Rick Gropper

What’s your favorite — and your least favorite — New York affordable housing initiative from the Mamdani administration? 

Last year I said the next administration really needed to cut red tape, so my favorite is the SPEED initiatives. I had input into it, and the recommendations are the right ones: faster predevelopment, faster permitting, faster lease-up. The implementation is a work in progress.  Good ideas on paper don’t build homes. Implementation does. 

The most challenging is the rent freeze. Affordability is critical, and I fully understand why residents need relief. But costs in older rent-stabilized buildings didn’t freeze, and insurance is still the largest line item in any affordable budget. The city’s insurance captive is a good start, but a rent freeze has to come with operating support. Distress isn’t a few years away. It’s here today. 

Which type of development does Camber have a greater affinity for: adaptive reuse, preservation or new construction? 

All three, and the best projects combine them. Preservation is our roots. Stevenson Commons, a 948-unit Mitchell-Lama in the Bronx, was our first big deal, and it unlocked excess land where we’re now building about 1,000 new homes. 

Adaptive reuse is personal. I started my  career at a small adaptive reuse firm in New Haven, Conn. Chelsea Beacon, a former YMCA turned prison that we’re converting into 131 affordable  homes in Manhattan, is exactly the kind of puzzle we love. 

Our pipeline is about 50-50 new construction and preservation, by design.  

How does Camber balance its commitment to social responsibility with its responsibility to stakeholders? 

Those values do not compete. Our mission is to deliver on the promises we make to all stakeholders, and residents are stakeholders just like our investors, lenders and agency partners. Vertical integration is how we keep those interests aligned. When you control construction and property management, you take out uncertainty, protect returns and do right by residents. 

What is the most significant project Camber is currently working on? 

Linden Plaza. A year ago, I said it was the most challenging and most rewarding project we’ve ever taken on, and both are still true. 

It’s a $1 billion rehab of 1,527 Mitchell-Lama apartments sitting on a platform over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Pitkin Yard in Brooklyn. We’re replacing all of the  plumbing, converting from steam to hydronic heat with new boiler “pods,” and upgrading kitchens and baths. In October, residents moved back into the first fully renovated building. This is a day the whole team has been working toward. 

What would it surprise people to know about the work Camber does? 

That a 1950s public housing campus can be a historic landmark. Edenwald, the largest New York City Housing Authority campus in the Bronx, was deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. That let us bring $264 million of historic tax credits into a $930 million renovation of 2,035 apartments. It’s super nerdy, but this is how you pay for new roofs, windows, kitchens, baths and heating for thousands of families. 

People are also surprised by how much work we do in-house. Our team is over 100 people, and more than 300 with building staff. With our own general contractor and property management, the team that underwrites a building is accountable for building it and running it. 

Where is Camber doing the most development? 

Last year was Brooklyn. This year it’s the Bronx. Stevenson Square in Soundview is our biggest development effort: about 1,000 new affordable homes on a campus where we already preserved 948. We just cut the ribbon on a 117-unit senior building, our affordable co-ops are in sales, and more phases are coming soon. Edenwald is in the Bronx, too. The need is there, the relationships are there, and the land is there. 

Outside the city, we’re working toward closing a 500-unit rehab of four distressed assets around Pittsburgh. 

If you could change one area of global or local tumult, what would it be?  

The war in the Persian Gulf, because it touches everything, including interest rates. I know, I said I was tired of talking about rates. Oil spikes, inflation follows, and rates stay higher for longer. Much of our construction and predevelopment financing is priced off SOFR, so every quarter-point adds real money to a budget, and, in affordable housing, public subsidy fills that gap. Energy prices also hit our buildings directly through heating and fuel. 

Peace would do more for housing affordability (and the world) than any policy I can think of.

Lightning Round:

Your AI platform of choice? We’re developing our own thing that sits on top of Claude. I’m sure it will be obsolete next month.

Who would play you in a movie? I’m not really into movies or actors, but a few friends say that I’m Lex Luthor. Not sure if that’s a good thing. 

Have you ever eaten pizza with a knife and fork? Do I look like Bill de Blasio? 

Bank or non-bank? Bank. Community Reinvestment Act lenders are the backbone of affordable housing.

Last book you read? The Big Short by Michael Lewis. I’ve been into the 2008 Global Financial Crisis drama recently. 

Borrowing costs — up or down in 2027? I’ve been saying down for four years now! WTF?

What was your nickname when you grew up/started out? I picked Ricky when I was little. Changed that when I got older and realized it was kind of weird. 

How long do we have before AI kills us all? We are going to have some serious disruptions, but then we will work it out and survive.

Where’s your secret escape compound? (Think Peter Thiel’s New Zealand Plan B.) I’m not sure, but all of this reminds me of the movie “Short Circuit” and Johnny 5, the robot who becomes alive. I think he ends up in love with one of his creators.