The State of Student Housing in NYC

It seems near impossible to say that finding quality housing for an affordable price is easy in New York City. For college students, this is no different. Many colleges and universities in New York do have residence halls, but the number of students entering colleges and requiring university housing continues to increase every year. New York City’s 110 colleges and universities must house nearly 600,000 students each year. Many of the students come from states and cities outside of the city, which causes much pressure for a greater number of affordable and accessible college housing. Realizing the students’ demand for more accessible and affordable housing, investor Gregg Singer has created a unique solution to accommodate nearly 600 students in state-of-the-art housing in downtown Manhattan.

Gregg Singer is a real estate investor and President of Singer Financial Corporation, founded in 1986. He has since then worked on many problem-ridden and even abandoned properties to render them able to be sold again. Currently, his investment group 9th & 10th Street LLC owns an old school building in the East Village. They plan to renovate the property and convert it into a college dormitory. The property is zoned for community facility use, which college dorms fall under. There were several ideas initially proposed, such as building a space for non-profits, a rehabilitation center, medical facility or a school. Ultimately, the best plan was to build a dormitory to meet the ever-growing demand for housing.

While the housing market in New York was severely impacted by the economy, students have continued to flock to NYC for their post-secondary education in greater numbers than ever before. Multiple universities will be able to lease space in the East Village dormitory, which will provide a diverse, eclectic atmosphere for students. There is an urgent need and a great demand for dormitory housing, and several colleges have already expressed their interest in this dorm.

Gregg’s vision of a college dormitory open to several universities is a unique aid to the betterment of education. By bringing students of different universities closer together, the dorm encourages inter-school communication and community development. It allows the next generation to grow while maintaining the historic value of the old school building, and bringing about a new, youthful energy to the already booming East Village.

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Senior Housing

Investor Gregg Singer is known for turning around economically unprofitable land and properties. He and his company, Singer Financial Corporation, have financed many types of buildings such as shopping centers, office buildings, industrial buildings, and apartment buildings.

Mr. Singer has made many efforts to provide affordable, low-income housing to senior citizens. Home prices are always fluctuating, and in many parts of the country, purchasing an affordable home is near impossible to do. Senior citizens are often the most heavily impacted, due to their inability to work and their dependence on Social Security and other such low-income programs. Gregg Singer has taken the opportunity with some of his projects to provide senior citizens affordable housing.

His passion for these efforts comes from his extensive family background, where his great-grandfather Louis Singer founded the Home of Old Israel in 1922, a non-profit organization aimed at providing free housing and free meals to the elderly. This non-sectarian organization in the Lower East Side in Manhattan, NY, helped many aged citizens live a better life by providing recreational, social, health, cultural, and educational services.

Louis Singer’s son, Jack, became the next president of the Home of Old Israel after his father, and continued to provide the same services. He expanded his efforts by building many low and moderate-income houses. For example, Jack built the largest such facility in the country, in Far Rockaway, Queens, in the state of New York, known as Seagirt Village. This complex was a massive 6.5 acres, and had a total of 1024 apartments for thousands of elderly citizens. In order to provide a more comprehensive and far-reaching service, in 1970 Jack also merged the Home of Old Israel with JASA, the Jewish Association for Services for the Aged. JASA provides housing and many other vital services to senior citizens from all backgrounds.

Senior citizens are often in dire need of affordable and secure housing. With baby boomers reaching their prime age, demand for senior housing is sure to rise even above today’s levels. Developers and investors can do much to provide even more of this safe, worry-free environment to the elderly.

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3 Major Property Problems

1. Construction Problems

Faulty or outdated construction is an extremely common problem for all types of buildings, and how well the property is constructed can make or break the deal. However, with the proper funding, renovation can improve the appearance and quality of the property and increase the likelihood to lease and sell the property.

2. Legal and Financial Issues

Properties that are currently going through litigation or facing bankruptcy and foreclosure could be a good opportunity for the right investor. However, it is best to consult professionals to deal with legal and financial problems that may arise, as you do not want to make a costly mistake in this situation.

3. Tenant Trouble

This third problem applies to residential properties. Noisy, unruly, and messy tenants may seem out of your control, but rules can be implemented to resolve this problem. If the problem still persists, then legal steps can and should be taken to create a better living environment for all residents.

There are numerous other problems that can hurt the value of your property. Before taking any action, it is best to speak with an investor or real estate agent to decide the appropriate course of action. It is important to keep your costs low while fixing any problems as to ensure that the potential return is greater than the expenses. Ultimately, the goal is to increase property value.

