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13 March 2013

Affordable Lender CPC Gets $250M Boost [✜]

Good for them (and good on Citigroup for putting up the money). CPC let itself get distracted by being thinking they should be a developer, which they never were. Their core role of providing funding for affordable housing is too important:

Experts, such as president of the city Housing Development Corporation Marc Jahr, see CPC’s focus on small, four-story walk-ups and six-story elevator buildings as essential to revitalizing the city. “The fate of a neighborhood resides in the fate of those buildings,” Jahr told the Journal.

10 January 2013

Renderings: New Development at Manhattan and Box [✜]

Greenpointers has renderings for the new mixed affordable/market-rate development going in at the site of the former BRT trolley barn at 1133 Manhattan Avenue. I noted before the similarity of this project to 11 Broadway - turns out there is another connection in the architect (the design team behind 11 Broadway is now at Perkins Eastman).

26 December 2012

New Affordable Development in Greenpoint [✜]

210 units of new housing will rise on the site of the former Brooklyn Heights Railroad Co. trolley barn at Manhattan between Box and Clay. The building (Crain's says it's a "tower", but the R6A puts a 7-story cap on the whole thing) will have half the units set aside middle- and low-income residents, with the other half being market rate. I'm not sure if the income splits are exactly the same, but this mixed affordable/market-rate development scenario is a very similar set up to 11 Broadway.

Domino Sells

DUMBO-based Two Trees has closed their deal for the Domino sugar refinery site, for what appears to be $185 million ($20 million more than the price that Two Trees supposedly went into the negotiations at). According to the Times, the price increase came after co-owner Isaac Katan made an offer with developers Chetrit Group and […]

Related, Silverstein Also Looked at Domino

The Commercial Observer has more information on the Two Trees acquisition of the Domino site, including the fact that two other major developers – The Related Companies and Silverstein Properties – were interested in the site. The Observer seems to agree with everyone else (myself included) that Two Trees is a good fit for the […]

Community Anxious Over Possible Domino Sale

Crain’s has some follow up community reaction to the news that Two Trees might be buying the Domino site. Apparently the community, or at least Isaac Abraham, is “anxious” about the sale: Any developer or investor who wants to purchase Domino without committing itself to the 660 affordable units, should really think twice,” said Isaac […]

Two Trees to Buy Domino?

The Daily News and Crain’s are reporting that CPCR has reached a deal with Two Trees to sell the Domino project for $160 million. CPCR and its partner Isaac Katan bought the Domino site in 2006 for $55 million. Since then, they have rezoned the property for residential use and gotten stuck in a morass […]

30 May 2012

LPC Warehouse RFP Issued [✜]

Brownstoner has published the full text of the press release for the Landmarks Warehouse RFP. This is the site at 337 Berry between South 4th and South 5th Streets that was promised as affordable housing in the 2005 rezoning. CB1 pushed hard to get the City to agree to some additional community benefits, most notably a local presence on the development team. And lo, HPD delivered:

As part of the RFP’s threshold criteria, at least one Principal of the development team must also be a locally-based development company

That probably does not mean that a local partner is required, but it comes darn close. Los Sures should have the inside track here, assuming that they can put together a viable proposal and convince the city that they can pull the project off.

Katan Loses Domino Suit

The Observer reports that Isaac Katan failed to secure an injunction against his partner in the $1.5 billion Domino development from selling a majority stake in the project. The decision appeared to clear the way for the Community Preservation Corporation, a joint owner of the site, to proceed with a deal to hand the majority […]