Significant gender imbalance in DOB NB filings, women filed just 12% of plans: PincusCo analysis
By Atticus O’Brien Pappalardo
A large gender imbalance remains in the new development industry in New York City, with women accounting for only 12 percent of the total square feet of construction filed for in New York City since the start of 2019.
Developers filed plans with the city’s Department of Buildings calling for more than 77 million square feet of new construction between January 1, 2019 and February 28, 2021. However, just 9 million of that was filed by a woman, a PincusCo Media analysis of new building plans greater than 10,000 square feet found.
PincusCo analyzed the names of representatives on 1,082 new building plans to determine the gender most commonly associated with that name. This article is the second in a series of articles reporting on gender in the New York City real estate industry.
The gender was determined by analyzing the first names of the applicants.
PincusCo recognizes that there are instances where the name is not indicative of gender, or where the individual is non-binary and neither male nor female gender is accurate. Those instances are considered to be in the range of a margin of error and we determined the findings would still be valuable.
Similar to square feet, the number of residential units filed by men was significantly larger than the number filed by women during the same period. Of the 70,180 units planned, 87 percent were in plans filed by men, compared to 13 percent in plans filed by women.
Interestingly, in a year that saw Covid-19 hamper much of the New York City real estate world, female developers experienced less of a decline in numbers year over year than male developers, from 2019 to 2020.
As the pandemic tightened its grip around the city, causing shutdowns and construction halts, the total square feet of new construction filed, excluding plans for buildings smaller than 10,000-square-feet, fell 21 percent from the year prior, from 41 million square feet in 2019 to 32.5 million square feet in 2020.
The decline was slightly greater in projects filed by men, where there was a 22 percent drop, from 36.4 million in 2019 to 28.4 million in 2020. Meanwhile, although projects filed by women remained a minority, they didn’t experience as severe a decline due to the virus, only falling by 12 percent, from 4.6 million in 2019 to just over 4 million in 2020.
The topic of women in real estate has been widely addressed by industry publications for years. A recent PincusCo analysis of New York City property sales signatories found that of the 499 transactions greater than $5 million totaling $11.3 billion in the analysis, 85 percent of the seller signatories were men and they accounted for 90 percent of the total transacted value. Meanwhile the signatories for the buyers were 90 percent male, accounting for 87 percent of purchase value.
While there are sectors of the city’s real estate world that are led by women, such as residential brokerages, they remain vastly underrepresented throughout most of the industry, and the world of new developments is no exception.
With that being said, women filed a number of the city’s significant projects since 2019.
For example, Mary Serafy, managing director of development at BRP Companies, was responsible for three new building plans, which called for 1.16 million square feet of new construction and 1,473 dwelling units, both of which were the highest totals amongst women.
Serafy, who has been with BRP since 2007, filed plans for a 124-foot tall, 12-story, 492,987-square-foot residential building with 614 residential units at 166-20 90th Avenue in Jamaica in August of last year. Jeff Sutton’s Wharton Properties was widely reported to be involved in the project as well.
The year prior, in August of 2019, Serafy filed plans calling for a 250-foot tall, 25-story, 408,273-square-foot building with 605 dwelling units at 163-05 Archer Avenue in Jamaica. The plans were permitted earlier this year. According to the plans, the building will have multiple retail spaces on the ground floor. Amenities include a basketball court, yoga room, exercise room, children’s playroom, party rooms, and recreation spaces.
Rona Reodica, of the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, was the representative for 28 new building filings, easily the most over the span of time that was analyzed. The 28 plans combined to call for 1,021,268 square feet of new construction and 1,247 dwelling units, both of which were the second highest totals.
The largest of the 28 plans was pre-filed on August 17, 2020. The plans called for a 92-foot tall, nine-story, 189,907-square-foot mixed-use building with 184 residential units at 273 Snediker Avenue in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The plans were ultimately disapproved and the developer did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the plans.
Another of the plans, which was pre-filed on April 15, 2019, called for the construction of a 72-foot tall, seven-story, 40,271-square-foot residential building with 71 residential units at 461 Alabama Avenue in East New York. Those plans have already been permitted.
More recently, Lily Guo’s iCross Group filed plans on February 25 calling for a 74-foot tall, seven-story, 50-unit, 42,877-square-foot mixed-use building at 28-08 38th Avenue in Long Island City. There will be commercial space on the first and second floors of the building, which is being designed by Angelo Ng + Anthony Ng Architects Studio, per the plans.
According to the developer’s website, demolition for the project has been completed and that completion of the new building is estimated to be the end of 2022.
Another large filing came from Judy Chang through the company Royal One Real Estate II, LLC, on February 25. The plans called for a 108-foot tall, 11-story, 82,941-square-foot building with 96 hotel rooms and 25 apartments, at 25-10 42nd Road in Long Island City, Queens. They were the fourth new building plans filed at the site since 2005. None of the previous three, two of which called for hotels, were ever completed.