VITAL STATS NAME: David Barry AGE: 48 TITLE AND COMPANY:
President and CEO, Ironstate Development HOMETOWN:
Maplewood, N.J. CURRENTLY LIVES:
Hoboken, N.J.
BUILDING BLOCKS How many buildings does Ironstate own? We own about 40 buildings, about 80 percent rental and 20 percent hotel. Typically, our rental projects have between 150 and 500
and into New Jersey, every municipality has different specificities and politics.
units. We’re primarily focused in the Hudson County [New Jersey] Gold Coast, but we have some projects and hotels in Manhattan. We’re developing a rental project
What’s the best part of the job? I love the development and creation aspect.
at 200 East 39th Street with Charlie Blaichman
We’re always trying to be a step ahead of
and Scott Shnay. It’s 93 units. It’s actually under
the residents, thinking about what they
construction right now and will be completed by
might desire, and what’s going to have
the spring of 2014.
a better chance of retaining those tenants. Maybe that property manager
You’re also developing a 900-unit rental com-
was extra-friendly, or maybe some of
plex at the former Navy Homeport site on
the events we do or the technology we
Staten Island. Is there enough demand in
have makes it easier to maintain their
Staten Island for a project of that size?
lifestyle.
One of my general suppositions is that if you’re within commuting distance of New
How do retention rates vary between
York City and you price appropriately,
New York City and New Jersey?
there will be demand. For the type of units
Jersey City and Hoboken have a little
we’re doing, we’re projecting about $30 a
more turnover because there are a lot of
foot. I don’t necessarily think I’m going
other options that are similarly located
to get an influx of people from other bor-
and priced. But if [tenants] like a partic-
oughs, but I think that within Staten Is-
ular submarket in the city, [they] want to
land, there are plenty of people who will
stick with it.
want the opportunity.
BOTTOM LINE How did you get into real estate?
How did the recession impact your business?
My father, Joseph, was a lawyer who got into
Rents were reduced by about 15 percent or 20 per-
real estate development. He started in Hobo-
cent at the worst point. Now, rents are the highest
ken. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he was
they’ve ever been — and trending higher.
very active in affordable development. When my brother Michael and I graduated from college, we decided we wanted
How about Hurricane Sandy?
to go into development, but take it in a new direction. We had
Most of our buildings tend to be newer construc-
a feeling that the outer boroughs and the Gold Coast would at-
tion, so we’re building to FEMA specifications. The
tract young professionals. So we came to Hoboken and formed
stuff that got really damaged by Sandy tended to be
a market-rate urban housing business. We then got into con-
older-generation stuff that was built in the 1950s and
dominiums when it made sense.
1960s. Some of our older buildings at the back of town [in Hoboken] — rehabs of older housing stock — had
How much of your rental portfolio did you develop yourself?
their basements flooded, so we had some issues there.
About 25 percent of our portfolio is rehabilitated stuff, but for the last 15 years, we’ve just been doing new builds. Twenty-five years ago, there was still off-the-beaten-path, under-utilized
People keep saying Jersey City is the new Williamsburg. How is that impacting rents?
residential where you could fix it up and lease it at much higher
Jersey City was like a foreign country a few years ago. No-
rents. But the days when you could buy old apartments and fix
body had any perspective on it; it was just this other state,
them up don’t really exist anymore in urban areas.
somewhere far away. I think that Brooklyn, and Williamsburg in particular, is so pricey now that there’s almost no
LANDLORD LIFE What are the challenges of being a landlord in the New York City area?
price advantage to living there. The rents in Jersey City are two-thirds of those in Williamsburg. It’s a $42 per-squarefoot market, compared to $60 to $70.
One really nice thing about New York City is that it really has one set of rules and regulations. When you get outside the city
56 July 2013 www.TheRealDeal.com
By Katherine Clarke
PHOTOGRAPH FOR THE REAL DEAL BY DEREK ZAHEDI