A new housing development is in the works on a vacant lot in Ridgewood, Queens.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Increasingly prolific developer Ami Weinstock recently filed plans with the New York City Department of Buildings for a 97-unit residential project at 62-65 60th Place in Ridgewood, which will add to his growing portfolio across the borough.<\/p>\n
SEE ALSO: Colleen Wenke of Taconic Partners: 5 Questions<\/a><\/p>\n In May, Weinstock filed an application to build a 65-unit building at 245 Saint Johns Place in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and in 2025, the developer <\/a>was working on six 99-unit buildings in Jamaica, Queens.<\/p>\n Weinstock could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n The trend of projects capping off at 99 units has raised eyebrows because developers are using the 485-x tax program<\/a> without being required to pay a prevailing wage that kicks in for projects involving 100 or more units. It\u2019s also causing concern because it does little to meet the needs of the national housing shortage.<\/p>\n Near the end of 2025<\/a>, the Real Estate Board of New York<\/a> (REBNY) tracked that development of new housing in the city was on the rise, but still not hitting the goals set by Gov. Kathy Hochul and former Mayor Eric Adams.<\/p>\n There were 11,746 proposed units of housing in the third quarter of 2025, which was 162 percent higher than the historical average, but still not meeting the 12,500 units-per-quarter threshold aspired to by the city and state leaders at the time, according to REBNY.<\/p>\n REBNY contested at the time that the 485-x program\u2019s intended purpose of replacing 421-a was instead disincentivizing builders from creating the needed 500,000 units over the next decade.<\/p>\n