A new housing development is in the works on a vacant lot in Ridgewood, Queens. 

Increasingly prolific developer Ami Weinstock recently filed plans with the New York City Department of Buildings for a 97-unit residential project at 62-65 60th Place in Ridgewood, which will add to his growing portfolio across the borough.

In May, Weinstock filed an application to build a 65-unit building at 245 Saint Johns Place in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and in 2025, the developer was working on six 99-unit buildings in Jamaica, Queens.

Weinstock could not be reached for comment.

The trend of projects capping off at 99 units has raised eyebrows because developers are using the 485-x tax program without being required to pay a prevailing wage that kicks in for projects involving 100 or more units. It’s also causing concern because it does little to meet the needs of the national housing shortage.

Near the end of 2025, the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) tracked that development of new housing in the city was on the rise, but still not hitting the goals set by Gov. Kathy Hochul and former Mayor Eric Adams.

There were 11,746 proposed units of housing in the third quarter of 2025, which was 162 percent higher than the historical average, but still not meeting the 12,500 units-per-quarter threshold aspired to by the city and state leaders at the time, according to REBNY.

REBNY contested at the time that the 485-x program’s intended purpose of replacing 421-a was instead disincentivizing builders from creating the needed 500,000 units over the next decade.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.