NEW YORK | 71-12 Park Avenue | FT | 13 FLOORS

[chris08876]

David Marx plans towers at Queens site he bought from his own company

Weeks after announcing the sale of a 2.4-acre eastern Queens development site to… himself, MDG Real Estate’s David Marx has filed plans for what would be the borough’s tallest building outside of Long Island City.

Plans prefiled with the Department of Buildings on Tuesday call for a 400-foot-tall structure consisting of “two residential towers, 37 stories each” with four floors of underground parking. The 717,000-square-foot complex with an address of 71-12 Park Avenue will include 488 apartments.

Marx did not respond to a request for comment.

MDG’s Israeli bondholders voted in May to approve an “exceptional” transaction in which the firm’s British Virgin Islands-registered bond-issuing holding company would sell two parcels of vacant land to Marx himself.

Series B bondholders approved the deal with 79.51 percent of votes cast in favor, while Series C bondholders approved it with 96.12 percent of the vote, according to Tel Aviv Stock Exchange filings.

On Aug. 4, MDG announced that the sale had been completed, but New York City property records do not yet show any transfer of real property.

The new plans represent a stark contrast to MDG’s disclosures from earlier this year, according to which the “owner and the board of directors have no desire to develop said real estate at this time” due to a lack of “the economic capacity to develop real estate of this order of magnitude.”

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TRD

[Mulan]

https://newyorkyimby.com/2024/10/50-stor...-avenue-in-kew-gardens-hills-queens.html

[Busy Bee]

Vigerous debate over at NYY with some valid arguments regarding this developments isolation from the subway and planned parking spaces. Still hope it happens. Plus its updated design looks a million times better than the previous rendering.

[Crawford]

Wow, these will be some major towers for Central Queens. Will be extremely prominent towers, and hopefully a new highrise cluster.

Kew Garden Hills is very Orthodox Jewish, with a big Israeli population. Likely the biggest Israeli presence in North America. I assume these towers will serve this population.

The neighborhood isn't on the subway, but there is very heavy bus service to the Queens Blvd and Flushing lines. Also the Orthodox have their own connecting bus system.

[NYguy]

Yeah, this one caught me by surprise. More than twice the height of the various towers going up in Jamaica. Veru surprising.

[chris08876]

NY surprises. Maybe foreshadowing of bigger things to come for the node.

[chris08876]

Merged threads. We had an older thread for this parcel.

[chris08876]

[NYguy]

[NYguy]

https://queenseagle.com/all/2024/10/11/a...ardens-hills-a-developer-wants-to-try-it

A skyscraper in Kew Gardens Hills? A developer wants to try it


By Ryan Schwach
October 11, 2024

A major developer has plans to build two nearly 50-story towers in the middle of a residential neighborhood in Central Queens – but locals want no part of it.

Marx Development Group aims to construct a two-tower complex, which will be as high as 47-stories – or 572-feet tall – between Parsons Boulevard and Park Avenue in the generally low-density, suburban-eque community of Kew Gardens Hills.

While the project is still missing some needed permits, according to Department of Buildings documents, the dual-tower skyscraper is an as-of-right project and can be constructed without a potentially lengthy rezoning process.

However, locals and elected officials in the neighborhood nonetheless want the project halted.

DCP said that the plans, as they were outlined as of Thursday, would not require the developer to undergo any kind of rezoning process, a potentially lengthy procedure that would require approval from the local community board, borough president and City Council.

The lot has long been owned by MDG subsidiary Atria Builders LLC, which is headed by CEO David Marx, and the company has been working to file permits for the building since 2019.

Currently, according to the Department of Buildings, the tower’s construction is not fully approved, and is missing a few documents. Mainly, the application is missing what is called a zoning diagram, a document that proves the builders plan to use the building solely for its allowed zoning use – in this case, residential use.

However, the developer has approved permits to do preliminary ground work at the site, which is currently ongoing.

But as work began on the lot, so too did local opposition.

Negative community response to the building began to pick up when housing outlet New York YIMBY published an article on Oct. 2, reporting that the owners are beginning the development process.

New York YIMBY also reported that the structure would bring 800 units over the property’s 1.1 million square feet, and around 27,000 square feet for community facility space.

“It will be a disaster,” said Sorolle Idels, a local Jewish leader and community board member. “It's a congested area, making it unbelievably more congested…This is a big fat mess.”

Idels said that even though the developers were not required to come before the community board to pitch the project, she believes they should have at least given them a heads up giving the project’s size and scale.

“This absolutely went under the radar with no input from the community board or the community,” she said. “No one discussed it with anybody, and that's not right. How do you build a skyscraper and not get the community input?”

City Councilmember Jim Gennaro said that while the project is still in its preliminary stages, he wants to work with the developer to make sure community concerns are addressed.

“My job is to bring the community and the developer together to work out common sense accommodations, common sense mitigations, work on people's concerns and expect some consideration and some acquiescence to the community's concern,” Gennaro told the Eagle.

“I think it's in the developer's best interest to be neighborly and be attentive to community concerns,” he added. “Nothing has been approved by the DOB as of this date, but we're not going to wait. We're going to get out there and we're going to mix it up.”

According to DOB records, neighbors are already complaining about the limited work the developers are doing now at the site.

