Creating Community in StuyTown Through Responsible Ownership

Community structures were in disrepair. Maintenance calls took two weeks to answer. Amenities were few, and resident satisfaction was low.

That was the state of the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village when Blackstone initially took ownership in 2015. We were dedicated to turning things around.

Today, StuyTown remains Blackstone’s largest residential property globally, with over 11,200 apartments in 56 buildings in Manhattan. And the property is a 180 degree change from what it used to be.

Blackstone was methodical in its approach.

We brought in best-in-class management, including building an onsite team from the ground up, Beam Living, whose motto is “Making City Life Happier”. We proactively engaged with residents to improve their living experience, and helped foster a connected and thriving community. Over the course of our ownership, we’ve invested more than $300 million in improvements across the property, and resident satisfaction has more than doubled as a result. In fact, StuyTown’s Net Promoter Score, a widely used consumer satisfaction measurement, has increased year over year, up by 266% from 15.4 to 56.4 – StuyTown’s highest score ever.

We also voluntarily preserved 5,000 units as affordable housing. Blackstone’s voluntary affordability program was positively received by leaders at all levels of government. In 2015, New York State Senator Brian Kavanagh — then the State Assembly Member for StuyTown’s district — described Blackstone’s purchase of StuyTown as a step towards “responsible ownership, with meaningful assurances of stability and long-term affordability.” U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer saluted it for preserving the property’s “middle-class values.”

  

$300M+

invested in improvements and amenities

~15%

reduction in on-site greenhouse gas emissions in multifamily residential property

~400

people employed directly

StuyTown offers us more than just a home. They have created a unique community that gives us the comfort and joys of suburbia while living in this big city.” 

STUYVESANT TOWN–PETER COOPER VILLAGE RESIDENT

Blackstone has focused on sustainability across our portfolio for over a decade, and our investment in StuyTown is no exception. In 2019, Blackstone completed the largest private multifamily rooftop solar project in the US, installing nearly 10,000 solar panels across 22 acres that approximately doubled Manhattan’s solar capacity at the time of installation. StuyTown has reduced on-site GHG emissions by approximately 15 percent since 2007 and in 2018 became the first private multifamily community in New York to be LEED Platinum-certified.

Learn more about our commitment to serving as responsible owner-operators.