The Dermot Company Inc.

Pressing ahead┬áThe Dermot Company seeks to distinguish itself in the crowded New York City real estate development space with its integrated approach. Even as banks tighten the flow of money, the company continues to press forward, Greg Andrews discovers. The Dermot Company was founded in 1991 as a traditional real estate developer, seeking opportunities in the already crowded New York City-area marketplace.  Today, Dermot employs a range of business models and development techniques to bring apartment and mixed-use projects to fruition. From ground-up development to buy-and-hold strategies, turnaround assignments and adaptive reuse, Dermot retains a level of flexibility it believes gives it an advantage both in boom times and in slower periods, such as the one Manhattan is now experiencing. While it has traditionally completed about $300 million worth of projects, Dermot has followed the trend of scaling back but has not completely shut down, believing that pressing ahead through the downturn will put it in the best position when things turn more positive again. Dermot will bring the redeveloped former Queens Family Courthouse to market in early 2010. Located in the Jamaica section of Queens, the building began life as a library in 1927 and later served as a courthouse before being closed. Dermot was part of the team that won the rights to develop the property in 2005, proposing a $130 million project that will bring 380 apartment units to market, 20 percent of which will be classified affordable. The 290,000-square-foot project will also include 44,000 square feet of retail space and an additional 25,000 square feet of public community space intended for neighborhood and cultural events. The project posed construction challenges, with the original building having been built atop sandy fill. DermotÔÇÖs team began by adding additional support to the foundation, digging a 20-foot basement and adding cantilevered support structures. Dermot has redeveloped other historic properties in the city with impressive results. For instance, Archstone Clinton was a project that resulted in 633 units of housing, two residential towers and a three-theater complex that includes a half-dozen condominium lofts on a parcel that sat atop two active Amtrak railroad lines connecting to nearby Penn Station. Dermot won the right to develop that projectÔÇöalong with partner Archstone SmithÔÇöfrom the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. That development also featured an affordable housing element and a public amenity in the form of a 15,000-square-foot public outdoor park. Another similar project was One Hanson Place, a nationally recognized landmark that also dates to 1927 and is still one of the tallest buildings in the borough of Brooklyn. The luxury condominium project is just across the river from Manhattan and also includes some 75,000 square feet of retail and professional office space. Dermot is no stranger to the borough of Queens either, having built and developed The Opal, a 388-unit apartment project in the Kew Gardens Hills sections of Queens. That project was the first large-scale residential development in that area in more than 20 years and was done in conjunction with the AFL-CIOÔÇÖs Building Investment Trust, which provided the primary financing. Dermot, in fact, has a history of striking unique partnerships to bring projects to market. Past and current Dermot partners include the Equity Residential Properties, Citibank, Fannie Mae, Grosvenor Investment Management US Inc., Guaranty Bank, the New York City Housing Development Corporation, the New York State Housing Finance Agency and the New York City Economic Development Corporation. DermotÔÇÖs reach extends well beyond the five boroughs of New York City. The company has reached out to far-flung markets to help deliver garden-style apartment projects, such as the 332-unit luxury garden apartment complexes known as Champions and NorÔÇÖWood, which are situated in a master planned community in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Not all its projects are new developments, however. For instance, it acquired The Timbers, a gated community of 343 housing units centered around a historic mansion reused as a clubhouse, later reselling the project. In Wichita, Kansas, it purchased a portfolio of six properties known as Village Park, sinking an additional $8 million into renovations that helped boost rents and reduce expenses. Dermot has also developed expertise as a co-investment partner, taking part in joint ventures with developers and investors or providing capital as a managing partner to a project, or by providing mezzanine capital to enable multifamily and mixed-use projects to be completed, using its size and financial strength to secure financing that other developers may not have access to. For instance, Dermot partnered with Clipper Capital by investing in the purchase of 403 units of a 535-unit gated co-op apartment complex in Queens. It also entered into a joint venture agreement as an investor with Apollo Real Estate Advisors and Metropolitan Housing Partners to buy and convert buildings at 505 Court Street and 204 Huntington Street in Brooklyn, a deal that will result in 184 new condominium units being available for sale, with nearly 200,000 square feet in total. Dermot also operates a subsidiary, Dermot Realty Management Co. Inc., that specializes in the day-to-day management of multifamily apartment communities and has a number of projects now under management both in New York City and across the country. One of the challenges now facing Dermot is the redevelopment of the Battery Maritime Building. After winning the right to develop a 140-room luxury hotel atop the historic structure, Dermot will also develop the Great Hall of the Maritime BuildingÔÇöa 100-year-old structure historically used as a docking point and depot and for river ferries that once carried passengers between Manhattan and BrooklynÔÇöinto a public use component. Dermot has said it expects to spend $60 million on that part of the project alone, though an original idea of converting the space into a public market proved unfeasible for various reasons.  ÔÇô Editorial research by Jim Rose┬á