TF Cornerstone Inc.

TF Cornerstone is a privately held, vertically integrated real estate development company headquartered at 387 Park Avenue South in Manhattan. Brothers Tom and Fred Elghanayan have run the business together for roughly five decades, and the firm is structured for long-term multi-generational ownership rather than for merchant-build exits. It owns about 2.5 million square feet of office property across New York City and Washington, D.C., alongside a large residential portfolio concentrated in Long Island City, Brooklyn and Manhattan.

The firm is one of a small group of New York developers that acts as its own general contractor rather than hiring one, which gives it direct control over construction cost and schedule. Recent work includes the 4540, 4545, 4610, 4615 and 4630 Center Boulevard towers in Long Island City and 595 Dean in Brooklyn. TF Cornerstone is also the developer converting the 1911 Wanamaker Building at 1300 Market Street in Philadelphia into 621 apartments with Alterra Property Group.

Vertical integration at TF Cornerstone is an org chart rather than a slogan. Acquisitions and Development sets investment strategy and executes acquisitions, joint ventures and dispositions. Finance arranges corporate and property-level debt and holds the company to conservative leverage. Planning handles entitlements and public-private partnerships, working between agencies, design firms, consultants and community stakeholders. Construction runs the job, since TFC serves as its own general contractor and keeps direct ties to the Building and Construction Trades Council. Residential Leasing and Marketing, Commercial Asset Management, Property Management, Technology, Legal and Risk Management, and Accounting carry each building from lease-up into long-term operation.

Two operating habits are worth knowing. Property Management works to a same-day rule: any residential or commercial repair request is addressed the day it is received, any day of the year. And the residential leasing group administers rent-stabilized apartments and government-sponsored affordable housing itself, overseeing the lottery, screening applicants, filing annual recertification documentation and producing the compliance reports.

The build history reaches back well before the Queens waterfront. The first entry on the company timeline is 31 West 16th Street in 1971, a 16,000-square-foot project. The 1980s brought 666 Greenwich Street at 723,000 square feet and 95 Horatio Street at 440,000. Carnegie Hall Tower at 152 West 57th Street followed in 1991, designed by Cesar Pelli to meet an RFP requirement for compatibility with the historic hall beside it, and it won an Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects. Later markers include 45 Wall Street in 1997, 2 Gold Street in 2005, 33 Bond Street in Brooklyn in 2017 and 606 West 57th Street in 2018 at nearly 1.2 million square feet.

Alongside the development business the firm runs Building Together, its community engagement platform. It makes annual grants of up to $10,000 to organizations working in three areas: education and civic engagement, the public realm, and neighborhood non-profits. The same platform funds structured internships for students at local public schools and food distribution in underserved communities.