Boricua Village Eyes End of 2009 Completion

-- 'Economic Catalyst' Transforming Melrose Section of The Bronx --

NEW YORK, Feb. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Atlantic Development Group's
Boricua Village project is quickly closing in on its year-end 2009 completion
date. Work on the development, which includes the flagship campus of Boricua
College, may not be totally finished but it has already had a positive impact
on the Melrose section of the South Bronx by transforming it into a hub of
economic activity.

Each day, a diverse workforce of more than 200 skilled tradesmen and laborers
can be found working on the development. These employees earn competitive
wages, work in one of the safest construction sites in the Bronx and serve as
an economic stimulus for local businesses. Additionally, twenty-five percent
of the overall construction contracts that have been awarded for this
ambitious development have gone to Bronx-based businesses.

But that is only the beginning. Once completed, Boricua Village will employ
100 full and part-time employees in maintenance, retail sales and management.
Boricua College will be home to 100 full-time faculty, 100 part-time faculty
and 140 administrators and other staff. It is estimated that the College will
generate nearly $15 million in additional revenue for the Melrose area.

Boricua Village is one of the largest real estate development projects to be
built in the Bronx. Located on 4.5 acres of land bordered by Third Avenue on
the east, Washington Avenue on the west, 161 Street on the south and 163
Street on the north, the state-of-the-art project includes a
120,000-square-foot, 14-story-high "vertical campus" for Boricua College. The
building will be surrounded by a plaza and amphitheatre, 50,000 square feet of
retail space, 60,000 square feet of underground parking and seven residential
buildings with approximately 700 units of affordable and middle-income
housing.

Boricua Village is a truly collaborative effort between Atlantic Development
Group and several elected officials from the Bronx who were eager to bring
Boricua's small class sizes and commitment to community-based education to the
borough. But finding partners to help plan and build the new campus was
difficult and at one point, Boricua College President Dr. Victor Alicea admits
that he considered abandoning the project entirely.

"We couldn't get anyone to help," he said. When a friend suggested he meet
with Peter Fine and Marc Altheim of Atlantic Development Group, Dr. Alicea
agreed. The men, Dr. Alicea says now, "are kindred spirits. I think that
Peter is an educator at heart."

A social worker by training, Fine believed in the project and along with
Altheim, jumped right in to make it a reality.

Fine and Altheim founded Atlantic Development Group in 1995 with just two
employees. Today the company employs more than 250 people throughout New York
City and has offices in Manhattan and The Bronx. A pioneer in affordable
housing, the company now develops office, retail, residential and educational
facilities. In the past five years, Atlantic Development Group has financed
and developed in excess of $1.5 billion worth of real estate in New York City,
much of it in The Bronx.

Fine, the son of a New York City cab driver, grew up in public housing in
Queens and later became a social worker. Under his leadership, Atlantic has
successfully developed more than 6,500 units of housing in 60 different
developments, most of it affordable and in The Bronx. Before founding
Atlantic Development Group, Fine developed housing for persons with special
needs including residential care facilities for elderly persons, persons with
AIDS, and the mentally ill.

Altheim manages Atlantic Development Group's day-to-day operations. He was a
key manager and eventually CEO of the Housing Enterprise for the Less
Privileged (HELP) in New York City, where he helped provide affordable housing
and social services to formerly homeless New Yorkers.

Like New York itself, Atlantic embraces the principles of optimism, enthusiasm
and accountability and considers them to be fundamental to the company's
success.

SOURCE Atlantic Development Group

Richard Mulieri, richard@themarino.org, or Parke Chapman, parke@themarino.org,
both for the Atlantic Development Group, +1-212-889-0808