Tishman Speyer Lands $166M for NYC Affordable Housing
The company's affordable platform is constructing an 11-building neighborhood in Queens.
TS Communities, Tishman Speyer’s affordable housing platform, has secured $166 million in financing to begin the development of its second apartment building at Edgemere Commons in Far Rockway in Queens, N.Y. The 18-story, 244-unit Edgemere Commons A2 building will complete the first full block of the 100-percent affordable residential neighborhood the firm is developing in partnership with New York City and New York State housing agencies.
The financing is being overseen and led by New York State Homes and Community Renewal. Citigroup’s Citi Community Capital is providing an $80 million construction letter of credit. Hudson Housing Capital is providing an equity investment through the purchase of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, funded by an investment from HSBC.
Located at 337 Beach 52nd St., Edgemere Commons A2 will have a mix of apartments ranging from studios to three-bedrooms that will be affordable for households earning between 40 and 80 percent of the Area Median Income. The building will have 73 apartments set aside for supportive housing that will be administered by Breaking Ground, a social service provider. The project is designed by Aufgang Architects.
Amenities will include a community room on the second floor, an outdoor space with an adjoining recreation room on the fourth floor, a 14th floor Skydeck with ocean views, in-building laundry, supportive services offices, on-site parking and neighborhood-oriented, street-level retail.
The project will also include the initial construction of Peninsula Way, a private street network connecting the public Beach 53rd Street to the private Beach 52nd Street. The landscaped street will eventually extend to Beach 50th Street upon construction of future phases of Edgemere Commons. It will be publicly accessible to pedestrians and vehicles.
Building a new neighborhood
This marks the third multifamily building to rise at the 11-building Edgemere Commons development. The first building was developed by Arker Cos. and Slate Property Group, completed in 2024. The second building is also being developed by TS Communities and is expected to open in the third quarter of this year.
Arker Cos. and Slate broke ground on the first building in May 2022. Arker Cos. sold the remaining 10 buildings sites to Tishman Speyer. TS Communities will continue to develop Edgemere Commons, which will have up to 2,050 apartments, in phases through at least 2031.
TS Communities secured $196.8 million in financing in July 2023 to begin construction of the 237-unit second building at Edgemere Commons. The financing was a mix of tax-exempt bonds, traditional construction debt and subsidy loans from several sources including the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the New York City Housing Development Corp. Wells Fargo provided the letter of credit, the construction debt and a LIHTC equity investment.
The building also has a mix of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units with 201 apartments reserved for households making between 30 and 80 percent of AMI. The remaining 36 units will be supportive housing units for formerly homeless residents. The building has 8,000 square feet of retail and 7,500 square feet of community facility space.
The community is close to Rockaway Beach, Rockaway Community Park and a branch of the Queens Public Library. Residents will have direct subway access to Manhattan via the A train, which has a stop less than 1 mile away.
Bronx property underway
Tishman Speyer established TS Communities in 2020 to address the ongoing affordable housing crisis across the nation. Also in New York City, TS Communities is constructing a 339-unit, 279,000-square-foot multifamily building at 160 Van Cortland Park South in the Kingsbridge neighborhood in the Bronx. Construction of the fully affordable development began earlier this year. TS Communities secured approximately $222 million in financing for the project in December.
The site, once the location of the Visitation Church and School, had been vacant since 2015. In 2022, Tishman Speyer acquired part of the property from the Archdiocese of New York. New York City is building a 700-seat public elementary school on the remaining portion of the property.
