Rendering of Sky View Parc

[Update: 11:42 a.m.] Two big-box retailers are set to open their doors this week at Flushing’s new Sky View Parc complex. A new 180,000-square-foot Target will open to the public tomorrow morning at 8 a.m., a spokesperson for the retailer confirmed to [more]

The 106-year-old development firm struggles with one of the largest projects in NYC, but draws on its expertise in surviving recessions

Joshua Muss, president of Muss Development

From the May issue: It’s hard enough to sell an apartment these days in Manhattan. Try selling 448 of them in Queens — while trying to lease out 800,000 square feet of virgin retail space at the same time. That’s the challenge facing Muss Development, the 106-year-old, family-owned real estate company that usually does its own building, sales and management. Sky View Parc, the developer’s $1 billion, three-tower project in Flushing, has the dubious distinction of being one of the city’s largest mixed-used projects under construction during one of the worst real estate climates in generations. Located a couple blocks west of downtown Flushing’s epicenter on a 14-acre plot Muss purchased from Con Edison in 1983, the 3.3 million-square-foot venture seemed ambitious even back in the heady pre-crash days of early 2007. But with 421-a and other tax abatements as well as a city rezoning of the area, the groundbreaking seemed propitiously timed. And it provided Muss with a signature project that would transform the neighborhood.

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Toby Klein of Muss Development in front of a model of Sky View Parc, a massive mixed-use development in Flushing.

From the January issue: In the incredibly dense neighborhood of Flushing in northeast Queens, a new crop of luxury condos has quietly sprouted.
Unlike other parts of the city, where developments conceived during
the boom have been converted to rentals, these new condos remain sales
developments. And they seem to be holding up better than other parts of
the borough, thanks, in part, to demand from a vibrant local Asian
community and recession-friendly prices. Although upscale condos still remain a fraction of Flushing’s
housing stock, new developments such as Sky View Parc, Residence 8, and
the Sequoia are slowly starting to reshape the neighborhood, the last
stop on the number 7 subway line.