Tishman Speyer’s TS Communities is constructing a fully affordable community that will be part of 11-building affordable housing complex Edgemere Commons in Queens’ Far Rockaway neighborhood.
TS Communities expects to complete construction on the second building at Edgemere Commons in 2025. The 237-unit addition will have studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units, with 201 of the units reserved for households making between 30 and 80 percent of the area median income. The remaining 36 units will be set up as supportive housing units for formerly homeless residents. TS Communities will build the community to Enterprise Green sustainable design standards. The property will also include 8,000 square feet of neighborhood-serving retail and 7,500 square feet of community facility space.
Located at the corner of Beach Channel Drive and Beach 52nd Street, the community will be close to Rockaway Beach, Rockaway Community Park and a branch of the Queens Public Library. Less than a mile away from the Beach 60 St.-Straiton Avenue stop on the A train, the property will provide residents with direct subway access to Manhattan.
To help with the project, TS Communities has closed on $196.8 million in financing that came from tax-exempt bonds, traditional construction debt and subsidy loans. The financing was provided by several sources, including the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the New York City Housing Development Corp. and low-income housing tax credit equity. Wells Fargo will provide the letter of credit, traditional construction debt and an equity investment from the purchase of low-income housing tax credits.
Two communities underway, nine to go
TS Communities’ development marks its first all-affordable project and the second fully affordable community that’s part of Edgemere Commons. The first came from Arker Cos. and Slate Property Group, which broke ground on the inaugural community in May 2022.
Arker Cos. eventually sold the remaining 10 building sites of Edgemere Commons to Tishman Speyer. The company’s affordable housing development platform, TS Communities, was, in turn, tasked with developing the remaining communities. When fully built out, Edgemere Commons will have 11 buildings totaling up to 2,050 fully affordable units.
