CHARNEY COMPANIES TAPS INTO NIKE, APPLE, AND NBA TALENT TO REBRAND

Today marks a new era for Charney Companies. We’re thrilled to showcase our reformed brand, representing years of evolution and what felt like constant pivots in the search to define our identity.

Sam Charney, founder and principal whose namesake carries the brand and sets the tone for our new look, originally launched in 2013 under Charney Construction and Development. Sam later transitioned the name to Charney Companies, a more robust catch-all title which encapsulates the additional services the company offers such as brokerage and property management.

How We Got Here

Charney is experiencing exponential growth and is currently under development on over 2,000 units across Brooklyn and Queens. These projects include 585 Union Street, 251 Douglass Street, 310 and 340 Nevins Street, and 45-03 23rd Street. 

Prior to that, we completed three award-winning developments: The Jackson in Long Island City, The Dime in Williamsburg and The Green House in Long Island City, each anchored by exceptional design and artwork commissioned from renowned artists such as Jen Lewin, Swoon, Tom Fruin and Faile.

On the low, we’ve been hard at work building the foundations of our brokerage division. After adding over 10 agents to our roster including Evan Huang, we’re currently contracted as the exclusive sales and marketing team for over 750 condo units and 1,200 rental units under development, all in addition to record sales volume in 2024 primarily coming from new landlord accounts and private clients across the city. 

The Inspiration

Nike, Apple, and Red Bull are cultural icons. They are bold companies that changed how we view brands. Nike is synonymous with athletic excellence, Apple with innovation, and Red Bull with extreme experiences. 

These brands are greater than the sum of their parts. We felt the same about Charney given the growth of development, brokerage, and property management and, therefore, we needed to bring on the right partner to craft our vision and messaging. 

To achieve this, we looked beyond the traditional real estate realm, an industry that has profoundly lacked meaningful branding. So we connected with Justin Thomas Kay and Dudley Versaci, a duo who have worked with the brands we love (Nike, Apple, and Red Bull) and more recently, the Milwaukee Bucks. 

The Process

In Justin’s own words, “the goal was to assess and rebuild the brand architecture, strategy, tone of voice, and later the visualization that distilled the team’s expertise into a simple yet dynamic and expressive brand system. Alongside my partner Dudley Versaci, we kept the crew tight, the two of us working directly with the Charney team collaborating and executing all of the work so we could move quickly and with clarity over the span of about three months.

One of the major unlocks in the project was our new brand platform and consumer facing tagline that focused on coupling Charney with beauty.”

Our previous tagline, “Building Something Different” was rebellious in our pursuit to change the perception of real estate. With the guidance of Justin and Dudley we realized that to be authentically different, a company must lead by example.

We are doing so by approaching the built environment as a creative arena. We are cultivators and place-makers. We are builders-first, constructing a city that we believe has an equitable place for everyone. This idea of beauty connotes something different for each of the three pillars of what we offer as a business and to the city and world around us. 

Let’s Build Something Beautiful.