A company that develops, owns and manages affordable housing apartments, primarily in the Bronx, is expanding its business and building a market-rate rental property overlooking the Hudson River in Peekskill.
“We’re looking to diversify from our main portfolio, which is rent-stabilized housing,” said Tony East, a partner at Finkelstein Timberger East Real Estate (FTERE). “To have all our eggs in that one basket doesn’t make sense from a family point of view.”
Construction of the four-level, 51-unit building on Grove and South streets has made enormous progress in the past year. With the outside walls and roof completed, the work now moves to the interior. The target date for welcoming the first renters is in the summer of 2025.
In addition to spectacular views of the Hudson River Valley, the building will also offer spacious rooms and lots of higher-end amenities, East said, along with a short walk to the train station.
“Our hook is that they’re big. The smallest unit is still over 1,000 square feet. The two-bedroom units in the apex middle have a big living room will be close to 1,400 square feet.” All the units have a den, potentially to serve as a home office. “The units are big enough for people to work from home and have kids,” East said. They all have balconies with most facing the river. “The location and the views are second to none.”
Amenities include a large swimming pool with a deck, a barbecue area with a fire pit, a seating area on the deck, a gym, clubroom for hanging out or use for private events, charging stations for electric vehicles and underground parking for residents and outdoor parking for guests. Finkelstein Timberger East will manage the building themselves with a leasing office onsite.
“When we take up a project, we like to own it, keep it and have it forever,” East said. “We don’t build with spit and paper because ultimately we’re the ones that are going to have to deal with it. We serve as our own managing agents.”
Originally planned as a condominium, the building, known now as “River View Place,” will be offered as market rate rentals. The rental prices will be determined next year when all the costs of construction and development are determined.
Finding Peekskill as the ideal site
Finkelstein Timberger East, a multi-generation family-owned firm, first came to the area with the construction of Meadowbrook Commons on the Boulevard, a townhome community of market-rate rentals located on Route 6 just past the Cortlandt Town Center.
Three years ago, they turned a rundown complex of apartments into fifty richly appointed two-bedroom townhomes with varying layouts, offering garages, dens and family rooms, open floor plan kitchens, and high end fixtures and premium appliances with rents in the $3,500 range. “We’re a generational family business and now that our families are getting bigger and expanding we’re looking to get into other markets,” East said.
The River View Place project in Peekskill started prior to the worldwide covid pandemic as a development by Louie Lanza and Unicorn Contracting Corp. principal Paul Guillaro along with Demetri Vourliotis. The property was purchased from a firm called Markeva Estates Co. for $825,000 in 2016.
As time passed and the costs of construction and development increased, Lanza and his partners sold the project to FTERE. Then in April 2024 the firm secured a $22.5 million mortgage through Tompkins Community Bank to finance the project.
Since taking the helm at River View Place, East has nothing but praise for Peekskill officials and the community.
“I love the project – this is my baby and I’m really enjoying every part of it,” he said. “Working with the City of Peekskill has been a dream compared to some of the other towns I’ve had to work with in the past, they’ve been very accommodating, very helpful.”
For Finkelstein Timberger East, the River View Place building is a milestone in the firm’s history.
“We’re all very excited about this project,” East said. “My family and I are all in here – it’s going to be our crown jewel and we’re going to treat it as such. I think there’s a lot of great restaurants bars and new places opening up here and I love the city of Peekskill.”