Gregg Singer is a real estate investor and President of New York-based Singer Financial Corporation. Established in 1986, Singer Financial Corp has successfully turned around many problematic properties of all kinds, such as the Villas on the Lake townhouses in Westchester County, New York, the Sussex House apartments in Hackensack, New Jersey, and the Chesterfield Condominiums in upper Manhattan in New York City. Although their work is centered on the Northeast, Florida, and California areas, their projects are nationwide.

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The Chesterfield Condominiums

Gregg Singer is a New York-based investor with many years of experience breathing life to troubled and mismanaged properties. His experience ranges from working on shopping centers to apartment buildings and even to the low-income housing market for senior citizens.  One of Gregg’s past residential projects includes The Chesterfield Condominiums in upper Manhattan, New York. Erected in 1920 and turned into a condominium in 1989, The Chesterfield is currently a very sought-after condominium apartment due to its convenient Upper West Side location and beautiful pre-war architecture. It is one of the few buildings in the area that is still a certified pre-war building, yet it does not fail to provide a comfortable, modern living space for many families and businesspeople.

However, this historic building in the Upper West Side has seen some unfortunate times – its previous owners did not take proper care of this building. Like many older buildings in Manhattan, The Chesterfield became a financial concern due to mismanagement. This led to even less attention being paid to maintain the building’s heritage. Gregg took on the project to revive this fiscally run-down building into a huge financial success for all of the unit owners and helped improve the neighborhood. The Chesterfield Condominiums now consistently sells rooms each year at high per square foot levels to New Yorkers looking to find a new home in the Upper West Side.

It is important that even ideally located and expertly built properties be properly maintained and managed. Not only does it keep the building from decaying, it helps the property owner get a fair market value for that space. All parties can benefit from taking the right steps to keep a building in its utmost quality.

Gregg Singer is the President of Singer Financial Corporation, a real estate investment firm with a focus in New York, California, and Florida real estate. Whereas many may shy away, he welcomes complicated projects such as The Chesterfield in Manhattan, The Sussex House apartments in Hackensack, New Jersey, the Villas on the Lake townhouses in Westchester County, New York, and the former NYC public school building known as P.S. 64 in East Village, a student housing project. For more information, visit his website.

 

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The Sussex House

Selling even the most prized of properties can often run into unexpected setbacks – building damage and unruly tenants, for example, hurt the value of the property and make it hard to sell for a suitable price. Unforeseen circumstances such as these can get in the way of even the most sought-after deals. A successful developer addresses such problems and creates value where it might not be easily seen.

As the CEO of real estate investment company Singer Financial Corporation, developer Gregg Singer has nearly 30 years of experience in the real estate industry. He and his company specialize in acquiring or revitalizing blighted properties and adding value. Such projects include The Chesterfield Condominiums in the Upper West Side, the Westchester County townhouse community known as Villas on the Lake, as well as the transformation of the former New York City public school known as P.S. 64 in East Village. His work is nationwide, with a focus in New York, California, and Florida.

One project he has worked on is the Sussex House in Hackensack, New Jersey. Despite the major advantage of a great location, the apartments were vacated due to a major structural flaw. The problem was that the Sussex House complex had the hard-to-fix issue of waterproofing – it would leak inside the apartments and cause severe damage every time it rained. Gregg’s team solved the flooding issue and these New Jersey apartments were able to be rented, the building financially stabilized, and were ultimately sold for a premium.

 

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GREGG SINGER- Problem deals are his Niche

If you take an account of the fact that there some problem in the deal of a particular building or a vacant area then Mr. Gregg Singer is whom you must look forward to for purchasing it and completely re-modeling it.  His niche is to take interest in the lone and isolated buildings and places where an investor would ever think of parking his funds and eventually think to make something out of it.

He himself has been quoted saying that, “That’s what I do, I look for problem deals.” He admits that he and his family have been working in that fashion for generations now. He says “I’m fourth generation of a real estate family that started taking on loan defaults and foreclosures.” He is quite true when he says that. He and his family have been turning the fortunes of many blighted sites and have given a new lease of life to it. For this he says “We’d get ownership then renovate, which got us into solving construction problems; then we took on tenant situations and other matters.”

Fighting for changing the outlook of city which has abandoned places marring the beauty of the city or locality is no crime. One must know that renovation brings back life to dilapidated places which are perhaps otherwise just kept vacant because of political reasons.

