The Turnaround – Gregg Singer Revitalizes Villas on the Lake

Gregg Singer is a dedicated developer who actively looks for complicated projects. Mr. Singer is the President of his company, Singer Financial Corporation, established in 1986. He and his company have accomplished numerous successful property turnaround projects and welcome challenging projects such as the P.S. 64 building, the East Village college dormitory project. Mr. Singer continues to find properties that need improvement. SFC’s diverse portfolio ranges from social services providing low-cost homes for senior citizens to revitalizing townhouses and apartment complexes.

One such project was the Villas on the Lake townhouses, located in the Mohegan Lake area of Yorktown in Westchester County, New York. The complex was abandoned by its previous developer. The lack of property maintenance led to the dilapidation of many buildings and common areas. Westchester is a region known for upscale houses and a haven for families that want to escape the hustle and bustle of New York City. However, without proper care and management, any property is subject to decay, and chances of selling it become slim. Needless to say, without the proper management, the Villas on the Lake townhouses were in clear danger of becoming a site which people would not want to call home.

Mr. Singer purchased nearly a third of the entire complex and renovated everything that needed maintenance – individual units, common areas and buildings, and parking lots were all rebuilt with the intent to create and increase value. The property values did indeed increase and the Villas on the Lake was once again a thriving complex. There are many problematic properties similar to the Villas with similar prospects for a complete revival.

As a skilled and veteran investor with a long family history of real estate experience, Gregg Singer looks specifically for projects with potential and upside. Mr. Singer has a diverse experience in management, building maintenance, redevelopment, and leasing and sales experience from his many projects. You can contact Mr. Singer by visiting the SFC website, here.

The Singers – Developing through the Generations

Developer Gregg Singer is the CEO of Singer Financial Corporation, a New York real estate investment firm. He is in fact the fourth generation of real estate developers starting with his great-grandfather Louis Singer in the early 1900s.

Louis Singer began his real estate development career (and the family tradition) in 1914 by founding Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Queens, New York. He went on to complete several other cemetery developments within the New York Metropolitan area, Mount Hebron, Mount Carmel, Cedar Grove, Cedar Park, and Beth Israel. It was Louis, also, that began to connect the boundaries of land development and philanthropic social work, a trend that his family still continues to follow. He founded the non-sectarian non-profit organization Home of Old Israel in 1922, which provided senior aged citizens with free housing and meals.

The next Singer down the line was Jack, Louis’s son. During the 1950s and 60s Jack had worked on diverse development projects that included research facilities in the Southeast for major companies such as Dupont and 3M Corporation. In 1966, Jack built the largest seniors’ housing in the country, an 1100-apartment community known as Segirt Village in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York. He continued his father’s work and went on to merge the Home of Old Israel with JASA, the Jewish Association for Services for the Aged, a volunteer social services agency that provides aid to elderly citizens of all backgrounds.

Jack’s son, Mike, and his wife, Elly, continued working in the real estate business in the state of Florida. Mike Singer built buildings such as shopping centers and apartment buildings in South Florida. In 1970, Elly Singer founded a nonprofit drug rehabilitation center called Concept House, the first of its kind in the state of Florida. Concept House remains a vital nonprofit service for many victims of substance abuse.

Mike and Elly’s son, Gregg, founded the NYC-based Singer Financial Corporation in 1986. Since then, he has worked on a variety of property types, ranging from shopping centers to residential buildings. He has also carried on his family’s work to improve the lives of the elderly by providing even more low-income housing for senior citizens. Singer Financial Corporation’s past works include projects throughout the United States, with a focus in the northeast, California, and Florida. Unique overseas properties are also considered. For more information, visit the SFC website here.

The Chesterfield Condominiums

Gregg Singer is a New York-based investor with many years of experience breathing life to troubled and mismanaged properties. His experience ranges from working on shopping centers to apartment buildings and even to the low-income housing market for senior citizens.  One of Gregg’s past residential projects includes The Chesterfield Condominiums in upper Manhattan, New York. Erected in 1920 and turned into a condominium in 1989, The Chesterfield is currently a very sought-after condominium apartment due to its convenient Upper West Side location and beautiful pre-war architecture. It is one of the few buildings in the area that is still a certified pre-war building, yet it does not fail to provide a comfortable, modern living space for many families and businesspeople.

