LCOR’s Anthony Tortora: 5 Questions

LCOR is looking to lead the sustainability charge for residential real estate and reduce its carbon footprint one development at a time, according to LCOR’s Anthony Tortora.

The development, investment and operating company currently has a growing portfolio of geothermal multifamily buildings along the East Coast, including four in the New York area. 

Those developments include the already completed 463-unit 1515 Surf in Coney Island, Brooklyn, and the 307-unit Allen in New Rochelle, N.Y. — both of which are fully electric and use geothermal heating and cooling systems through geothermal wells to eliminate the need for fossil fuels. On average, the properties have reduced carbon emissions by more than 60 percent relative to a conventional building.

LCOR is in the middle of developing two more projects in the area: the 386-unit Charlie in Hoboken, N.J., and the 633-unit 107 Morgan Street in Jersey City, N.J. But the firm also has more in the works further down south.

It’s making headway on Envoi, a 354-unit multifamily building in North Bethesda, Md., on a 1.6-acre parcel of land owned by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. Once completed, that project will result in 2 million square feet of mixed-use space, including 164 affordable housing units.

Down in Florida, LCOR is also developing a 42-story residential tower at 1775 Biscayne Boulevard in Miami, which is set to feature 10,000 square feet of retail, 50,000 square feet of amenities and a 628-space garage.

Tortora, LCOR’s new co-chief investment officer and principal, spoke with Commercial Observer this week to discuss the firm’s focus on sustainability and location, as well as New York City’s overall multifamily market.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Commercial Observer: You were just promoted from LCOR’s senior vice president and principal to its co-chief investment officer and principal. What new responsibilities come with the role? How’s it going so far?

Anthony Tortora: It’s going great. We’re a vertically integrated investment manager with a 48-year investment and development track record. As we continue to grow, we’re moving to a more centralized and integrated investment model. Harmar Thompson and I are going to oversee our investment strategy across all of our markets. My particular focus is on the greater New York City area and South Florida.

I’ll oversee a more integrated oversight of our investment engine, which breaks out into three distinct buckets: We have our opportunistic development investments, we have our public private partnerships, and then we have our acquisitions business. Harmar and I now oversee that business across all those markets.

Tell me about LCOR’s focus on geothermal multifamily buildings. How did the firm get into it? Which current developments can you tell me about?

As long-term holders of our assets, sustainable development is an important focus for us as a company. We see geothermal as an effective way to reduce our carbon footprint and reduce expenses. Most importantly, we’re able to pass those savings on to our tenants, which we think is an attractive value proposition.

We’re industry leaders in the space, and we’ve delivered two geothermal projects so far. The first was 1515 Surf in Coney Island in Brooklyn. That’s the largest active geothermal project in New York City. We delivered that in 2024, and we’re in lease-up right now. We just delivered Allen in New Rochelle, which is 307 units and another geothermal project. Super excited about that project — it’s a block away from a Metro-North station, you can get to Grand Central in about 30 minutes, there’s views of Long Island Sound, and top-quality amenities. 

Behind that we have Charlie in Hoboken, which is a 386-unit project. And then one in Jersey City, which we hope to start construction on early next year.

Building geothermal is slightly more expensive on the front end, but we believe the system pays for itself when you think about expenses savings on the utility side, and just the de-risking of future regulatory issues that may be coming down the pike regarding emissions caps and things of that sort. So we think the system effectively pays for itself, but it is more expensive on day one.

How do you choose which areas or locations to develop these properties in?

Taking a step back, one of our major development strategies is to try to address the affordability problem right now in New York. As rents in the core markets continue to grow — given the strength of the underlying economy, which is a great thing — I think there are opportunities in these secondary markets where we can deliver a quality product for rents that are half the price of what you experience in some of these more established markets.

Secondary markets also have strong fundamentals — they’re in proximity to mass transit, they have natural amenities. So we think there’s a huge opportunity. The institutional capital has historically been slow to invest in those types of markets, but, as people are getting priced out of the core, people are willing to move a little farther out to save money on rent. So we think that’s a huge opportunity in terms of what we look for in geothermal.

The Northeast also lends itself to geothermal technology pretty readily. You need a balance in seasons — the seasonality helps with the efficiency of the geothermal system. Then it’s just a function of the site and how big the site is and how deep you can drill your wells, which gets into a lot of engineering complexities. But New York being one of our core markets, we thought it was a great opportunity to roll out a geothermal spec.

Why should investors focus on secondary and tertiary markets as opposed to core markets?

We believe secondary markets present a great opportunity — we’re able to buy land cheaper, and we’re able to deliver affordable product in markets that need the supply. We’ve seen strong demand in those markets where people are looking for strong value propositions to get top-quality, highly amenitized, professionally managed product for rents that are half the price of some of these more established markets. It’s a really compelling value proposition to a lot of tenants.

How do you think New York City’s multifamily market is doing right now?

I think the market’s generally strong. I mean, the stats will tell you that vacancy is down, rents are up. I think the market is supply-constrained, and I think there’s some challenges there. Interest rates continue to be a little bit high. So I think it’s tough to get new things started. 

There’s also been a big regulatory shift in New York City, moving from 421a to 485x, which I think will also take time to work through the system. But, you know, as a headline matter, I think the market’s incredibly strong.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.