It is high time that people realize the cause behind any move taken by a person before playing faulty deeds and blocking the way. The local people must at least understand the need of re-building or redressing their neighborhood with some purposeful sites rather than rendering them vacant or haunted.

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Gregg Singer-A Developer with a Vision

There are sometimes a few things which make a businessman look money minded and indifferent to social issues. But if you step into the shoes of a businessman you would be forced to think the same way. Moreover if your business isn’t illegal and is a developmental activity you would rather be amazed at people opposing your moves every now and then.

Gregg Singer, CEO Of Singer Financial Corporation, New York has been going through the same phase for quite a long time now. He has been opposed by a group of the society which feels that Gregg Singer is exhibiting complete disregard to the sentiments and emotions of the people of New York. Although some believe that his style of working is not in any way wrong. They say that if he has taken some stern decisions in a few cases then it was something that any businessman would have to do to safeguard his interests. It is sad that people take pride in blaming others for what they may also do.

21st century is what people are living in still they sometimes behave differently. Restoring the beauty of a country’s heritage is quite appreciating but using this idea as an argument in the way of new developments is not desirable. Damaged, decayed and ruined structures if renovated and brought back with a new outlook and usefulness to the public then there’s nothing wrong about it. Gregg Singer has been battling hard to do the same. What if he is a developer? He is isn’t doing something wrong by turning the old buildings or structures into new ones.

If your house would grow old and even some part of it must have got damaged then wouldn’t you renovate it or perhaps give it a complete new look? Gregg in that sense creates value to something which has no investor to think about. Gregg and his company have taken up such projects and drawn the investors and their money to them. Projects like the Sussex House and Chesterfield Condominiums  are some examples of the same kind.

The government and the law of the land must also support him in this cause. There is nothing illegal in doing the business of a developer. Moreover Gregg does all his developmental activities once he has legally acquired possession of the structures. One must know that you carry all rights of altering some part of the land or building as per your wish if you own it.

By creating unnecessary public uproar and making things look fishy some people want to feed their political hunger. Standing in the way of infrastructural development is awful. You must willingly support developers like Gregg in transforming the face of your locality and surroundings.

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A Savior for the Blighted Real Estate Properties

There are people in the world who take advantage of the plight that society faces. Seldom have you found anybody who’s interested in any sort of good work done to the society and the environment. Here you can get an example of such one person. He is the CEO of Singer Financial Corporation, Mr. Gregg Singer. He is the member of a family which has been engaged in the uplifting the standard of living of a common man.

It all started with Mr. Louis Singer in the year 1922. He was the founder and President of the Home of Old Israel. This organization was involved in providing the old with free meals and housing facilities on unsectarian base.  They were also successful in providing educational, cultural, health, social and recreational programs for the old to improve their lifestyle. After him the family has relentlessly carried on the work of building, reconstructing and financing projects related to apartments, offices, townhouses, hotels, cooperatives and condominiums, land and single family subdivisions. Gregg is the fourth generation carrier of their family work who has invested whole of his life into improving the infrastructural conditions of the society.

Through Singer Financial Corporation, Gregg has engaged himself into commercial funding by financing huge projects. These projects are obviously targeted towards the redevelopment of places which are blighted and can be renovated into viable destinations. He and his company rebuilt a part of a site which is blighted and turns it to life. There have been plenty of such instances in the past where life sprung up at places which had lost credibility and prices of land had taken a nose dive there. Completely abandoned projects saw absolute turn around with values seeing a surge. Some project sites like Mohegan Lake section of York Town, The Sussex House, The Chesterfield Condominiums, etc are examples where beautiful properties have taken shape. Some of the above mentioned projects were abandoned, some had water proofing problems and some had mismanaged owners.

Singer Financial Corporation (SFC), established by Mr. Gregg Singer, in the year 1986, specializes in structuring loans in real estate for the clients of the firm. They have a nationwide network operated from New York which ventures with banks, insurance companies and pension funds. Construction and permanent loans, participating loans, leasehold financing, joint ventures, negotiated acquisitions, note financings and sale-leasebacks have all been Gregg’s fortes.

In 1994 SFC turned into a full time real estate investment company. And since then it has been successful in bringing many real estate projects back on track. At present the areas touched by the company are the acquisitions of properties and loans along with its partners. The real estates that were suffering from foreclosures and even the ones which had turned bankrupt have been bought by SFC. They have been improvised by methods of reconstruction, financing, leasing and sales.

By shaping things better and by adding value to the country’s real estate assets Mr. Gregg Singer is really doing a world of good for the people and their investments. He and his company are worthy to be praised for this effort.

 

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