Edward Broderick (left), Adam Jelen (top right) and James Patchett.
Edward Broderick, Adam R. Jelen and James Patchett
CEO of Gilbane Inc.; president and CEO of Gilbane Building Company; and president and CEO at Gilbane Development Company
In a reflection of the company’s productive 2024, global builder and developer Gilbane is currently playing to its strengths with $4.4 billion in ongoing public-private partnerships, ranging from affordable and student housing initiatives and life sciences projects to NFL stadiums (plural).
In terms of affordable housing, Gilbane veterans Edward Broderick and Adam Jelen are joined by James Patchett, former president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, in driving projects such as the Peninsula, a redevelopment of the former Spofford Detention Center in the Bronx that will create 740 units of 100 percent affordable housing and 52,000 square feet of publicly accessible open space in addition to industrial and retail; and the Brownsville Arts Center and Apartments in Brooklyn, which will deliver 230 apartments for extremely low-income and formerly homeless residents as well as 24,000 square feet of arts and cultural space.
Overall, the company is currently working with the public sector to build or rehabilitate over 8,000 units of affordable or mixed-income housing.
“We’re 155 years old,” said Broderick. “Our roots are in real estate and construction, but we are a solution provider now across the built environment, and a lot of key clients come to us because we’re a trusted partner. People bring us into transformative projects because of the breadth of services we provide. When you think about projects like the Peninsula project, that’s a community transformative project.”
On a different end of the possibility spectrum, Gilbane is hard at work on construction of the Buffalo Bills’ new Highmark Stadium, and is also leading the $430 million renovation of the Baltimore Ravens’ M&T Bank Stadium. Both are scheduled to be ready in time for the 2026 season.
“Projects like that play to the strength of Gilbane because of the resources we have across the built environment,” said Broderick. “We have the ability to bring the appropriate resources to a project of that complexity.”
But not everything in commercial real estate needs to be complex. Given the company’s work on both stadiums, Broderick is asked who he will root for any time the Bills play the Ravens.
The answer comes quickly.
“I’m a native New Yorker,” said Broderick. “Go Bills.”
