9306 Shorefront Parkway
A defaulted construction loan we bought and foreclosed on, then redesigned from for-sale condominiums to 100 percent affordable rentals after Hurricane Sandy - and still own and operate today.
A waterfront site in the Rockaways where construction had already stopped. The foundation was in the ground, poured to carry for-sale condominiums, and the loan behind it had defaulted. In 2012 we bought that loan from a bank and completed the foreclosure to take the property.
We kept what was worth keeping. Zoning had changed since the original approvals, so we preserved the existing entitlement and the 421-a abatement, and worked the plan set through the community rather than around it. Then Hurricane Sandy hit the Rockaways mid-carry and displaced the people who lived there. We changed the product entirely, from market-rate to 100 percent affordable, and redesigned to HDC and HPD unit-count and unit-type requirements on a foundation that had been laid for something else. Construction started in 2014 and delivered about 20 months later.
Sixty-three rentable units, leased through NYC Housing Connect and filled within about four months. We could have syndicated the tax credits or taken developer fees out of the deal. We left our equity in instead, and we own and operate the building today - fully leased and thriving.
