We Build Housing Where Everyone Wins
LionFox Development builds affordable and mixed-income housing in New York City.
We plan, we act, we rise, we thrive.
How We Work
We Consult
We know how housing rules work because we helped write some of them. We advise on regulations, funding, and approvals, the things that decide whether a project gets built or sits still. We have done this as a paid consultant, including on Timbale Terrace in East Harlem.
We Engage
We facilitate authentic community involvement with residents, elected officials, community-based organizations, and local businesses, fostering transparent collaboration that transforms potential opposition into genuine partnerships.
We Develop
We build. LionFox raises the financing, acquires the property, guides each project through public approvals, and oversees design and construction until the doors open. We develop mixed-income housing for New Yorkers at every income level.
We Empower
We build a resident stake into the deal, and we pay for resident services out of the operating budget instead of a grant. Residents get something to hold and services that are still there in year ten.
One45 for Harlem. Harlem, New York. Co-developer.
Who We Are
LionFox Development LLC is a New York City real estate development company, founded in 2023 by Shams DaBaron, known across the city as Da Homeless Hero.
We are co-developer of One45 in Harlem, delivering its affordable housing, and served as development consultant on Timbale Terrace in East Harlem. We bring the relationships, the policy knowledge, and the standing in the communities where we build.
- Our vision
To develop housing where everyone wins and transitional shelters where people grow.
- Our mission
Our Projects
Co-developer
Harlem, New York. Co-developer.
One45 for Harlem
1,000 apartments across three buildings at West 145th Street and Lenox Avenue, including 338 permanently affordable homes and 90 apartments for seniors. LionFox is co-developer, delivering the affordable housing. We are raising the financing, acquiring the property, and building.
The development team includes One 45 Lenox LLC, Coltown Properties, and Pointsfive. SHoP Architects is the designer.
Development consultant
East Harlem, New York. Development consultant.
Timbale Terrace
LionFox was engaged as a paid development consultant on Timbale Terrace and was recognized as a contributor to the project.
“Thirty years ago, I spent many nights curled up on a park bench across from where One45 is proposed. That park bench where I once slept is still there today, but with your vote, it can become the view from someone’s window instead of their bed.”
Shams DaBaron, testimony to the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises, May 2025
One45 for Harlem
The City Council approved One45 unanimously in July 2025 after a project on the same site had been voted down years earlier. Demolition is underway.
Meet the Founder
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Shams DaBaron is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of LionFox Development and co-developer of One45 in Harlem. He is a Trustee of Project Renewal, a Board Member of Housing Solutions of New York, and Policy Committee Chair of C.U.R.E., the Council of Urban Real Estate. He served on the 2025 New York City Charter Revision Commission, which produced the housing measures voters approved in November 2025. City & State New York named him to its 2026 Black Trailblazers list.
What he has moved
He worked with the administration to help win approval of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, the largest zoning reform in New York City in more than 60 years. He brokered the change that raised advance payments to nonprofit service providers from 25% to 50% of contract value, more than $5 billion, by putting nonprofit leaders and senior city officials in the same room and keeping them there. He also pushed for the end of the 90-day rule that kept shelter residents from applying for housing vouchers.
How he got here
Shams entered foster care as a young child, first became homeless at 10, and was permanently discharged from foster care at 12. He survived his teenage years in libraries and subway stations. During the 2020 Lucerne Hotel fight he became known as Da Homeless Hero, and the case he joined established that shelter residents can challenge a transfer before it happens. He received the New York Housing Conference Advocate of the Year award in 2021, created for that purpose and given once.
Why he builds
He started LionFox Development because advocacy can name a problem but it cannot build the answer. Housing gets built by the people at the table where it is financed, designed, and approved. He went to that table as a builder.
2021
New York Housing Conference Advocate of the Year
2026
City & State New York Black Trailblazers
OUR CORE VALUES
Dignity & Respect
Every person deserves housing that honors their humanity and contributes to their well-being and success.
Win/Win Solutions
Creating outcomes where developers, residents, and communities all benefit leads to more sustainable and successful projects.
Transparency
Open, honest communication throughout the development process builds trust and facilitates better outcomes.
Sustainability
Building for long-term community resilience and environmental responsibility ensures lasting positive impact.
Innovation
Sensible Housing is a written standard, not a slogan. Every project we build to it has a mix of incomes, a stake for residents, and services paid for as part of running the building.
In the Press
Watch · July 2025
NYC Charter Revision Commission
Commissioner Shams DaBaron on his personal journey and the urgent need for housing
Q&A · April 2022
The New Yorker
What Da Homeless Hero Makes of Eric Adams’s Policies
News · August 2024
Gothamist
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