Preserving Long-Term Affordability

Brooklyn, New York

In New York City (NYC), where the need for affordable apartments is urgent and space for building new apartments is limited, the preservation of existing affordable housing stock is critical.

When Ocean Towers Partners LLC, a joint venture between Proto Property Services, LLC and the Community Development Trust (CDT), needed to refinance this 360-unit property in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn, they came to CPC Mortgage Company.

The $48 million Freddie Mac Targeted Affordable Housing (TAH) loan from CPC Mortgage Company allows Proto Property Services, LLC and CDT to continue their mission of providing quality, affordable housing for the residents of Ocean Towers.

Because of the modest income produced by affordable rents and layers of government subsidy involved, large affordable housing developments can be challenging to finance over the long term. The Freddie Mac TAH loan met the borrower’s needs and CPC Mortgage Company offered technical expertise built on CPC’s decades of experience in affordable housing financing to execute the transaction.

"CDT is very pleased to continue building on what has been a great partnership with Proto and CPC. The rehabilitation work that was originally completed by Proto at Ocean Towers was critical to stabilizing the property as long-term, high quality affordable housing.  This refinancing will help ensure that Ocean Towers remains well capitalized into the future and also help CDT continue our mission making high-impact, double bottom line investments throughout the country. We enjoy working with lenders like CPC that share our mission of preserving affordable housing,” said Brian Dowling, Chief Investment Officer at CDT.

Over the last seven years, Proto Property Services and CDT have worked to significantly renovate and upgrade Ocean Towers, which was built in 1974 and consists of apartments ranging from studios to five-bedrooms.

Today, the property provides a haven of affordability and stable homes to low-income New Yorkers, with approximately 91 percent of the apartments receiving Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The partnership originally purchased the property in 2013, shortly after Hurricane Sandy, in a transaction utilizing subsidy from the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), funding from the NYC City Council, and $36 million in permanent financing from CPC. The partners also completed a $10 million rehabilitation, which included a number of resiliency upgrades to aid the property in withstanding future severe weather events.