The Plan: There’s No Place Like Ruby Square

If you follow the yellow brick road — or just take the F train — you might find there’s no place like home at Ruby Square, a brand-new 614-unit, 12-story, 715,000-square-foot mixed-use development at 166-20 90th Avenue in Jamaica, Queens. 

Ruby Square officially opened July 24, after construction on the project, which began in 2022, wrapped in June. Some 185 of the building’s apartments will be set aside for residents earning between 80 and 130 percent of the area median income. The property also features 50,000 square feet of shared resident amenities, 25,000 square feet of retail and 5,000 square feet of community space.

BRP Companies worked to see Ruby Square brought to life, having won the site through a competitive request for proposals from the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation. Originally BRP wanted to begin construction in 2020, but COVID-19 delayed it. This is the fourth building in Jamaica for BRP.

 “The Jamaica community really wants to see this type of amenity-rich, large-scale development and see a lot of the amenities that other neighborhoods in New York City take for granted come to the Jamaica market,” Andrew Cohen, managing director for BRP, said. “And, when you build large residential projects like this and you hit a certain tipping point, you’ll start to see a lot of other services and retail follow.”

Ruby Square is about 20 percent leased as of Aug. 1. Residents will have access to  amenities that include private landscaped parks and rooftop terraces, a pet spa, a fitness center featuring a gym, a yoga studio, an indoor basketball court, coworking spaces and communal dining areas as well as a children’s playroom and a turfed dog run. 

“We have 50,000 square feet of amenities,” Cohen said. “We have a very large, multi-tiered interior courtyard that’s beautifully landscaped and feels like an oasis. You get some peace and quiet while living in the big city.” 

The dog spa amenity turned out to be a favorite feature among the building’s designers and developers. 

“Our head of design construction [Mary Serafy] has two dogs, and she puts these in every building we have,” Cohen said with a laugh. “We have a dog, and every time we want to wash our dog it’s a whole project — taking the bath mats out, cleaning when we’re done — so it’s nice to just bring your dog down to a washing area and not have to worry about all the cleanup.”

The apartments at Ruby Square range from studios to three-bedrooms, each featuring in-unit washers and dryers, large windows, air conditioning, ample closet space, and even roller shades with blackout features for the bedrooms. There are no differences in the features or quality of the market-rate and affordable units, Cohen said. 

“Our thesis is to build amenity-rich communities along transit hubs with reasonable distance to employment centers,” he said. The idea behind these homes, he said, is to make them an “environment that you wouldn’t think of when thinking of living in a big city.”