Real Estate Transactions

Our Real Estate Transactions (RETs) division executes and advises on real estate development and public-private partnerships, transforming underutilized properties into projects that support the creation of quality jobs and promote livable and affordable communities, throughout New York City.

Unlocking Spaces for Opportunity

RETs unlocks the spaces that residents and businesses need to power New York City’s inclusive and sustainable economic growth. We achieve this by:

• Managing real estate development as part of large-scale neighborhood strategies. RETs executes real estate transactions that revitalize neighborhoods, honoring their histories and heritages and addressing longstanding community needs. We negotiated the sale of underutilized City-owned land to bring the Whitney Museum to Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, oversaw the 2009 renovation of Kings Theatre in Flatbush, and led the effort to redevelop the BAM South Parking lot as part of the Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District.
• Promoting industry growth through targeted commercial and industrial real estate transactions. NYCEDC makes strategic investments in labs, office space, and research facilities to help both start-ups and established companies grow and expand their businesses in the city. In 2017, RETs brought Cornell Tech, a $2 billion, two-million-square-foot applied science and engineering campus, to Roosevelt Island, and is currently facilitating a $100M investment in a new Applied Life Sciences Hub on the campus.
• Expanding NYC’s affordable housing supply. RETs transforms City-owned assets into mixed-used projects with affordable housing. In recent years, we’ve closed transactions that brought 560 affordable homes to the Lower East Side at Essex Crossing; 740 units of affordable housing to the South Bronx at The Peninsula; and 250 affordable homes to Crown Heights at the Bedford Union Armory.

Whether we’re bringing exciting cultural amenities to neighborhoods, investing in growth spaces for new businesses, or creating homes for residents, RETs is furthering NYCEDC’s mission of creating a sustainable and resilient future, with shared prosperity and opportunity for all New Yorkers.