British Co-Living Company Plans $150M Williamsburg Project As Fourth NYC Offering
British co-living provider The Collective is doubling down on New York City, unveiling its latest plans for a 224-unit building in Brooklyn.
The company announced it is developing at 292 North Eighth St., which will span 100K SF and allow for 321 residents. Nearly 100 of the rooms will be set aside for students, The Collective said in a release, and about 120 studios will be dedicated to nightly and monthly stays.
The project, set to open in 2022, marks The Collective’s sixth U.S. acquisition and its fourth in the city. The cost of the project is pegged at $150M, but the price of the acquisition was not immediately clear.
The Kamali Organization has owned the industrial property since 2016, and had previously planned to develop it into an 11-story dorm alongside developer Macro Sea, New York YIMBY reported in 2016.
In Brooklyn, The Collective is developing large co-living projects at 555 Broadway and 1215 Fulton St. Its first U.S. location opened earlier this year, months after it paid $58M to acquire The Paper Factory Hotel in Long Island City.
In October, The Collective announced COLIV, which it said is the world’s first institutional, large-scale co-living fund, with the aim of raising up to £650M ($840M U.S.) in equity commitments to acquire or fund co-living assets in London.
And while co-living is still a fledgling industry in the U.S., there are several players that see the value in expanding, amid an ongoing housing affordability crisis.
The New York City Department of Housing Preservation, for example, said in October it was selecting three "shared housing" proposals following a city-run competition calling on developers to put forward co-living project ideas.
“As we see opportunities to create more spaces that accommodate a breadth of knowledge and perspective in one space, we will continue our robust growth, which we strongly feel will unlock opportunity and growth across communities,” The Collective CEO Reza Merchant said in the release of the Williamsburg plans.
