Jeffrey Levine

Douglaston is thinking — and developing — big.

In the last year, the real estate development and investment company completed 3Eleven, one of its largest projects to date. The property, at 311 11th Avenue in Manhattan, has reached full occupancy and amounts to more than 1 million square feet, including almost 1,000 apartments under the old 421a development tax abatement. 

“[It’s] one of the most successful projects we’ve ever built,” Douglaston founder Jeffrey Levine said. “Walking to work is the new urban experience.” 

After the pandemic, people wanted shorter commutes, said Levine. The success of the neighborhood’s commercial component — the offices at Hudson Yard — has drawn people to 3Eleven, while companies from Wells Fargo to Coach have employees who want to walk from home to work. 

To make the development a reality, Levine capitalized on the industry’s fundamentals. “One is location, location, location — and we’ve got the location — and the other is timing, timing, timing,” he said.

Keeping both location and timing in mind, Douglaston has embraced yet another duo: The company focuses on both market-
rate and affordable developments, with significant projects in each. The company in the past several years has completed around 4,000 market-rate and affordable units, and has about half that much in the pipeline, including senior housing and hospitality units.

Levine, specifically, has taken on one development that’s closer to home — literally. 

Douglaston is wrapping up a project in East New York, Brooklyn, at the Linden Houses, where Levine lived for a portion of his childhood. He’s proud of the opportunity to modernize, renovate and eliminate negativity from a New York City Housing Authority property, he said. 

As for what’s to come, New York State’s recently approved housing legislation may have something to say. “We’re hoping that we will find opportunities through the new 485-x, which is the replacement program for the expired 421a,” said Levine, “and we continually look at the possibility of converting existing, underutilized office buildings into residential.”