Thomas and Frederick Elghanayan
Thomas and Frederick Elghanayan
Co-founder and Chairman; Co-founder and President at TF Cornerstone
Last year's rank: 65
The Elghanayan family’s sprawling real estate empire has quietly chugged along during the pandemic, with new buildings rising in Long Island City, Brooklyn, and even Midtown East.
In February, they revealed plans to co-develop a 1,646-foot-tall skyscraper on the site of the Grand Hyatt Hotel, which is attached to Grand Central Terminal. As Commercial Observer first reported, the 83-story, 2.2 million-square-foot building will hold 500 hotel rooms and 2.1 million square feet of office space. The project—which includes a 22,000-square-foot, public open space and a new 5,400-square-foot entrance to Grand Central and the subway station—won the approval of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission with flying colors.
The project will go through the city’s public land use review, and demolition on the Grand Hyatt is scheduled to begin in 2022.
Down in Greenwich Village, TF Cornerstone (TFC) also inked deals for four new retail tenants last month at 23 East 10th Street, a residential building known as The Albert. The retailers—QQ Nails & Spa, Neapolitan-style pizzeria Simò Pizza, French bakery Maman, and gelato shop Gelateria Gentile—will open later this year.
In Brooklyn, workers have begun laying the foundations at 595 and 615 Dean streets, a pair of residential buildings slated to hold 800 apartments at the Pacific Park project in Prospect Heights. It will also include 72,600 square feet of public green space, ground-floor retail, and a 100,000-square-foot fitness center and field house operated by Chelsea Piers.
TFC has also pushed forward with its 1,200-unit piece of the Hunter’s Point South megaproject in Long Island City, Queens. Workers topped out the 56-story residential tower at 52-03 Center Boulevard, while its 46-story neighbor at 52-41 Center Boulevard is nearly complete. The developer kicked off the affordable-housing lottery last fall for both buildings, which will include 719 income-restricted units.
The firm also quietly filed plans in December for two residential towers on one of the last undeveloped pieces of land in Hunter’s Point South. The permit applications call for a 39-story, 812-unit building at 2-10 54th Avenue and a 34-story, 575-unit building at 55-01 Second Street.—R.B.R.
