Camber Property Group

Camber Property Group is a New York City developer founded in 2016 that concentrates on affordable and supportive housing, both new construction and the preservation of existing regulated buildings. The firm is co-developing Chelsea Beacon at 550 West 20th Street with the Osborne Association, a $167 million redevelopment of the former Bayview Correctional Facility, originally the Seamen’s House YMCA, which has stood vacant since Hurricane Sandy flooded it in 2012. The project delivers 131 permanently affordable apartments including at least 79 supportive units, assembled from six separate public financing sources. Camber also holds a stake in Fifth Avenue Builders, the construction manager on the job.

Camber Property Group has operated out of 116 East 27th Street in Manhattan since its founding in 2016. The firm describes itself as vertically integrated, meaning development, construction and management capability are held in house rather than contracted out to third parties.

The published impact figures give a sense of scale: five active ground-up construction projects, 45 preservation and stabilization projects, roughly 1,800 new residential units, 12,000 preserved or stabilized units, and $4.1 billion in gross market value. Development activity now reaches seven US states, though the New York City metro area remains the center of gravity.

Work splits along two development tracks. The first is new construction of affordable, supportive, transitional and mixed-income communities. The second is the preservation of existing affordable housing assets, which the firm handles through holistic renovations of occupied buildings. Construction management covers both ground-up work and rehabilitation. A separate investment management group handles acquisitions, asset management, portfolio management and investor relations, while property management runs as a joint venture with Dolphin Property Services.

Two current projects illustrate the range. At Edenwald Houses in the Baychester section of the Bronx, Camber rehabilitated 2,030 apartments across 42 buildings under the NYCHA PACT program, alongside utility, common area and community facility upgrades. In Chelsea, the firm is converting the former Bayview Correctional Facility at 550 West 20th Street into Chelsea Beacon, a $167 million project with the Osborne Association that will produce 131 permanently affordable apartments, at least 79 of them supportive housing, plus a 15-bed transitional residence and community facility space.

Environmental and social commitments are stated plainly on the firm’s impact page. Camber prioritizes energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainable building materials in its buildings, and commits to diversity across its own teams as well as its suppliers and contractors. Rick Gropper, a principal at the firm, has publicly credited financing partners as central to making large preservation projects work at this scale.