Developer Paid $95 Million for Long Island City Site
The acquisition by Montgomery Street Partners clears the way for a 495-unit project designed to avoid wage mandates.
Updated on Sept. 18, 2026 in Construction
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Montgomery Street Partners purchased an 80,000-square-foot site in Long Island City for $95 million in September 2026. The developer plans to split a 495-unit residential project into five separate buildings to bypass specific wage requirements.
Why it matters
By capping unit counts at 99 per building, the developer avoids triggering a $40 wage floor mandated by the 485x tax abatement program for larger developments. This strategy illustrates how firms are navigating complex labor-related regulatory hurdles to maintain project margins.
The $95 million acquisition price reflects $1,188 per square foot for the site, which formerly housed a New York Blood Center location. Developers are segmenting the 495-unit project into five 99-unit buildings to stay just below the threshold for the $40 wage floor.
The players
Montgomery Street Partners
A real estate investment firm that manages land acquisition and development projects.
JCS Realty Group
A residential developer focused on multi-family project execution and site management.
JFA Architects & Engineers
An architecture firm led by Joseph Frankl that specializes in large-scale urban development design.
The details
JCS Realty Group is leading the development at 10-01 45th Road, utilizing a design that clusters five distinct buildings on the site. By ensuring each building remains under the 100-unit limit, the developer exempts the project from the 485x tax abatement's $40 wage floor requirement. The site plan includes ground-floor retail, bicycle storage, and outdoor amenities designed by JFA Architects & Engineers.
Timeline
September 2026: JCS Realty Group filed development plans for the residential project.
Market Landscape
This development follows a pattern of builders segmenting projects to avoid the 485x tax abatement wage floor. By keeping unit counts below the 100-unit mandate, firms are actively tailoring building footprints to bypass regulatory costs that have become industry-standard hurdles.
Operators in the New York City market should evaluate whether splitting residential sites into smaller building increments offers a viable path to avoid the 485x wage floor. Future procurement and labor contracting should be structured to account for the specific unit thresholds that trigger these mandates.
The takeaway
Developers are increasingly utilizing building-count thresholds as a primary lever to manage labor costs. Review your current pipeline against the 485x unit-count triggers to determine if minor design adjustments could mitigate significant wage-floor liabilities.
Further reading
For broader trends in local residential projects, see Construction.
Source note: This article includes information reported by The Real Deal New York.
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