Haussmann Eyes 200-Plus-Unit Project in Jamaica

Haussmann Development is moving ahead with plans for a major residential project in Jamaica, Queens, taking over a stalled KD Sagamore Capital site and upping the unit count.

Josef Goodman’s firm, through a limited liability company, filed plans with the city Department of Buildings for a 14-story, 207,000-square-foot building at 159-31 90th Avenue, PincusCo reported. The GF55 Partners-designed project will hold 258 apartments, along with a church sanctuary seating 400, offices for the First Reformed Dutch Church of Jamaica and an on-site apartment for its pastor. In total, the church is getting 14,000 square feet of new worship space. The development will also build additional space for social service provider Breaking Ground.

The site has a complicated recent history. In 2019, KD Sagamore signed a 99-year ground lease with the church valued at $8.8 million, following court approval. KD Sagamore then filed plans for a 136-unit building, but never broke ground.

While a lease transfer hasn’t been publicly recorded, Haussmann says it assumed the ground lease from KD Sagamore in 2023. The firm similarly took over KD Sagamore’s Arris Grand development in Clinton Hill a few months back; in March, Haussmann scored a $49.5 million loan to refinance the nine-story, mixed-use complex with 113 apartments, the Commercial Observer reported.

The latest filing for the 90th Avenue project calls for apartments on floors two through 14, as well as amenities like a lounge, recreation room and outdoor space on the second floor. The cellar will hold church meeting rooms, management offices, bike storage for 108 bicycles and building systems. No retail is planned for the 24,000-square-foot parcel.

On its website, the developer refers to the project as “The Tabernacle.” Though the address differs slightly from project filings, the development is billed as an 11-story, all-affordable housing project.

Jamaica has been a prime Queens neighborhood for development, ranking fourth in the borough for major projects. In the past two years, it logged 1.9 million square feet of commercial and multifamily construction.

— Holden Walter-Warner