Do NYC Condo Developers Rehire the Same Architect, Lawyer and Manager?
Developers who file more than one NYC condo offering plan usually bring back firms they've used before. Here is how often, by kind of firm, compared with what random hiring would produce, and the partnerships that recur most.
Short answer: yes, most of the time. When a developer files another NYC condo offering plan, the plan usually names a firm the developer has used before. That holds for every kind of firm we can measure, and by a wide margin over what random hiring would produce.
- Offering plan attorney: 77% of later projects rehired an earlier firm, against 14% by chance.
- Property manager: 63%, against 5% by chance.
- Sales team: 51%, against 17% by chance.
- Architect: 47%, against 3% by chance.
How Often Developers Rehire, by Kind of Firm
| Firm | Developers with 2+ projects | Later projects | Rehired an earlier firm | If firms were assigned at random |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Architect | 183 | 399 | 47% | 3% |
| Offering plan attorney | 187 | 423 | 77% | 14% |
| Property manager | 135 | 263 | 63% | 5% |
| Sales team | 127 | 231 | 51% | 17% |
A "later project" is any plan after a developer's first one that names that kind of firm. It counts as a rehire when it names a firm the same developer named on an earlier plan. The random column shuffles the same firms across all of these plans 2,000 times and averages the result. For every kind of firm, fewer than one shuffle in a thousand matched the real record (p < 0.001), so the pattern isn't a quirk of a few busy firms.
What It Means
- Lawyers are the stickiest. The offering plan attorney carries the sponsor's filings from one building to the next, and switching means teaching a new firm the sponsor's structure. Look a firm up in the offering plan attorneys directory.
- Managers come along too. A developer that hands its first-year buildings to one manager tends to keep doing so. That makes a developer's track record the best lead for a manager looking for new buildings. See the NYC condo property managers.
- Architects and sales teams change more often, but are still rehired many times more than chance would predict. Browse condo architects and condo sales teams.
- The team is a clue to the developer. If you know who a developer used last time, you can usually guess who it will use next. Each developer profile lists the firms on its buildings.
Partnerships That Keep Coming Back
These 78 pairings named the same developer and firm on four or more offering plans. "Projects together" counts the developer's plans that name that kind of firm.
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How This Is Counted
- Developers are the companies behind each sponsor, read from the plan text; architects, managers and sales teams are as named in the plan, and attorneys as recorded by the Attorney General. Different spellings of one firm are counted together.
- Only developers with at least two plans that name the kind of firm are counted, ordered by the date each plan was accepted for filing. A plan refiled under a new plan ID counts once.
- A plan that names more than one firm of a kind counts as a rehire if any of them was used before.
- A developer's own affiliate, such as a management or sales arm sharing its name, isn't counted as a hire.
- The plan names the firms hired when it was filed. A building can change managers or sales teams later, so this is about who developers hire at filing, not who serves the building today.
- The figures cover the plans on The Condo Book Project with the firm identified, and update as more plans are read.
Common Questions
Do NYC condo developers use the same architect on every building?
Often, though less than with lawyers or managers. 47% of later projects by developers with more than one plan named an architect the developer had used before, against 3% if architects were assigned at random.
Do developers keep the same offering plan attorney?
Usually. 77% of later projects named a law firm the developer had used on an earlier plan, against 14% by chance.
How can I see which firms a developer has worked with?
Open the developer's profile from the developers directory. It lists each building, and each building page names the architect, attorney, manager and sales team from its offering plan.
Figures are from the offering plans of New York City condominiums on The Condo Book Project, as of Oct 10, 2026. Rehire rates and the random comparison are recomputed with every rebuild.