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The Empress of Housing
With vast industry knowledge, boundless energy, and a tough-as-nails persona, Rella Fogliano is succeeding in the high-stakes world of local real estate development. By Elaine Pofeldt
signing the existing office space on the first floor. Her company is also developing The Modern, an 11-story, $30 million affordable-housing/retail complex that broke ground in 2015 at 130 Mount Vernon Avenue in Mount Vernon. It has a target completion date of December 2016.
Fogliano also has put down stakes in the Bronx and Manhattan. In the former, MacQuesten has built com- plexes such as Palmer Court Homes, a 135-unit middle-income garden apartment, while Manhattan has the Tony Mendez Apartments, a proj- ect that encompasses two six-story buildings with 130 affordable units at
“I pride myself on giving a fast ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ We can’t really waste time in this business. Time can be your worst enemy.”
116th and 117th Streets. Her two com- panies work in tandem on financing, designing, and construction manage- ment of both multi-family and com- mercial properties.
Fogliano isn’t one to dally when she sees a good opportunity and is known for making rapid-fire decisions.
“I pride myself on giving a fast ‘yes’ or ‘no,’” she says. “I don’t usu- ally sit on the fence, and I usually don’t regret having said ‘no’ or ‘yes’ quickly. We can’t really waste time in this business. Time can be your worst enemy.”
She has used her fast-on-her-feet descision making skills to success- fully navigate the complex transac- tions involved in the affordable hous- ing sector, where developers must be both politically savvy and knowl- edgeable about relevant tax credits.
Growing Up in the Business
Fogliano, 55, learned the unwrit- ten rules of the business early. From the time she was a 6-year-old grow- ing up in the Baychester section of the Bronx, she often tagged along with her father, general contractor
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Photographs by Michael Polito
Ask Pelham-based real estate developer Rella Fogliano what a typical day is like for her in the notoriously tough real estate development in- dustry, and she’ll tell you in her straight-shooting style: “I don’t go to work every day. I go to war.”
But it’s clear that the high- energy entrepreneur doesn’t flinch from maneuvering her team across the battlefield. A blond dynamo, Fogliano is the force behind a number
of well-known buildings in the New York Metro area, as founder of two related companies, MacQuesten Development LLC and MacQuesten Construction Management, which employ 15 people.
You’ve probably driven past some of her local projects. Those in West- chester include the firm’s corporate headquarters at 438 Fifth Avenue, a three-story, 10,000-square-foot space in Pelham, which her team moved into in 2013 after gutting and rede-
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