Top 10 Apartment Owners in Brooklyn

By Corina Stef

Rents in Brooklyn are expected to continue to stabilize, as the tax environment is having a positive effect on multifamily construction and future affordable housing development. Additionally, New York City plans to add roughly 170,000 affordable units in the five boroughs, cooling down average rents, which were still more than double than the national rate.

Using Yardi Matrix data, this list highlights Brooklyn’s top 10 owners based on unit counts in completed, under construction and planned stages.

10. Omni New York

With 1,528 units across six communities, the company focuses on bringing affordable housing in neighborhoods such as Brownsville, East New York and Bedford-Stuyvesant. Its largest apartment building is the 385-unit Plaza Residences, located at 37 New Lots Ave. The firm acquired it in 2007 from the Community Services Housing Development for $37.6 million.

9. L+M Development Partners

The company’s Brooklyn portfolio comprises 1,636 affordable, mixed-income and market-rate housing units. The fully affordable, 32-building. recently renovated Marcus Garvey community is the firm’s most prominent residential building, occupying nine city blocks at 327 Chester St., in the Brownsville neighborhood. The 625-unit property was awarded the Building Brooklyn Award for Affordable Housing Preservation and the Affordable Housing Magazine Award of Excellence. The firm started construction on the six-story, 103-unit 5 Blue Slip community in September 2015, and plans to wrap up construction later this year.

8. AvalonBay Communities

The Virginia-based real estate investment trust owns 1,637 units across four properties. The largest one is the Avalon Fort Greene, a 633-unit, Class A community at 343 Gold St. The company’s upcoming 180-unit Avalon Brooklyn Bay, located at 1524 Sheepshead Bay Road, is expected to come online at the end of the year and will feature studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging between 507 and 1,419 square feet.

7. Forest City Enterprises

With 1,652 units under its ownership, the REIT has three completed communities and two upcoming ones. Development activity is concentrated in the borough’s Prospect Heights section, but the firm’s biggest project, the 365-unit DKLB BKLN, is situated at 80 Dekalb Ave. in the Fort Greene neighborhood. The partially affordable asset was completed in 2009, and features a striking glass and metal façade that has become a modern architectural icon.

6. Two Trees Management

With 1,722 units across six properties, the Brooklyn-based development firm owns Class A communities throughout the entire borough. The largest one is the upcoming 325 Kent in Williamsburg, which will comprise 522 units upon its completion in April 2018. The New York State Housing Finance Agency provided $180 million in construction financing for the property. The firm’s second largest community is the 379-unit 300 Ashland Place, which welcomed its first tenants this year and is situated in the heart of the Brooklyn Cultural District. Additionally, the asset is the 2017 Building Brooklyn Award winner for Best New Residential High Rise.

5. Hudson Cos.

New York-based Hudson Cos. owns six communities, which translates to 2,281 units, the largest being the Gowanus Green. The public-private, mixed-income project aims to bring 774 apartments to the borough and reconnect the neighborhood’s Boerum Hill – Gowanus area with the waterfront of the canal. The project will consist of both rental apartments and condos, which will include a vast majority of affordable units and more than 100 units of affordable senior housing. There will also be retail and community space, as well as public open space and a waterfront promenade.

The company’s largest completed asset is the Gateway Elton in East New York, a fully leased 659-unit, multi-building development with affordable apartments and ground-floor retail.

4. Clipper Equity

With five communities in Brooklyn, the REIT owns some 3,000 units. The bulk of its portfolio is the mammoth 2,496-unit Flatbush Gardens, which is located in the East Flatbush neighborhood and comprises 22 buildings across 21 acres. The asset has a courtyard and features newly renovated apartments with hardwood floors. New York Community Bank provided a $170 million loan for the property.

3. Cammeby’s International

The firm owns 14 Brooklyn communities encompassing 5,676 units. Its largest asset is Shore Haven, a 1,344-unit property located at 2034 Cropsey Ave., in the borough’s Bath Beach section. The fully affordable community comprises 10 buildings completed in 1948 and 1949. Cammeby’s purchased it from The Trump Org. in 2004, as part of a 13-property portfolio. The firm’s upcoming project is the Neptune/Sixth, which will feature 575 units located along the beaches of Coney Island.

2. Starrett City

The company takes second place with a single, 5,881-unit community, which spreads throughout 45 buildings and 105 acres in the East New York neighborhood. Completed in phases between 1971 and 1975, the Spring Creek Towers features studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments, out of which 3,569 are affordable, as well as 3,100 parking spaces.

1. New York City Housing Authority

With 53,798 completed units, the government agency emerged as Brooklyn’s biggest landlord. The fully affordable, Class C communities are scattered around the entire borough, the largest being the Raymond V. Ingersoll Houses. The Fort Greene property totals 1,840 units, or 20 buildings, and spreads across seven streets. Its second-largest community is the Marlboro Houses, a 1,765-unit, 28-building property completed in 1958.

Images courtesy of Yardi Matrix and Two Trees Management