Louise Sunshine joins SHVO

New development vet to oversee firm’s resi sales and marketing

In trying to underline Louise Sunshine’s status as a luxury condo guru, The New York Observer once asked if she considered herself the intellectual godmother of Michael Shvo, at the time a hotshot broker who epitomized New York’s go-go market.

She waved off the designation, but conceded in that 2007 interview: “If he considers me his intellectual godmother, well, then, I’m flattered.”

Things have now come full circle, with Shvo tapping Sunshine to oversee all residential sales and marketing efforts at his eponymous development firm.

In an interview with The Real Deal Monday, Sunshine said her new post will be the first time she will be working under someone since she kicked off her career under Donald Trump.

“He is the most bespoke developer in the market today,” Sunshine said of Shvo. “I think his ideas and his executions are beyond description and I wanted to be a part of that.” Shvo’s residential projects include the Rosewood Hotel and Residences in Miami Beach at the site of the historic Raleigh Hotel, the Mandarin Oriental Residences at 685 Fifth Avenue, and the Mandarin Oriental Residences in Beverly Hills.

Sunshine described her new post as a “last hurrah or swan song.”

“Louise is an institution unto herself,” Shvo wrote to his staff in an email announcing her arrival.

Sunshine started her real estate career working for The Trump Organization, where she helped lead branding and marketing for high-profile projects like Trump Tower. She then went on to launch her own firm, The Sunshine Group, in 1986.

The company represented major properties like Time Warner Center, One Beacon Court, Trump International Hotel and Tower NY, and 40 Bond. A merger with the Corcoran Group established the Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group.

More recently, she consulted for Fort Partners on the development and sales of projects such as the Surf Club Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences in Miami Beach, which hit over $1 billion in sales and set record per-square-foot prices.

In her new role, she will be based in Bal Harbour, where she lives, and plans to spend five days a month in New York and Los Angeles.