’s saying that’s not true. I don’t know one way or the other. I think tattoos are dumb.
Sunnyside isn’t as bad a place to live these days as the pathetic, scared commenters above would have you think. Someone said it used to be “a quiet, friendly neighborhood with a bunch of bars.” Well, that’s still what it is. Aside from the commenters on this site, this is one of the quietest, friendliest neighborhoods I’ve seen in NYC. And there are still a bunch of bars. What’s your evidence otherwise?
The worst thing about this neighborhood are the commenters here who complain about every little thing as if it’s the veritable end of the world. And even that is pretty funny, if you think about it. Sunnyside is still a great place even if there is a disreputable real estate place moving in.
@ spades
Feel free to keep your head in the sand, that’s your prerogative. If you can’t read between the lines, I can’t help you.
I’ve been in quite a while, but you’re free to leave as well if you don’t like where this place is going.
slum lords ? what a numb nutts
@Not Surprised: so I guess you work for them or are them. The negative comments were about their business practices and bad judgment. Not to mention the tattoos, pathetic no matter who suggested it.
Welcome our new slumlords
Truth is Sunnyside doesn’t know what it wants to be. Us old timers, we remember Sunnyside as a very nice and quiet friendly neighborhood with a bunch of bars. Somewhere along the line Hipsters wanted the space because it’s close to Manhattan.
The biggest spectacle was when Vantage came and tried to change the whole area overnight. pathetic.
One side of Sunnyside is looking nice, but the other side is terrible. That side has a bunch of empty store lots, theft, etc.
Sunnyside is divided and the people behind this area need to spread out the love not just for one side. And they need to invite stores that will do stuff for the community , not stores that want to make this place look like a cheap alternative to a night out in manhattan.
What a wonderful way to welcome a new business into your neighborhood….. not surprised at all. BTW, the company is a franchise, which means that individual offices are operated by owner operators, and not related directly to Anthony Lolli or Carlos Angelucci, who I know personally, and are far from scammers or slumlords.
Oh, and for the record, the tattoos came FIRST from loyal agents (who are NOT employees, they are independent contractors, so they can’t get a RAISE), and Lolli thought it would be nice to compensate them for their loyalty to the brand. He had no control over how the media would spin it – and are you really surprised? It’s no secret that news agencies and media outlets spin stories to get more readers…. Anthony just decided to let it ride.
It is truly unfortunate that people can still be so judgmental, especially when most of you are making blank assumptions based on, of all things, how they are DRESSED. AND, Yelp isn’t always the most accurate measure of a business, as I personally know of several small business operations that have issue with how Yelp manages the “customer reviews”, and getting a malicious one removed is near impossible – unless you pay some sort of premium.
The only way to fight hate and ignorance is with LOVE, so I send you all love and light. Examine yourselves, and ask yourselves how you would feel if people make blanket judgments about you based on a photograph.
Hey boss, look, I just got the company logo tattooed to my arm right above my wife, mother and daughter’s names.
That’s really nice Jenkins. It is, however, a bit awkward seeing as we just decided to let you go. Security, show this man to the door please.
Spade: Agree – as I did only worry about the deceitful business practices. I love Sunnyside for all it’s heritage and diversity.
@ Anonymous There seem to be several anonymous commenters here, I’m addressing the most recent ones. Your scorn of all things but yourself, and you seem like a recent addition to the neighborhood. The neighborhood is as it is because of “old timers.” “Mouth breathers,” are people with gifts different from yours, who could widen your perspective if you had respect for them. There is no discussion of race here, simply deceitful business practices, yet you bring it up, making you the probable racist whether white, black, brown or other. This post has nothing to do with “nimby” yet you raise that, too. You moved to a cohesive neighborhood with a housing stock and balance of open to closed space that settled years and years ago. Evidently it appealed to you. Now it is landmarked, which means many more people than the ones who live here deem it an important neighborhood as it is. If you find it doesn’t suit you, you are welcome to leave.
