Press Releases
Crain's New York Business
Monday, October 17, 2005
Robert Horsford and Ed Poteat are relative newcomers to the development business--they got started just 10 years ago.
"The first five years were the toughest,'' says Mr. Poteat, a former mortgage banker. "We were flat broke.''
Since undertaking its first major project in 1999--purchasing and renovating six Harlem buildings to create 105 low-income apartments--Horsford & Poteat Realty has gone on to develop another 480 units in the area, skillfully mixing federal and city subsidies with bank financing.
As the Harlem market has blossomed, the firm's business has exploded. HP Realty is nearing completion of its largest project to date: a nine-building complex boasting 120 units of market-rate and low-income apartments on West 148th Street.
The company has recently established a foothold in East New York, Brooklyn, building single-family houses in conjunction with the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Increasingly, the firm is looking to market-rate housing to deliver growth.
"We're still not quite where we want to be, but we're on our way," says Mr. Horsford.