We are placemakers, adept at structured real estate finance, who guide complex transit-oriented developments through design, permitting, and the construction capital markets. We help develop mixed-use projects on the sites other people walk past: waterfronts, rail yards, and obsolete structures on blocks that need a plan before they need a building.
Approach
The mean high water line is where the tide reaches land; its precise location shifts and is tracked on a daily basis. Our projects start there, at the nexus of market tides and the fixed requirements of a successful development. We take complicated projects and help them float.
Feasibility
Nearly twenty years of high-profile acquisitions in New York. We service off-market projects, along with the strategic redevelopment of existing family office portfolios.
Design Development
Zoning, environmental review, and design run together with a focused, integrated team. We manage entitlements hands-on, working directly with architects, engineers, and land-use counsel to value-engineer results-driven decisions from inception.
Capital Markets
Structured finance and capital markets execution across debt and equity. We manage the full acquisition and construction capital stack, including AIA-directed construction requisitions, serving as Owner's Representative or as an embedded development resource on a project basis.
Projects
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Brooklyn Yards
Borough Park, BrooklynA 14-building master-planned community built on a platform over a two-plus-acre active railway, the future route of the Interborough Express. The first overbuild of its kind in Brooklyn, it required a rezoning and large-scale general development special permits, approved by the City Council in 2024. Final coordination with the MTA is underway, which will clear the path for principal design and permitting. Recent successful recapitalization efforts have secured the capital required to complete Phase 1 of this multiphase project.
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Astoria Cove
Astoria, QueensMulti-phase master plan for roughly nine acres of East River waterfront. Phase I, financed with a $300 million construction loan and $100 million of GP equity, delivers 731 rental residences across a 26-story tower and three mid-rise buildings with ground-floor retail, parking, and a new public waterfront promenade. The first two buildings, totaling 246 units, have been completed and stabilized.
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400 Mother Gaston Boulevard
Brownsville, BrooklynA 13-story mixed-use building of approximately 87,000 square feet with 62 rental residences, commercial space, community facilities, an enclosed parking garage, and a range of outdoor recreational spaces.
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White Plains Linen Campus
Peekskill, New YorkRedevelopment of the former White Plains Linen complex on Highland Avenue and North Division Street, a cluster of vacant industrial buildings a short walk from the Peekskill Metro-North station.
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The Drifter Hotel
New Orleans, LouisianaRedevelopment of a 1956 motor lodge on Tulane Avenue into a 20-room boutique hotel built around its original pool, with a bar and courtyard that became a Mid-City gathering place.
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Hotel Saint Vincent
New Orleans, LouisianaAdaptive reuse of a historic asylum in the Lower Garden District as a 75-room luxury hotel. The Saint Vincent is a consistent award winner, with recognition from Travel + Leisure, a Michelin Key, Architectural Digest, and the Associated Builders and Contractors National Excellence in Construction Award for the nation's top historic restoration. A $60 million redevelopment.
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1832 Fulton Street
Bedford-Stuyvesant, BrooklynA 213-unit rental development rising on the former surface parking lot of the Brooklyn Gardens nursing home. The project was made possible through a programmatic partnership between a skilled nursing operator and a private family office, structured as an Opportunity Zone Fund.
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1864 Fulton Street
Bedford-Stuyvesant, BrooklynEleven-story residential building of roughly 141,000 square feet with 84 mixed-income rental residences, developed in tandem with 1832 Fulton Street.
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50 Sackman Street
Broadway Junction, BrooklynGround-up mixed-use building of roughly 100,000 square feet with 120 rental residences, ground-floor retail, enclosed parking, and resident amenities. Made possible through the use of the since-discontinued 421-a tax abatement.
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517–519 Saratoga Avenue
Brownsville, BrooklynAn 18-unit residential development across two adjacent buildings, structured as separate lots to eliminate the requirement for on-site parking.
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187 Kent Avenue
Williamsburg, BrooklynSeven-story ground-up mixed-use building with 96 rental residences and 35,000 square feet of retail, one block from Domino Park.
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280 Meeker Avenue
East Williamsburg, BrooklynEight-story, 69-unit residential building. A challenging, irregularly shaped lot required a design-driven solution for a difficult site.
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31 Brooklyn Avenue
Crown Heights, BrooklynSix-story, 49-unit ground-up rental building.
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119–123 Kent Avenue
Williamsburg, BrooklynRepositioning of three contiguous pre-war buildings at the corner of North 7th Street. Creative design and filing strategies preserved the existing permits through a PAA, enabling an efficient program and layout redesign without losing forward momentum on the development.
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125 Greenwich Street
Financial District, ManhattanA 912-foot, 462,000-square-foot residential tower designed by Rafael Viñoly, holding 273 condominium residences beneath a three-floor, 15,000-square-foot amenity triplex at the crown with a 50-foot pool and spa. This development was made possible through the preservation of an expiring tax abatement, along with the acquisition of additional air rights from a landmarked neighbor.
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565 Broome SoHo
SoHo, ManhattanTwin 30-story glass towers on Broome Street at the edge of SoHo, Renzo Piano Building Workshop's first residential building in New York, with 115 condominium residences totaling more than 300,000 square feet. This project was made possible by assemblage, air rights acquisition, a land swap, and easement extinguishment.