However, this historic building in the Upper West Side has seen some unfortunate times – its previous owners did not take proper care of this building. Like many older buildings in Manhattan, The Chesterfield became a financial concern due to mismanagement. This led to even less attention being paid to maintain the building’s heritage. Gregg took on the project to revive this fiscally run-down building into a huge financial success for all of the unit owners and helped improve the neighborhood. The Chesterfield Condominiums now consistently sells rooms each year at high per square foot levels to New Yorkers looking to find a new home in the Upper West Side.

It is important that even ideally located and expertly built properties be properly maintained and managed. Not only does it keep the building from decaying, it helps the property owner get a fair market value for that space. All parties can benefit from taking the right steps to keep a building in its utmost quality.

Gregg Singer is the President of Singer Financial Corporation, a real estate investment firm with a focus in New York, California, and Florida real estate. Whereas many may shy away, he welcomes complicated projects such as The Chesterfield in Manhattan, The Sussex House apartments in Hackensack, New Jersey, the Villas on the Lake townhouses in Westchester County, New York, and the former NYC public school building known as P.S. 64 in East Village, a student housing project. For more information, visit his website.

The Sussex House

Selling even the most prized of properties can often run into unexpected setbacks – building damage and unruly tenants, for example, hurt the value of the property and make it hard to sell for a suitable price. Unforeseen circumstances such as these can get in the way of even the most sought-after deals. A successful developer addresses such problems and creates value where it might not be easily seen.

As the CEO of real estate investment company Singer Financial Corporation, developer Gregg Singer has nearly 30 years of experience in the real estate industry. He and his company specialize in acquiring or revitalizing blighted properties and adding value. Such projects include The Chesterfield Condominiums in the Upper West Side, the Westchester County townhouse community known as Villas on the Lake, as well as the transformation of the former New York City public school known as P.S. 64 in East Village. His work is nationwide, with a focus in New York, California, and Florida.

One project he has worked on is the Sussex House in Hackensack, New Jersey. Despite the major advantage of a great location, the apartments were vacated due to a major structural flaw. The problem was that the Sussex House complex had the hard-to-fix issue of waterproofing – it would leak inside the apartments and cause severe damage every time it rained. Gregg’s team solved the flooding issue and these New Jersey apartments were able to be rented, the building financially stabilized, and were ultimately sold for a premium.

Experience is the Best Teacher

Developer Gregg Singer is the President of Singer Financial Corporation, a real estate investment company established in 1986. He has worked on many diverse projects and properties throughout the years. Prior to establishing his own company, Mr. Singer worked in different real estate companies to gain valuable experience in the industry.

He began his real estate career in 1982 in with the largest office owner, manager, and developer in Washington D.C. This was the Oliver T. Carr Company, now known as CarrAmerica Realty Corp., founded in 1962 by Oliver T. Carr, Jr. It began as an office and apartment building and management company, but with the completion of several successful development projects, grew over time to building and managing properties.  During the 1970s and 1980s, Oliver T. Carr Company established itself as a dominant player in the booming Washington D.C. suburban market and became the largest office developer and manager in the greater Washington area. It was during this successful expansion Gregg joined the Carr team as a junior member.  There, his responsibilities included reviewing existing leases as well as sourcing leads for new business ventures. He stayed with the company throughout 1982 and 1983.

After leaving CarrAmerica, Gregg worked at the Donald Zucker Company, based in New York City, in 1984-1986. The company was founded nearly 50 years ago by developer Donald Zucker, who has worked on thousands of apartments and luxury buildings over his extensive career. During his experience here, Gregg Singer worked as a loan broker in the company’s commercial mortgage division financing commercial real estate. He financed properties such as apartment buildings, shopping centers, net-leased properties, industrial/warehouse buildings, and office buildings. They were not only limited to New York, but throughout the entire United States.

It was in 1986 that Gregg left the Donald Zucker Company to found his own real estate development and investment company, utilizing the experience gained at his previous workplaces. Singer Financial Corporation has, since its founding, invested and renovated many properties throughout the United States. Past projects include The Chesterfield Condominiums in upper Manhattan, Villas on the Lake, a townhouse development in Westchester, New York, and the Sussex House apartments in Hackensack, New Jersey.