Will Blodgett

Affordable housing and speed don’t often get mentioned in the same breath. But Tredway, a 3-year-old firm Will Blodgett has turned into a growing powerhouse, counts on astute understanding of the complicated calculus behind financing and regulations to make new projects take shape. 

In the last year, as an uneven economic landscape rapidly reshaped deals and financing options, Tredway hit its stride. The firm closed a single deal in 2022, but in 2023 became active across the country, focused on affordable workforce housing and senior apartments. A $120 million Deutsche Bank loan helped it pick up 816 units in Coney Island, Brooklyn, living up to the firm’s acquire/develop/rehab model by structuring the deal to reinvest in energy systems, physical plants and quality-of-life improvements. In November, the firm picked up 630 units across North Carolina’s Research Triangle region, targeting an opportunity-rich environment for economic mobility. 

Tredway now operates roughly 3,500 units nationwide, and should double that by the end of 2024. There’s also 1,500 units of ground-up projects in the works across New York City in Brooklyn and the Bronx.

Blodgett is a known quantity, with $6 billion in deal experience across a career that includes stints at Related Companies, the New York City Housing Authority and his previous firm Fairfield. (He’s also an in-law of the wealthy Tisch family.) But the sustained focus on upward mobility with Tredway comes from his diagnosis of current housing issues and a strategy to fix the problem. 

“Over half of the country is rent-burdened, and the less you make, the more you’re paying for housing as a percentage of your income,” he said. 

Blodgett’s own origin story — growing up poor in Chicago’s North Side, bullied for having a stutter, and waking up as a child the day after a string of evictions in public housing to wonder why his friends left — offer a compelling narrative and moral arc to his choice to focus on this niche in the housing world. But he would point to the lives Tredway’s growing number of tenants lead as the true success. 

“Economics is important, but impact is equally important,” said Blodgett. “If you get housing right, education and health care become a whole lot easier.”