Michael Stern

Michael Stern is a real estate developer and the founder and CEO of JDS Development Group, a national real estate development, construction, and acquisition firm with offices in New York and Miami. Since founding JDS in 2002, Stern has built a portfolio spanning ground-up development, adaptive reuse, landmark restoration, luxury residential, mixed-use properties, hospitality, and branded residences.

A defining feature of Michael Stern's approach is the structure of JDS itself. The firm brings acquisition, development, and construction together under one organization, allowing its teams to treat design, engineering, cost, sequencing, and execution as interconnected parts of the same decision rather than as separate stages managed by different interests. That model is what allows JDS to underwrite projects other developers pass on, and to hold its schedule and budget on buildings with few precedents.

Much of the value Stern has created has been produced before construction begins. His work has centered on complex site assemblages, entitlements and zoning, the acquisition and transfer of air rights, landmark and preservation approvals, and negotiated public benefit agreements. This is the layer of a development where constraints are either accepted as given or worked through into additional buildable area. Repeatedly, JDS has bought sites that were considered encumbered or unworkable and unlocked capacity within them. At Walker Tower, that work produced roughly 50,000 additional square feet on an existing Art Deco tower, for penthouses that achieved record breaking sales. At the American Copper Buildings, the firm turned a constrained East River parcel into two towers where zoning had suggested something far more conventional.

JDS's best known work is 111 West 57th Street in Manhattan. Developed by JDS Development Group, the 1,428 foot residential tower is the tallest, most slender skyscraper in the world. Designed by SHoP Architects with interior architecture by Studio Sofield, the tower rises in the courtyard of Steinway Hall. This landmark building by Warren and Wetmore was restored by JDS and incorporated into the development. Assembling the site, securing the air rights, and obtaining landmark approvals were as central to the project as its engineering.

A related approach runs through Stella Tower, another Ralph Walker telephone building restored and converted for residential use, and through The Brooklyn Tower in Downtown Brooklyn. Designed by SHoP Architects and developed by JDS, The Brooklyn Tower rises from the landmark Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn and became the borough's first supertall skyscraper.

For Michael Stern, the American Copper Buildings represents a full expression of the firm's development model. JDS acquired the site of a former Con Edison power plant on Manhattan's East River in 2013 for $172 million, one of the largest development sites in Manhattan, and reimagined a parcel constrained by zoning as twin copper clad towers of 41 and 48 stories containing 761 residences and ground floor retail. The towers are joined 300 feet above the street by a three story skybridge, the first in New York City in 80 years, which carries a 75 foot lap pool, a full gym, and a resident lounge while also connecting building systems across the two towers for operating efficiency.

JDS's work in Miami pushed the portfolio into hospitality and branded residences. At 888 Brickell Avenue, JDS is developing 888 Brickell Dolce&Gabbana, a 90 story condominium and hotel tower rising 1,049 feet in the heart of Brickell, a record height for the Miami market. Nearby, Mercedes-Benz Places in Miami is Mercedes-Benz's first branded residential project in North America. Developed by JDS Development Group and designed by SHoP Architects, with interiors by Woods Bagot and landscape by Field Operations, the 67 story mixed-use development includes condominiums, office space, a hotel, and onsite parking. In Miami Beach, JDS's Monad Terrace is a waterfront residential development designed by Jean Nouvel.

Stern's experience extends across the full life of a development. His work has included acquisition and financing, entitlements and zoning, construction, restoration, complex conversions, project management, sales, leasing, and marketing. By keeping development and construction capabilities closely connected, JDS remains involved from the earliest evaluation of a property through delivery and sale.

More than two decades after founding the firm, Michael Stern continues to lead JDS Development Group as founder and CEO. JDS has delivered more than 10 million square feet of real estate representing over $10 billion in total capitalization, with approximately 7 million square feet in various stages of development nationally.