The Confluent Group and partners Luol Deng, Charlie Villanueva start 2023 in Final Stretch of Major Development Project

NEW YORK, Jan. 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Confluent Group is starting off the new year focused with renewed optimism on the finish, as the firm nears completion of its largest ground-up project to date in Harrison, NY.  The uber luxe development is one of its kind and will redefine elevated living in Westchester County market. 

The boutique private equity firm, led by LA based investor David Gross, and its partners in the development, former NBA stars Luol Deng and Charlie Villanueva, are mere months away from beginning lease up of the 24-unit, transit-adjacent, luxury building, with plans of selling it once stabilized.

This will be a major off the court win for the former high school teammates, who have a history of scoring big together on the court.

"The project and the group behind it are unique," said Gross "A former NBA All-Star is my co-GP, and the bulk of our LP capital comes from another former NBA star.  Collectively, we're 97% of the equity in the deal.  That's rare, and I'm lucky that they were my partners in the deal.  It's been a challenging environment for ground-up development, and covid would have destroyed the project without their continued support.

What we're doing is big for the three of us, and for our culture.  The dearth of minority developers doesn't make us special.  It merely highlights the need for more, which is primarily a function of resources and supportive capital to help black and brown firms succeed in an industry where success is largely a function of access to capital.  Like it or not, our ultimate outcome impacts the fate of other minority development firms out there, so we have to win."

The multifamily development, which stands at 95% completion today, was significantly impacted by the pandemic. Supply chain issues and inflation posed an existential threat to the project, impacting the budget and timeline. The extreme move in interest rates across 2022 is a headwind for the entire real estate ecosystem, but the trio doggedly persevered in face of the myriad obstacles that continue to pose challenges to the entire industry, and are now ready to test the capital markets to take out their existing construction lenders Lightstone Capital and LISC's Black Economic Development Fund with new partners who share their vision for the trophy asset. 

"Completing a development of this scale is a significant milestone in my second career as an investor and developer" added Deng. "Lightstone and BEDF played an important role as capital partners willing to invest in minority developers. Though we were dealt a tough hand with timing, we're here now and expect all of our partners to have great outcome ."

"Coming from a background developing and investing in single family homes, as well as new construction, condos, townhomes and remodeling, I always wanted to invest in multifamily" said Villanueva. "Finding the right partners was imperative, Luol and David were just that.  Even though this project has been extremely challenging to complete, we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel."

About Lightstone
Lightstone, founded by David Lichtenstein, is one of the largest and most diversified privately held real estate companies in the United States. Lightstone is active in 27 states across the country, developing, managing and investing in all sectors of the real estate market, including residential, hospitality, commercial, and retail. With over 140 existing properties, Lightstone's over $6.5 billion portfolio currently includes over 3 million square feet of office, retail and industrial commercial properties, over 15,400 residential units, and over 4,100 hotel keys. Lightstone also owns over 12,000 land lots across the country. Headquartered in New York City, Lightstone continues to grow its development portfolio with over $3.5 billion currently under development in the residential and hospitality sectors spread across New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami.

Lightstone Capital is Lightstone's real estate debt platform, providing sponsors with flexible, creative, and immediate financing solutions. Launched in 2018 it has a $500 million pipeline. 

About LISC
With residents and partners, LISC forges resilient and inclusive communities of opportunity across America – great places to live, work, visit, do business and raise families. Since 1979, LISC has invested $22 billion to build or rehab more than 419,000 affordable homes and apartments and develop 70.3 million square feet of retail, community and educational space. For more, visit www.lisc.org.

About the Black Economic Development Fund
The Black Economic Development Fund (BEDF) is an impact investment fund built to address economic challenges in Black communities and to help close the racial wealth gap. The fund targets Black-led financial institutions, businesses, real estate developers and anchor institutions with the goal of growing these organizations and strengthening their contributions to Black communities. The fund deploys capital across a diverse set of industries, borrowers and geographies in the United States. The BEDF is managed by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Strategic Investments team and LISC Fund Management, LLC, a LISC affiliate.

Get in touch:

Luol Deng: @luoldeng9
Charlie Villanueva: @cvbelieve
David Gross: @david.a.gross

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SOURCE The Confluent Group