Daniel Gale Wants To Be An LI Staple

By Andrew Wroblewski

awroblewski@longislandergroup.com

Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty COO Thomas Calabrese, left, and the staff at the Daniel Gale corporate offices in Cold Spring Harbor smile for a picture.

If you ask Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty COO Thomas Calabrese what sets the company apart, he’ll tell you the real estate agency founded out of Cold Spring Harbor in 1922 is selfless: 93 years later, the leaders at Daniel Gale put their customers and their agents before themselves.

It’s one of the reasons why they’ve had success, he said.

“We try to do the right thing even when no one is looking,” he said. “There come small issues with our agents or customers and we always make the decision in favor of those people – it goes customer, agent and then company. We don’t make anything without those peoples’ confidence.”

Daniel Gale founded his company all those years ago and, since then, it’s grown to become one of the most notable real estate agencies on Long Island, especially on the north shore, and the Gale family still has members involved in the company that Daniel founded. Calabrese, a friend of the family, commended the Gale family’s knowledge of the area extending to the point where Gales can recite the history of any given house in the area.

Now, with the organization valued at $2.5 billion, working with 600 independent agents and operating 24 branches, Daniel Gale has cemented itself in the minds of buyers and sellers across Long Island.

“People love living on Long Island and love what it stands for,” Calabrese said. “We’re dedicated to Long Island; we like being involved here and attracting new people to be in our business. We really want Huntington, Cold Spring Harbor, Northport, Harborfields [and other towns] to stay as great as they can.”

Calabrese himself is one of those die-hard Long Islanders. Born in Huntington, Calabrese attended Walt Whitman High School and came back to his native stomping ground when the opportunity at Daniel Gale was presented to him. Along with helping out with charities and other community-centric events – as is most of Daniel Gale’s employees, he said – Calabrese is chairman of the Caumsett Foundation.

“I think we show a real commitment to Long Island,” he said.

Current president and CEO Patricia Petersen also demonstrates that commitment with her donations to the Whaling Museum, Heckscher Art Museum, Caumsett Foundation and Huntington Hospital.

Up and down Daniel Gale, as Calabrese said, the company is filled with people that love Long Island, want more people to live on Long Island and continue to give back to the place where the company was born.

Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty

5 Main St., Cold Spring Harbor

631-692-6770

www.danielgale.com