Steven Dubb sat down with Michael Stoler from the Stoler Real Estate Report to talk about the exciting project in the Rockaways called Lighthouse. Come listen to the interview.
Michael Stoler 0:32
Good morning. This is Mike Stoler for the Stoler Real Estate Report. It’s called the Rockaways. It’s a haven. People many years ago used to go to the Rockaways while they were living in Brooklyn. The Rockaways are in Queens, and now I have the individual who’s responsible for significant development in Rockaway, Steven Dubb, the president of the Beechwood Organization. Steven is involved these days in a newest project, which is called Lighthouse Beach 67 where they just started construction or moving the dirt.
Steven 1:10
Yeah, we’re driving piles.
Michael Stoler 1:11
You’re driving piles. So tell me about the Rockaway and tell me about Arverne by the Sea.
Steven 1:16
So Arverne by the Sea is a 120 acre master plan development in the Rockaways that we’ve been building with our joint venture partner Benjamin Companies for the last 20 years. The city sort of envisioned the project. We were selected as the master developer. The plan for the whole community, for the whole Arverne by the Sea community, is 20-300 homes, a YMCA which is open, a charter school which is opening this coming fall, about 120,000 square feet of retail space, most of which is open. That’s like a stop and shop grocery store, a bank, a dry cleaner, surf shop, restaurants, shops, coffee shops. All of that is done, and a lot of pocket parks, and it’s a transit-oriented development. It’s served by the Beach 67th Street subway station, and as I mentioned, we’ve been building through this development for the last 20 years. The final component of Arverne by the Sea are these oceanfront condominium towers and lighthouse is the first
Michael Stoler 2:23
one. Okay, and these developments are they priced? They started what $675,000
Steven Dubb 2:29
Yes, yeah, they started from 675,000 up to 3.7 5 million for the that’s the 12th floor penthouse looking straight at the at the Atlantic Ocean, the lighthouse is right on the beach. It’s right on the corner of Beach 67th Street and Beachfront Road.
Michael Stoler 2:48
Is it a gated community?
Steven Dubb 2:50
Yes. Yeah, it’s gated. There’s a the the lighthouse itself is gated. Arverne by the Sea, the master plan community is not gated, but but lighthouse is, and it’s served by a 24 hour doorman and concierge.
Michael Stoler 3:03
How many units do you have?
Steven Dubb 3:04
82. It’s 82 units, and every single unit was designed to have ocean views. So we put a lot of thought into the layout and the design of the facade, so that it’s not just the front units of the building, which is often the case, that have ocean views, but every single home in in the lighthouse will have ocean views.
Michael Stoler 3:24
You your sales office is open right now.
Steven Dubb 3:27
Sales sales office is open. We opened a couple months ago for pre sales, and we are we’re 15% over 15% pre sold. That was before we started driving piles. So I’m hoping to pour pile caps next week, and by this fall, you’ll start to see the concrete actually come out of the ground, and and hope to be topped off early next year.
Michael Stoler 3:49
What’s the specifics about the typical buyer of this development? It is
Steven Dubb 3:55
all over the place, as it has been for most of the Arvind by the Sea development. We think of it as a melting pot for for really. No, how far
Michael Stoler 4:03
is Arverne by the sea from the beginning to the end on each?
Steven Dubb 4:08
So Arverne, so Arvern ranges. You mean
Michael Stoler 4:10
the the the size of the?
Steven Dubb 4:12
It’s 120 acres from I think it’s Beach 84th Street down to Beach 62nd Street. But but Arverne, you know, the lighthouse. It’s a 40-minute door-to-door drive from from where I live in Lower Manhattan, or I used to live until last week in Lower Manhattan. And you can get there by ferry, by car, or by subway.
Michael Stoler 4:33
So, who do you think is going to buy these units?
Steven Dubb 4:36
We so far, it’s it’s been a real mix. We’ve had a lot of empty nesters who love the idea of like a turnkey, no maintenance home on the beach in in the Rockaways, with all of the amenities that are designed for the building. The building is going to have a swimming poolthis elevated roof deck overlooking the beach and and the ocean. It has a gym. It has a card room, a billiards room. Playroom for kids or grandkids. I mean, it’s like everything-a conference room, work from home rooms. So there has been nothing this sort of lifestyle-oriented built in the Rockaways, and and so it really fills a niche for people who want like lifestyle, turnkey, no maintenance living, so it’s been a lot of empty nesters. It’s also been young people who love living at the beach. We have young couples who have are planning to move out of Brooklyn to the building and Lower Manhattan. So it kind of serves all all age groups.
Michael Stoler 5:36
But you guys are very busy in in general in Long Island. Let’s talk a little bit about the projects you’re working with in Long Island today, and the zonings and everything.