Let’s just call a spade a spade. If the 3 owners were “their kind of people” they would at least give them the benefit of the doubt, regardless of the history. It’s a new franchise.
Since they’re not, you get real mouth breathing comments like “there goes the neighborhood”, and “Sopranos extras”.
Sunnyside is becoming a fertile ground for 99 cent stores, fast food , real estate agencies, and laundromats. The lack of independent community oriented small businesses is what makes our neighborhood look like a rest stop. Let’s be real, the men in the picture have nothing to do with the real problem here. Just sayin’.
They look like they should be running a strip club.
Are these guys auditioning for the movie version of the Sopranos?
I sure as hell don’t want to do business with someone nutty enough to get a company tattoo for a few measly bucks. Just imagine the kind of trashy employees this company must attract.
IF Rapid Realty didn’t have such a bad reputation one would wish the 3 individuals good luck no matter their background.
I don’t see race
These were the same upstanding business owners in Brooklyn who “incentivized” their employees with a 15% raise if the employee got a tattoo of the company logo permanently inked on their body…
@Anonymous Your anger and ignorance make you a poor choice to lead this neighborhood into the future.
What a repulsive idea for a company to offer employees a 15% raise to get a tattoo of the company’s logo.
@ racists
This is exactly why we need an influx of new blood around here, to thin out the old timer, nimby, racist dbags stuck in the 50s.
If the new firm was comprised of three white woman in their 50s– like other firms around here– you would be saying that’s nice, good luck, etc.
However, because two of the men are minorities everyone makes comments like mob, and hustlers, etc.
Think about it!!
Why bring on the hipsters and college students? Are you being facetious? I’ve been saying ‘the rent is too damn high” for a long time, but Bloomberg sold us down the river to the developers, who attract fly-by-night types. Come in, make a quick buck, get out. Love of money attracts those who love money.
Well the neighborhood shift is happening already…look at LIC! “The rent is too damn high” is gonna be what we’re gonna start saying in a couple of years. Bring on the hipsters and college students!
If they’ve anything to do with that building they’re in then yes, bad news!
Why say that the convenience store was “battered”? It was useless, but it only opened like a year ago, and it was at least neat and new.
I am bummed that this is what is opening on this corner near my apt. I was hoping for an internet cafe or another wine spot 🙁
THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD!!! ;-(
I thought they were a real estate brokerage firm, how can they be slum lords?
You should get a raise for professionalism and hard work rather than a tattoo of the logo. Whatever happened to getting a reward for hard work and dedication?!
Can we get the community board to block these people from moving in? I’m going to call Van Bramer. Because landmarks.
The smell of money attracts con artists of all kinds. We are no longer a neighborhood, we are a profit center. Its a feeding frenzy. Charming.
they’re*
Rapid Realty are horrible conniving slum lords. DO NOT allow friends or loved ones to get involved with them. This is a possibly horrible bane to future tenants of the neighborhood.
I work in managing Manhattan rental buildings and I’ve had good experiences with Rapid Realty as whole.
Anonymous – In defense of RR, each agent is different and your experience will depend on who you work with. Unfortunately for Rapid Realty, their agents tend to be green and untested. What they need is strong management and ethical leadership and hopefully this team will succeed in that.
Good luck RR!
Smells like 3 crooks on a Sunnyside corner.
Yea… these guys look like their in the mob.
WOW… for the first time I don’t know what to think… It is a nice logo…
But it seems like the company is young and hip and will attract younger people to Sunnyside. Which means that there will be more change that some people are very against.
Though I have not been entirely happy with any of the real estate agents I’ve used in Sunnyside, these guys seem the worst. I can imagine Sunnyside rents will soon be increasing as these agents push up the rates for their own profit. I’m all for the updating of Sunnyside, but can we do it and still keep our community? The introduction of these kind of sharks won’t help, that’s for sure.
yeah I get the impression, watch your wallet.
a tat for $$$$$$$$ – I see a real class operation moving in
They’re a scam and bad company – stay away. See Yelp.