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Third Generation Of Muss Eyes Future

Josh Muss

By Andrew Moesel

Over the last century, the Muss family has built a legacy in Queens and throughout the outer boroughs – quite literally.

Their company, Muss Development LLC, started by Isaac Muss in 1906, has grown from a small family business into one of the largest firms in New York City, constructing more than 10 million square feet of residential, commercial, industrial and retail space (and another 5 million square feet in the works).

Simple Beginnings

In many ways, their story reflects the American Dream: immigrants making successful lives and passing them on to future generations, becoming part of the country while also adding their cultural experiences to a vibrant melting pot. The company soon will complete a massive upscale waterfront development in Brighton Beach called Oceana, where 90 percent of the tenants boast Russian backgrounds. From immigrating themselves to making homes for successful decedents of their countrymen, the family seems to have come full circle.  

A contractor from Russia, Isaac Muss moved to Brooklyn near the turn of the century and started his own construction company, teaching his 11 sons the business. The company earned a reputation for building track housing as the city expanded outward around new subway lines.

In 1924, Isaac purchased a 1,000-acre farm in Bayside and turned it into a 3,000-home community just before the Great Depression. The project marked the beginning of a long and successful history between Muss Development and Queens, where the company’s offices are now located.

Modern Muss

Despite its current size, Muss development has never lost its family roots. Joshua Muss, the grandson of Isaac, joined the company in 1965 and today runs it with his own sons, Jason and Joseph. Joshua spoke to the Tribune recently about the past and future of Queens, and how his company has played a part in shaping both.

During his long career, Muss has overseen the development of 5,000 residential units and several notable borough structures, including the New York Telephone headquarters in Jamaica (1970) and Con Edison’s old offices in Forest Hills (1982). More recently, the company has constructed successful shopping centers in both Forest Hills and Jackson Heights.

Flushing Town Center is a $600 million project.

But Muss Development’s most ambitious project in Queens will happen in Flushing, where the company is currently building a 3.3 million-square-foot mixed-used development on a 14-acre former industrial site. To be called Flushing Town Center, the $600 million project will have 850,000 square feet of retail space, 1,100 residential units and 2,500 parking spaces.

Although he believes many neighborhoods in Queens are ripe with development opportunities – such as Long Island City and Jamaica – Muss has always seen Flushing as an area uniquely situated for success. Even when he lived there for a short span more than 50 years ago, he felt it had a bright future.

“Flushing always did it on its own – no subsidies, no capital improvements, no major development companies. But the weight of the population just kept pushing, and now there are major efforts toward the Flushing and College Point area,” Muss said. “It has tremendous potential because of the available land, proximity to public transportation and the airport, and its geographically central location.”

Queens has benefited over the last decade from a renewed confidence in the outer boroughs, Muss said, a movement spurred mostly by young professionals moving to Brooklyn as they were priced out of Manhattan. But as the Brooklyn market itself grew more expensive, city residents have looked to new areas in the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island.

As little as five or six years ago, Muss said there was virtually no development interest in Queens. Now it’s booming, with more building permits issued in Queens last year than in any other borough.

“New York is no longer as egocentric around Manhattan as it used to be,” Muss said. “It’s no longer an embarrassment for young professionals to admit live they live in Astoria. In fact, there’s sort of a reverse snobbery: as though anyone who can afford to live in Manhattan is obviously not one of us.”

Middle Class Preservation

But as the housing market heats up, Muss fears that rising real estate prices will alienate middle class residents from living in the boroughs. While the issue of affordable housing has made headlines in recent years, Muss saw the trend coming in the mid-90s, writing a paper on the topic in 1997 and later testifying before the City Council in 2001.

Muss built this Forest Hills tower in 1982.

As the suburbs around New York City also grow more expensive, middle class residents – office managers, secretaries, teachers, police officers – are forced to move increasingly farther away, Muss said. Combined with climbing transportation costs, more people will find it impractical to commute, leading them to work outside the City. Muss believes that if this trend continues, New York’s traditional workforce will wither and die.

He believes there are still developers willing to build mid-rise, quality housing affordable to families making between $50,000 and $150,000, but the government should encourage such projects by offering tax credits to below-market loans and freeing labor costs to be market driven.

“I feel an obligation to be a participant in trying to find the solution,” he said.

Watching the real estate market rise and ebb over the last 40 years, Muss is reluctant to make predictions about the future – for instance, whether he views the price spike as a “housing bubble.”

But with crime rates low and the economy looking up, more people will have the desire to live in New York, and fewer people will want to leave, Muss said. With its size and resources, Queens undoubtedly will remain high on the lists of many developers for years to come, he said.

“Even if things were to slow up, and I’m not saying that they will, there’s now a foot print in Queens and that will continue,” Muss aid. “People realize there’s a future here.”