Haysha Deitsch on NYC’s Urban Residential Development

Today, major residential buildings are more popular than ever. Apartment buildings with retail ground-floor have been a part of New York City for a long time. However, it wasn't until the 70's, when residential buildings became a common sight. The emergence of new urbanism helped residential development to improve. Over the next period (the 70's -80's), residential developments were built on smaller scales and were more integrated into urban contexts. In the following decade, residential development embodied walkable urbanism, sustainable design, and smart growth initiatives. Residential real estate projects included mixtures of land combining retail, office, residential and recreation function, all under one roof. Haysha Deitsh is the founder of Beechwood Acquisitions is a real estate expert focused on residential and residential projects. He owns a diverse real estate portfolio and a number of high-profile projects that are currently under development. In this article, he will discuss the historical pattern of residential development, particularly in New York City.

As he explains, before modern zoning and land-use practices, residential was the norm in the U.S. Even though there were many buildings with commercial occupancy on the ground floor and a single residential unit above, residential projects re-emerged as a tool for urban revitalization back in the late 60's and early 70's. Since then, visionary developers like Haysha have been working on new design concepts, incorporating technological and aesthetic principles to ensure sustainability within the community. So far, the market acceptance of residential residential units is generally positive. People quickly embraced the convenience of living close to shops, in a community where neighbor interaction is nearly inevitable.

Residential arrangements encourage entrepreneurialism, ensure occupancy of space, and invest people in their communities. Deitsch has a deep understanding of the real estate landscape, which enables him to pursue complex land use opportunities. His rich experience with ground-up development, conversions, and renovations has allowed his to successfully manage the complexities of development in New York City. For the community, adding commercial function to a residential development, offers the prospect of elevating sales and property taxes, creating a compact development pattern that reduces traffic congestion and energy consumption, and is good for individual health.

Residential developments are a productive use of space that, that add vitality to urban areas. Social benefits of residential development include pedestrian friendly, social connectivity, civic amenities and public safety. From an economic point of view, the biggest benefits are shared public infrastructure, shared parking, and higher rents. He also mentioned on Twitter that the environmental benefits such as less auto-dependent, focused density and supporting transit. Drive-through restaurants, service stations, dry cleaners, and other businesses are typically prohibited since they tend to be automobile-intensive or chemical-intensive.

When it comes to multicultural urban living, Haysha often calls New York City the mecca of diversity. However, up until recently, NYC was in second place as far as racial segregation goes, and Boston was on the first place. Namely, residents from very different backgrounds weren’t often seen in the same neighborhoods. Today, Deitsch and other developers are redrawing historical color lines are through the displacement of communities of color and creating residential projects. New York’s land-use policies have spurred this phenomenon.