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239 Tenth Avenue — The Getty
High Line, West Chelsea, ManhattanTwelve-story condominium on the former Getty gas station site at 24th Street and Tenth Avenue, directly on the High Line. Six bespoke residences and private gallery spaces designed by Peter Marino Architect. This ultra-luxury project was made possible by the assemblage of High Line Transfer Corridor air rights, which helped blend down a record-breaking acquisition price per square foot.
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391 Broadway
Tribeca, ManhattanConversion of a 1915 cast-iron loft building in the Tribeca East Historic District into full-floor condominium residences and a duplex penthouse above ground-floor retail. This completed project was made possible by the addition of internal mezzanines and a rooftop addition to make use of excess FAR within the existing building envelope.
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2460 Broadway
Upper West Side, ManhattanRetail co-op at the base of the De Soto, on the corner of 91st Street: 8,600 square feet across the ground floor and lower level with 93 feet of Broadway frontage. Repositioned from a vacant former bank branch, leased up and stabilized with multiple national, credit-rated tenants.
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175 West 10th Street
West Village, ManhattanA 15,000-square-foot, seven-story condominium of five full-floor residences with direct elevator entry and 85 feet of retail frontage on Seventh Avenue South. The odd triangular lot is a remnant of the 1919 avenue extension cut through the West Village. Winner of a 2019 Brick in Architecture Award, this development was made possible by the acquisition of adjacent air rights and the buyout of a long-term retail lease.
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117-02 Guy R. Brewer Boulevard
South Jamaica, QueensAn 8,885-square-foot build-to-suit for credit-rated tenants. Made possible through assemblage and a creative reapportionment and design that eliminated the need for on-site parking.
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83 Spring Street
SoHo, ManhattanRedevelopment and condominium conversion of a historic cast-iron loft building in SoHo. Credit-rated national retail tenancy since conversion, with an exit to an institutional REIT.
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225 East 82nd Street
Upper East Side, ManhattanSix-story, 27-unit elevator rental building between Second and Third Avenues. Value was realized through the redevelopment of the free-market building and its repositioning as furnished rentals.
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469 Columbus Avenue
Upper West Side, ManhattanFive-story, 8,000-square-foot building with ground-floor retail within the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District. Thirteen residences above a Columbus Avenue storefront; this redevelopment was made possible by the successful execution of a vacancy strategy and the repositioning of undervalued avenue retail.
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25 Pierrepont Street
Brooklyn Heights, BrooklynAn 1856 brownstone at the corner of Willow Street in Brooklyn Heights, the city's first designated historic district and Brooklyn's most expensive brownstone neighborhood: a townhouse on Columbia Heights sold for $24.5 million in 2026, roughly $3,700 per square foot and a borough record. One block from the Promenade, these thirteen residences across five floors were renovated unit by unit to modernize kitchens and baths while keeping original moldings, mantels, and proportions. A creative subdivision allowed for the development and sale of the adjacent 152 Willow Street as a single-family home.
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138 West 19th Street
Chelsea, ManhattanModern 19 is a collection of five floor-through homes in Chelsea. The striking facade juxtaposes dark metal and clear glass, creating an ethereal, sculptural grid. The project succeeded through a creative enlargement of an existing building, considerably shortening the development timeline and delivering an outsized return to capital.
Team
Mean High Water is led by development professionals with over twenty years of capital markets, development, and project management experience in the Greater New York City Metropolitan Area. Around that core is a working team of skilled practitioners assembled for each project: thought leaders in architecture, engineering, and construction; licensed expeditors who carry filings and approvals through the relevant agencies; and PMP-certified project managers who run schedule, budget, and coordination from entitlement through delivery.
We keep the team deliberately small and assign our experienced specialists based on the needs of the project, so partners and lenders are in capable hands.
Partners
Design Partners
- Josef Frankl Associates
- Sam Wieder Associates
- Fogarty Finger
- Studio V Architecture
- Ken Smith Workshop
- Peter Marino Architect
- Renzo Piano Building Workshop
- Daniel Goldner Architects
- Tzvi Blau Design
- Arup
- DeSimone Consulting Engineers
- MRCE Engineers
- Hansen Becker Engineering
- EEA MEP Engineers
- Jacobs
- Design Hotels Group
Development Partners
Lender Partners
- S3 Capital
- Deutsche Bank
- Axos Bank
- The Bank of Princeton
- Popular Bank
- Nuveen / TIAA
- Bank of America
- Peapack-Gladstone Bank
- Valley Bank
- Cross River Bank
- Dwight Capital
- The Bluestone Group
- Cindat Capital Management
- U.S. Immigration Fund
- Greystone
- Baltoro Capital Management
- United Overseas Bank (UOB)
- Sculptor Capital Management
- Grasshopper Bank
- Toorak Capital Partners
- JG Funding
- Strong Entities
Bring us the site everyone else walked past.
800 Westchester Avenue
Rye, NY 10573
meanhigh.com
meanhighwater.nyc