New York, N.Y., April 15th, 2008 – The New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) closed on $72,000,000 in tax-exempt bonds for the construction of a 144-unit student housing development, located on the Queens College Campus.
The Project will be located at 64-80 Kissena Boulevard, at the southeast corner of the Campus near the intersection of Melbourne Avenue and Reeves Boulevard, to the south of Fitzgerald Gym and to the North of Rosenthal Library. Although intended predominantly for undergraduates, the building will also include apartments for graduate students, faculty, staff and resident advisors. This newly constructed development will consist of a single building with three, four, and five story sections all connected by walkways, totaling an approximate 155,738 square feet, plus an underground garage with a capacity for 89 cars. The Project will be comprised of 144 apartments with a total of 506 beds.
Each apartment will be furnished and will include one or more bathrooms, and a kitchen with a stove, refrigerator, sink and microwave oven. Each resident will have his or her own closet, semi-private vanity area with a sink, bed, desk, chair, and stackable dresser in the bedroom/bath area. Amenities will include laundry facilities, resident mail box area, fitness center, conference rooms, a social lounge with television and seating, public restrooms, administrative offices and conference area, mechanical and maintenance areas. Covered bicycle parking will be located in the parking garage. Wireless internet service will be available throughout the facility, including outdoor patio areas. The Project is expected to be LEED Silver-certified, based upon the types of building materials, the nature of its landscaping, energy efficiency and minimal land disturbance.
Queens College currently offers no on-campus housing opportunities, although the College does house some athletes in off-campus apartments. The College strongly believes that by offering on-campus housing, the overall student experience will be improved. In particular, the College is seeking to target students in the sciences and music arts.
The developer for the project, Capstone Development Corporation (“Capstone”), is a for-profit developer and operator of student housing. Capstone has developed 68 residential communities totaling over $1.25 billion in investments. Capstone is the proposed management agent for the Project.
Capstone, whose corporate headquarters are located in Birmingham, Alabama, was selected by Queens College as a result of a request for proposals made by the College. They have developed more than 42,000 beds on 55 separate college campuses and currently manage over 30,000 beds. Their expertise extends to all facets of the student housing development process and includes marketing, design, engineering, finance and construction management. Capstone has a staff of 250 full time employees and is widely considered a national leader in the development and management of student housing.
The management agent for the Project will be Capstone On-Campus Management, LLC (the “Manager”) which will enter into a management agreement with the Mortgagor and the City University of New York (“CUNY”). The Manager is an Alabama limited liability company, owned by the Developer, formed for the express purpose of managing and maintaining student housing communities.
The New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) provides a variety of financing programs for the creation and preservation of multi-family affordable housing throughout the five boroughs of New York City. HDC is implementing Mayor Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan to build and preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing over ten years. The New Housing Marketplace Plan is the largest municipal affordable housing effort in the nation’s history. Our programs are designed to meet the wide-range of affordable housing needs of the City’s economically diverse population.
