Creating value for clients across the country.

Being the first is nothing new to Louise M. Sunshine, president of The Sunshine Group, Ltd. She was the first women executive vice president of The Trump Organization, where she set up the firm's first sales and marketing entity. After leaving Trump in 1986 and founding The Sunshine Group, a full-service marketing and sales residential real estate company, she went on to set new records in residential sales.

For example, The Sunshine Group secured record-breaking average prices of well over $1,000 per square foot and record-breaking absorption rates for luxury condominiums at Trump International Hotel & Tower at 3 Central Park West and at 610 Park Avenue, the transformation of the Mayfair Hotel into 70 pre-war condominium residences by Colony Capital.

And now she is breaking records in other parts of the country, since taking The Sunshine Group nationwide.

"We are a boutique firm in the business of creating value for our residential and hotel-related clients wherever they may be," said Louise Sunshine. Given comparable products in comparable neighborhoods, The Sunshine Group strives to achieve higher per square-foot prices at its site, she said.

"Value is a result of proper planning, including the right design and finishes, the right size residences and floor plans, and the right look coupled with excellent positioning and marketing," said Sunshine.

The firm is responsible for the success of many of Manhattan's most high-profile, luxury residential developments. Its client roster reads like the "Who's Who of Real Estate" and includes Leucadia National Corp., Colony Capital, Inc., The Related Companies, G.E. Investment Trust Corp., Vornado Realty Trust, The Trump Organization, The Donald Zucker Company, Tishman Speyer Properties, the Glick Organization, Park Tower Realty, Heitman Properties, Cadim Boulevard Partnership, Solow Building Company, and, at the turn of the last decade, when the banks took over many of the real estate projects in New York, Citicorp Real Estate, Marine Midland Bank and Chase Manhattan Bank.

Not one to rest on her laurels, Sunshine has taken her considerable residential real estate expertise to the rest of the country at the urging of developers in need of The Sunshine Group's services. Already at work in San Diego, the firm's ability to sell 75 percent of The Harbor Club, two 41-story condominium towers owned by Leucadia National Corp., earned the project the accolade of "a triumph" by the San Diego Union-Tribune. Under Sunshine's direction, The Harbor Club recently recorded the largest single new-home purchase in downtown San Diego in five years.

The success of The Sunshine Group sales effort begins with the involvement of the firm in the advance planning stages of any given project. In fact, the company likes to assemble its own planning team, including architect, interior designer, advertising and public relations agencies, project manager and sales force. Sunshine hand-picks the team, drawing experts from all over the country to a given site.

"One of our strengths is our ability to bring the best talent from anywhere in the country to a development," said Sunshine.

The only team she does not go out-of-house to secure is her marketing and sales force and market research department of 56 highly skilled women. "We function like a family," said Sunshine. Eighteen of her marketing and sales agents have been with the company for over five years, and many for as Long as 16 years.

"During the planning stages of a new development, the marketing and sales team works to fine tune the project, creating the highest quality product to meet the needs of the marketplace," said Judy Banham, executive vice president of The Sunshine Group. "Our selling successes speak to the strength of the team."

With offices in tony Coconut Grove, Florida, The Sunshine Group has already been successful in completing the sales and marketing efforts of The Water Club on Longboat Key; Tequesta Point in Miami; Phase I of The Palms in Fort Lauderdale; and the transformation of Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach to one of the most exclusive private clubs in the world. The firm is currently operating as the exclusive marketing and sales agent for The Gables in Coral Gables, The Grand Bay Resort Hotel Condominiums on Key Biscayne, end The Yacht Club on the intercoastal waterway in Highland Beach.

In terms of The Gables, an $180-million gated, waterfront high-rise community with a club house and boat slips, Sunshine repackaged the project, restructured the financials and re-marketed it.

"You meet a lot of people in this business, but you can tell Louise is very well connected and has the respect of the key lending institutions," said Marc Kovens, the developer of The Gables.

The effort has paid off. The Gables is more than 75 percent sold. According to a recent article in The Miami Herald, "The Gables is a developer's dream... and fast becoming one of the most fashionable places to live in South Florida."

In Las Vegas, the firm is currently engaged in planning and marketing the first high-rise to be built in city in the last 20 years. True to The Sunshine Group style of drawing expertise from all over the country, the team of consultants on the project include Manhattan-based Jane Gladstein, formerly a vice president of Citicorp Real Estate in charge of the financial institution's $1.5 billion residential portfolio; Sue Firestone of Santa Barbara, CA, a renowned international hotel and private home designer; Colours, Inc., a Las Vegas residential and retail interior design firm; the highly creative, Toronto-based L.A. Ads for advertising; and Habitat of Tempe, AZ, for sales center displays.

In addition to California, Florida and Nevada developments, The Sunshine Group has completed projects for The Canyon Ranch in Tucson, Arizona and Lenox, Massachusetts.

Of course, The Sunshine Group remains busy at home in Manhattan, where it is the. exclusive marketing and sales firm for many new luxury residential and hotel-condominium developments

Where to next? The firm has been asked to look at residential projects in Toronto, Los Angeles, Dallas and the Bahamas. But, according to Louise Sunshine, "We will go where there is an opportunity to create value for the client."