For developers, 2025 appears to be a banner year as they look past federal policy uncertainty to the long-awaited good times.
“New York City is very much on the rebound,” Two Trees’ Jed Walentas said.
The state passed a revamped version of its affordable housing policy. The Federal Reserve began cutting interest rates slightly. A real estate guy was elected president. The City Council adopted City of Yes. Along with other factors, these updates helped developers ink more business than in recent memory.
Although that reprieve might not last, New York City’s 20 most active developers still filed plans to build 28 million square feet of projects across the five boroughs, according to The Real Deal’s ranking of active new building filings — up a bit from 2023.
“Anyone building a project in this envi- ronment is obviously going to be concerned about tariffs,” said Walentas, whose firm Two Trees ranked sixth. “As well as all the other inflationary policies, like immigration.”
But Walentas said he’s optimistic about development in the city, where his firm is transforming South Williamsburg with its Domino Park megaproject. Leasing has picked up at its Refinery at Domino office building, and sales are setting records at the residential portion, One Domino Square.
“A lot of people like to focus on the problems,” Walentas said. “The truth is the recovery over the last few years has been astronomical.”
Office revival
Office leasing activity, especially for top-notch office space, gained steam in 2024. Manhattan leasing volume reached the 30 million-square-foot mark for the first time since 2019.
As companies called employees back to desks, the same office projects that propelled Tishman Speyer to the top of the list last year helped the firm maintain its lead in this year’s ranking, which is based on all active projects.
Those include JPMorgan Chase’s new headquarters in Midtown at 270 Park Avenue. The 60-story skyscraper by Foster + Partners, owned by JPMorgan and developed by Tishman, is expected to be completed this year.
Tishman’s Spiral building in Hudson Yards was the second-largest active project. The 2.8 million-square-foot building is now nearly fully occupied.
Another office project helped launch Silverstein Properties to second on the list. Disney tapped Silverstein for its new Hudson Square offices, relocating the media giant from the Upper West Side.
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Multifamily moves
Meanwhile, in the residential sector, the vacancy rate for rentals fell to 1.4 percent, the lowest in 56 years, prompting promises from politicians to address the shortage. And brokers complained that anemic supply frustrated buyers, pointing to inventory as the biggest roadblock for a market comeback.
“The rental side is very, very strong,” said David Bistricer of Clipper Equity, which ranked fourth. “Rents are high, there’s less availability in the marketplace, there’s less new product coming online, so therefore the city is fully occupied.”
Clipper Equity is building a massive three-tower apartment complex in Greenpoint, a project it’s been chopping away at for more than a decade. It’s also moving ahead with its four-building redevelopment of a historic Sears building in Flatbush.
On the condo front, Naftali Group — which nabbed third — tapped the luxury market with seven active projects, including Williamsburg Wharf, the 850-unit waterfront development where the developer is erecting an “urban resort” on 3.75 acres.
Sales for the first phase launched in September, and the unfinished 89-unit condo is now more than 50 percent sold.
Across the river, Naftali was wrapping up construction on the 62-unit Upper East Side luxury condominium project at 255 East 77th Street and the 45-unit development at 211 West 84th Street, known as the Henry. A penthouse at the Robert Stern-designed project is listed for $26.9 million.
As affordable housing policy hung in the balance, some multifamily developers forged ahead. L + M Development Partners, which ranked 19th, had four active permits for multifamily developments, including a massive affordable housing project in East New York, Brooklyn, with 634 units.
Another big project in the pipeline: The firm joined the development team behind the $2 billion project Innovation QNS, uniting with BedRock Real Estate Partners, Kaufman Astoria Studios and Silverstein on the 3,200-unit Astoria development. Nearly half of the apartments will be set below market rate.
Warehouse wonder
Andrew Chung’s Innovo Property Group ranked fifth thanks to two massive projects in Long Island City. The industrial developer is nearing completion of an 842,000-square-foot, five-story warehouse at 23-30 Borden Avenue. It will have three stories of industrial space and a film studio.
Innovo, one of the city’s most prolific industrial developers, has another multi-level warehouse in the works at 28-90 Review Avenue, which will have onsite parking and 352,000 square feet of industrial space.
A rule to require a special permit for new last-mile delivery centers is nearing public review and could dampen new development. Still, the industrial sector may be a trade-war winner if more companies need manufacturing space or start stockpiling supplies.
It’s too soon to tell where tariff policies will land.
“Right now, nobody knows what’s going to happen,” Bistricer said. “But if I had to make a projection, then something will get figured out. They don’t want to hurt the overall economy. They want to improve the position of the United States.”
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