Rick Gropper
Founding principal at Camber Property Group
New York City’s housing crisis has been a challenge for decades as tight occupancy levels and skyrocketing rents continue to choke the city’s affordable housing supply. Combating this crisis is a difficult task, but it is one Rick Gropper and his team at Camber Property Group take seriously.
Gropper and Camber were very active in 2024, taking on projects to help provide New Yorkers with more affordable housing opportunities.
“Affordable housing, supportive housing, preservation of existing buildings and the new construction of transitional housing is really our area of focus — affordable housing and trying to make a dent in the housing crisis here in New York and across the country,” Gropper said.
In 2024, Camber closed on one of the largest affordable housing deals of the year, spending nearly $1 billion with its public and private financing partners for Linden Plaza, an 11-building, 1,527-unit apartment complex in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
“It’s something that was built in the 1970s, and then it really fell into disrepair, and COVID was kind of the thing that did it in,” Gropper said. “COVID, and the fact that people couldn’t afford to pay their rent, and that lack of income led to it just really continuing the downward spiral. We closed on that and we started construction shortly after that.”
Camber is in the early stages of turning the complex around. Work is expected to be completed by December 2028.
“That was the biggest deal that we did last year in that space, and is one that we’re really proud of,” Gropper said. “We also began construction on four buildings in 2024 that include a 130-unit supportive housing and mixed-income building in Bushwick that we rezoned and started construction. It includes a transitional housing facility in East New York that’ll be a 200-bed assessment shelter.”
Camber had a very active 2024, and 2025 has started off strong as well — though political and economic uncertainty will be a challenge this year as the firm continues its fight to provide New Yorkers with more affordable housing.