Going back to April, there have been 13 complaints, many about the construction causing the shaking of neighboring homes.

“Excavation is causing the entire building to shake like an earthquake,” a complaint filed in September said. “In our apartment we feel shaking, pictures are falling off the wall and cracks are appearing around the windows, air conditioning and walls.”

One recent complaint – related to a safety manager not being on site – led to a stop work order at the site that lasted six days.

All but one of the complaints are considered resolved by DOB.

[chris08876]

This one is rising. Very under the radar...

= = = =


Credit: yesinmybackyard

[BuildThemTaller]

Amazing! I'd love to see more of these rise throughout the outer boroughs.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by chris08876

This one is rising. Very under the radar...

It really is, I had already forgotten about it.

[chris08876]

Credit: yesinmybackyard

[chris08876]

Credit: yesinmybackyard

[NYguy]

This has been very under the radar.

[chris08876]

EB-5 was updated: https://ny-eb5.com/portfolio/utopia-living-residential-project/

Slight revision from 47 to 42 floors for one of the towers. The other, is 50 floors.

= = = =

[NYguy]

https://nypost.com/2026/05/26/real-estat...yscraper-in-queens-just-got-cut-in-half/

Here’s why an ambitious skyscraper in Queens just got cut in half





By Mary K. Jacob
May 26, 2026

For years, developers pitched it as the project that would finally drag Central Queens into the skyscraper era. Now it barely rises above the surrounding rooftops.

A controversial proposal for two soaring residential towers in Kew Gardens Hills has been dramatically scaled back after years of neighborhood backlash, ballooning construction costs and growing pressure surrounding the project’s financing structure.

Marx Development Center’s planned development at 71-12 Park Ave., known as Utopia Living, was originally envisioned as a pair of towers reaching 50 and 42 stories tall. Early plans called for roughly 1.28 million square feet, 850 apartments, luxury-style amenities, landscaped plazas, executive office space and private shuttle service to nearby subway stations.

The latest redesign unveiled this month looks nothing like the original pitch.

Instead of skyline-defining towers, the project has been reduced to a single 13-story residential building totaling roughly 784,000 square feet with about 800 rental units.

The apartment count barely changed, but the ambition did.

The downsizing underscores the brutal financial reality now reshaping major development projects across New York City, where developers are increasingly abandoning glass supertowers in favor of cheaper, lower-rise construction that is faster and less risky to build.

High-rise towers require deeper foundations, more complex structural systems, larger elevator cores, sophisticated fire suppression systems and significantly more steel and concrete than mid-rise buildings. Research from the Brookings Institution has found that high-rise concrete construction can cost substantially more per square foot than mid-rise structures.

To many locals, the towers appeared to materialize without meaningful input.

“This absolutely went under the radar with no input from the community board or the community,” Idels said. “No one discussed it with anybody, and that’s not right. How do you build a skyscraper and not get the community input?”

The proposed towers would have risen roughly 572 feet between Parsons Boulevard and Park Avenue, towering above nearby two- and three-story buildings and directly adjacent to an assisted living facility, office buildings and the NYPD’s 107th Precinct.

[NYguy]

https://queenseagle.com/all/2026/6/1/loc...ens-hills-skyscraper-project-cut-in-half

Locals breathe sigh of relief after Kew Gardens Hills skyscraper project cut in half


By Ryan Schwach
June 01, 2026

A controversial skyscraper proposed for a quiet corner of Kew Gardens Hills is no more, much to the relief of local officials.

Originally proposed as a massive two-tower skyscraper project, Utopia Living on Park Avenue in the suburban Queens enclave will now be half the size of what was originally pitched by private developer, Marx Development Group.

When the Eagle first reported about the proposal in October 2024, the plan was to build two cloud-scraping towers 50- and 42-stories high, making it significantly taller than all other buildings in the neighborhood. At the time, Kew Gardens Hills locals wanted no part in a Manhattan-style building going up in their community.

Now the project, which is being constructed by Marx Development Group subsidiary Manhattan Regional Center, will be a 13-story, 784,000-square-foot structure with around 800 rental units.

Manhattan Regional Center did not respond to questions about why the change was made.

Nonetheless, locals this week took a sigh of relief after learning the skyscraper was no more.

“I am pleased that the developers heard the community’s concerns and voluntarily chose to make this development shorter, dramatically reducing the height while maintaining the same number of units,” said local City Councilmember Jim Gennaro. “This version of the project is much better suited for the character of our neighborhood. I look forward to welcoming this new and badly-needed high-quality housing to our neighborhood.”

Assemblymember Sam Berger, whose office is just around the corner from the construction site, agreed with his city colleague.

However, the state elected said he still wanted the community to have some input on whatever ultimately goes up at the site, even though the developer owns the site and does not need to go through the city’s land use review process in order to build there.

“While land use and development are city matters, communities should always have a meaningful voice in projects of this scale,” he said in a statement. “With this proposal appearing to be moving as of right without a full ULURP process, Kew Gardens Hills needs a full review of the impact on schools, roads, transportation, infrastructure and affordability. We must also ensure union labor is used throughout the project, including the many proud Local 3 families that live across the street and who helped build this community.”

[Busy Bee]

People are so stupid.