RMS Construction has found a symbiotic model for development by pairing with community organizations in danger of failing in Stamford.
“In these relationships it really is a win-win,” said Randy Salvatore, founder and president of RMS Construction. “You”™re helping find a new way to make what someone is doing work.” The company was mostly a residential developer but is gaining steam in a wider variety of projects in past years.
RMS began a relationship with the Stamford YMCA that eventually enabled the reopening of the community program after two and a half years. RMS purchased the property and in an under used wing and upper floors has since built a boutique hotel, Hotel Zero Degrees. Since its spring opening it has become a prime location for visiting business guests whether from the emerging television and sound studios or the major trading floors of UBS and RBS.
Newest project: “St. Andrew”™s Apartments”
RMS”™s newest unique project has now broken ground along Washington Boulevard. RMS has entered into a joint venture with the Stamford-based private real estate investment fund sponsor, RiverOak Investment Corp., to construct apartments on land between St. Andrew”™s Episcopal Church and University of Connecticut Stamford on Washington Boulevard in Stamford. The land was previously the site of the dilapidated rectory of the church. Saint Andrew’s is a historic Anglo-Catholic parish in Stamford, a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut, and a part of the global Anglican Communion.
The currently unnamed project is being loosely referred to as the “St. Andrews Apartments.” The project is a four?story, 94?unit, fully permitted apartment building with a total capitalization of more than $15 million.
The apartments represent the third investment that RiverOak has made with RMS Construction. The previous two projects were 170 condominium units on Camp Avenue, and 36 condominium units with first floor office space on the Norwalk River in Norwalk.
The Rev. Richard Alton, the presiding priest at St. Andrew”™s, was approached by Salvatore and RMS Construction over two years ago when the church had been left by a previous investor who planned to buy the land and build a high-rise. The investor left the project in fall 2008 when the market collapsed.
Project keeps parish afloat
Salvatore sat down with the parish and devised the current plan.
“This project is what has been allowing this parish to operate and stay afloat,” Alton said. “We are very fortunate to have a company like RMS on the same page as us and genuinely interested in our longevity.”
The church has been receiving payments of between $20,000 and $25,000 a month from RMS, as part of the organizations”™ working-relationship.
According to Alton under the lease-purchase agreement, the church will be able to sell the land to Salvatore after his apartment building reaches 85 percent occupancy; with a sale price of a percentage of the property”™s fair market value, including the new building. The church estimates it will receive $850,000 from RMS Construction as that sum.
Alton said the church plans to use that money to build an education facility and conference space.
Though the project was supported by the parish and its parishioners, it was contested in state Superior Court by the preservationist group, Save Old Stamford.
“Here we get to preserve this beautiful old church and create these 94 units where people are going to live, work, eat and create community,” Salvatore said. “We”™re well under construction. We”™ll be done around March.”
Salvatore said the rental unit will have hardwood flooring, a modern feel and with stainless steel countertops, a building cappuccino bar and a rooftop lounge.
“We”™re building a product for the market,” Salvatore said. “That”™s the advantage to being entrepreneurial; I”™m not taking out the book.”
The 94 unit complex will also connect Washington Boulevard and Franklin Street as well as offer direct access to University of Connecticut Stamford where the college is beginning its new MBA program.
“It”™s exciting to be part of this whole thing,” said Salvatore.
