Manhattan star Jonathan Nørmølle claims he orchestrated Ryan Serhant’s firing in a desperate attempt to get out of his contract with the company – after finding out the show had cast a bunch of fake agents.
The 27-year-old real estate agent was sensationally fired from the rooftop of Manhattan’s The Edge skyscraper at Hudson Yards in the final episode of the new series.
In the Netflix series, Jonathan was fired after he was caught smearing a colleague on the company’s podcast and tarnishing the company’s reputation during a tour of a $10 million property.
Jonathan exclusively told DailyMail.com ahead of the launch of the new reality show that he was the mastermind behind his brutal departure, claiming he did so because he wanted to leave Serhant to start his own business and no longer needed the brand.
“I had a plan because I was under contract with Ryan and had all the sponsors sorted out,” he said.
Owner of Manhattan star Jonathan Nørmølle has claimed he was the mastermind behind his sacking
He claimed to DailyMail.com that he planned his downfall because he wanted to leave Serhant to set up his own company.
‘The only way I could get out of those contracts was if I made Ryan so angry that he would fire me.
“And the only way I could do that is to say all these things, like; Ryan hadn’t done anything when he was my age, while I was under thirty at Forbes.
“I made my first $100 million in my first year in real estate. I was on the cover of Downtown Magazine, I was Rookie of the Year and I won the Most Influential Broker award at the Broker of the Year Awards.”
Jonathan claimed: ‘I pestered Ryan about all that stuff and he got so angry he fired me on TV. At that point the contracts were completely void.’
Netflix spent an entire year casting the agents for Owning Manhattan — agents that Jonathan claimed weren’t real.
However, Jonathan insisted that he never auditioned for the show and that Ryan instead begged him to join.
“Ryan contacted me twice,” he said. ‘I said no, twice. Every time he called there was a little more motivation.’
Jonathan explained why he joined after Ryan’s third phone call: “I thought it was a great opportunity to get my foot in the door and open myself up to the world.”
Ryan Serhant fired Jonathan on the rooftop of The Edge in Manhattan
Since being fired, Jonathan claims Ryan has tried to get him back at Serhant three times
But after months of working with Serhant, Jonathan claimed he had a change of heart.
“I realized it wasn’t really what I was looking for,” he said, adding that he had agreed with his team that he would only stay with the company for a year before moving on, but that he accelerated this process during filming .
However, Jonathan claims that Ryan has been trying hard to get him back on board since his dramatic departure.
“Ryan has tried to hire me back three times at this point, so it really worked out perfectly for me,” he said.
Jonathan founded his own real estate company in the wake of his time at Serhant and has a large number of agents working for him.
Speaking about his new venture, Jonathan said: “So my new company, Next Gen, we’re not just in real estate. We are launching two developments, one of which will be on Billionaires’ Row, and the other in downtown FiDi.”
“What we’re trying to do is look at how we can upgrade old office buildings. I want to wipe out the entire office floor, or 20,000 square feet, to create Soho lofts in FiDi.
‘Soho wasn’t always cool. The artists went there and made it cool. The same thing could happen here.”
Ryan previously told DailyMail.com that there ‘no bad apples’ working at his company of the same name Serhant as He has a ‘one strike policy’.
“I have a one-strike policy for toxicity and negativity,” he said. “There are no bad apples.”
“What you see me go through on the show is that while that term is easy to say, it’s hard to put into practice.
“Selling real estate in New York City is a super competitive environment. There are 80,000 agents here for every 6,000 homes sold.
“Most people who are in this business work for free, without benefits and with a lot of pressure on them. They won’t make any money this year…
‘Sometimes you see bad behavior and my gut feeling tells me that you should only perform once and not work here again.’
“But sometimes I have a heart, too. I say, ‘I understand what you’re going through, I know this year has been really hard, but we have to correct your behavior.’
He continues: ‘As CEO, I must mainly focus on the two B’s when managing people: the company and behavior.
‘I’m building something very, very big. This is in contrast to other programs that follow people who are only focused on themselves.’