Steven Dubb 5:45
Sure. So besides Lighthouse, we’ve built the Selby and the Vanderbilt, which are two of the I would say most luxurious rental buildings on Long Island. They also have each of them has hotel components, so we get a lot of transient hotel guests, and we also get who are coming in for business or coming in to visit family. We get snowbirds who come up for the summer. Both of those buildings have restaurants, amazing restaurants in them. We just opened a restaurant with Chef Jesse Shanker, who used to own a restaurant called Reset in the West Village. Now he owns a bunch of restaurants, bunch of bunch of the best restaurants on Long Island, and he opened the comic club at the Vanderbilt and at the Selby. We’ve got a restaurant called the Shed, which is extremely popular and right next door, the Farm Italy. So those are fantastic. We are building a similar building in Melville right now that will will will start moving people into in 2028 That’s called the Ferncliff,so that will be a sort of extended stay hotel, short term apartment, similar concept to the Vanderbilt and the Selby.
Michael Stoler 6:48
Let’s talk about Mastic Beach and the other projects.
Steven Dubb 6:52
So, in Mastic Beach, we were designated by the town of Brookhaven to basically build a village, a downtown for Mastic Beach, so it’s going to be about 130,000 square feet of of village style retail restaurants, card shop, lawyer, whatever you coffee shop, ice cream shop, bait shop, and about 500 homes. There will be condos, rentals, and townhomes, and we’re going to start construction next year.
Michael Stoler 7:20
What about the
Steven Dubb 7:22
Moriches? In the so there’s a community that was built in the 80s or 90s called the Waterways. It’s it’s well known on Long Island. There were homes, there were sites left to be built on there. So Beechwood came in and is building 100 new homes in the Waterways in Cinema Riches. This community is right on the water. It has a marina. It’s sort of it’s like people know Suffolk County and and a lot of Nassau County people know the waterways. So now you’ve got the opportunity to move into a new Beachwood Homes home in like an amazing community in an amazing location.
Michael Stoler 7:58
Town of Huntington.
Steven Dubb 8:00
Town of Huntington. Well, that would be the the Ferncliff project that that I mentioned earlier. The the 299 sort of short term apartment extended stay hotels that are under construction now and will be ready in 2028
Michael Stoler 8:15
Are you building anything in the New York City area besides
Steven Dubb 8:18
besides Lighthouse? We are building what I would call deeply affordable housing in partnership with New York City’s HPD Department of Housing Preservation Development and Settlement Housing Fund, which is a nonprofit developer. We completed a 40-five unit building in Weeksville, Brooklyn, last year, and we have about 70-I think it’s 70-two units under construction in three separate buildings in the Melrose area of the Bronx right now.
Michael Stoler 8:46
Okay, let’s talk about the tax abatement on Lighthouse.
Steven Dubb 8:51
Okay, so Lighthouse, all the homes at Arvene by the Sea, including Lighthouse, got this incredible 20-year tax abatement. It’s not well known in New York City. It’s a tax abatement that HBD offers. It’s called the UDAP tax abatement. Effectively, it’s a 20-year tax abatement where condo owners or homeowners’ real estate taxes are assessed only at the land value for the first 10 years of the abatement, and then it phases into a you know full assessment over the following 10 years, the last 10 years of the 20-year abatement.
Michael Stoler 9:23
Okay, with regard to future developments, where do you see any opportunities in Nassau County, or is it better to be hypothetically in Suffolk County because of the availability of land?
Steven Dubb 9:36
The answer is both. There are a ton of opportunities for redevelopment in Nassau County. Most of what we do in Nassau County is redevelopment of of prior uses that are that have passed their their time, and and actually it’s it’s kind of the same thing in Suffolk County. There’s very little green land left, and so you know even in the case of Yaphank Preserve, the 150 home condominium community we’re building in the the boulevard, the the AVR mixed use development, that had been a racetrack that had sat fallow for 30 years until Brookhaven and AVR got the approvals together and and started building building the boulevard project. Long Island is a place that is way way way short on housing, so I don’t. Nothing’s easy, but it’s it’s almost easier to to make a project pencil. The hardest part is getting it approved.
Michael Stoler 10:33
What about financing of these projects?
Steven Dubb 10:36
We do it individually with with each project. We have a bunch of relationships with some of the larger commercial and regional lenders, Wells Fargo and M&T. You know, household names. Occasionally, we’ll work with debt funds, and I would say it’s financing in general. It’s probably everyone’s experience that it’s gotten a little bit easier over the last few years than it was when rates first went up in in at the end of 21 and into 22
Michael Stoler 11:06
So I’d like to say I probably have the most prolific builder in Long Island here today. I’m very happy. I’ve seen your projects. They just they’re magnificent, and I’d like to thank you for being here.
Steven Dubb 11:18
Thank you for having me, Michael.