Chris Jiashu Xu (; born in 1967) is a Chinese real estate developer. He is the founder and president o
United Construction & Development Group
through which he developed Skyline Tower, the tallest skyscraper in

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, and in all of

New York State New York, also called New York State, is a state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and ...

outside of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

from 2019 until 2021.

Early life

Xu Jiashu was born in

Yangzhou Yangzhou is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province, East China. Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze, it borders the provincial capital Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, Yancheng to the northeast, Taizhou, Jiangsu, ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

in 1967, and immigrated to the United States together with his family at the age of 18.

Career

While seeking opportunities as a new immigrant to the United States, Xu decided to go into business. He initially banded together with several friends to perform housing-related work, and subsequently went on to become the owner of a plumbing and heating distributor in

Queens, New York Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

by age 24. After purchasing the real estate upon which his plumbing business was located, Xu was motivated to explore opportunities in real estate, and formally entered the business in 1996, bringing on board his younger brother, George Xu, in 1999. In the years that followed, the Xu brothers went on to develop, operate, and manage more than two million square feet of commercial, residential, industrial and retail space. In the 2000s, Xu served as President of the New York Chinese Business Association. The brothers, who initially built together under the moniker C&G Empire Realty, split in 2014 over differences in real estate development philosophy, and George Xu founded Century Development Group, deciding to focus on one project at a time, while Chris desired to juggle multiple development projects at United Construction & Development Group. They continue to work together on various projects, and have maintained a similar focus on luxury condominiums and hotels in areas such as the Chinese immigrant enclave of

Flushing, Queens Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial ...

, where both Chris and George have worked on similar projects, such as dueling 210-room hotels. Chris is also a managing partner of real estate private equity firm
New Land Capital
Besides the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, Chris Xu has partnered with firms in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, and

Mainland China "Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a Geopolitics, geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addit ...

to fund and develop his properties. Xu is considered one of the most active developers in Queens, having purchased two Queens-based properties valued at $103 million and $70 million in the first half of 2023 alone.

Skyline Tower

Xu built the largest skyscraper in the

New York City borough The boroughs of New York City are the five major governmental districts that comprise New York City. They are the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Each borough is coextensive with a respective county of the State of New ...

, the Skyline Tower in

Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a neighborhood within the New York City borough of Queens. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; Sunnyside to the east; and Newtown Creek, which separates Queens from Greenpoint, Brook ...

. The development site, containing approximately 780,000 buildable square feet, was purchased in 2015 from

Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services company based in New York City. The company was formed in 1998 by the merger of Citicorp, t ...

, and subsequently refinanced with a $100 million loan from

Bank of China The Bank of China (BOC; ; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Banco da China'') is a state-owned Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Beijing, Beijing, China. It is one of ...

in 2016. By mid-2018, the project had secured over half a billion dollars from lenders, which by that time had included

JP Morgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. (stylized as JPMorganChase) is an American multinational finance corporation headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. It is the largest bank in the United States, and the world's largest bank by mark ...

and a consortium of other banks. Construction on the site began in 2017 and it is projected to go on the market in 2021, with condominiums priced from $500,000 to $4 million. The building topped-out in October 2019. In July 2022, ninety buyers of units within Skyline Tower filed a complaint with the New York Attorney General that the building's success had been exaggerated to prospective buyers, citing year-end financial statements displaying only 42 percent occupancy versus the 60 percent occupancy claimed by the building's sales and marketing agent. The brokerage disputed their assertion, stating that the 60 percent figure included units under contract. The same complaint also noted delayed repairs and other construction issues, including a lack of soundproofing and incomplete punch list items.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xu, Chris, Jiashu 1967 births Living people American businesspeople in real estate Chinese businesspeople in real estate People from Yangzhou Businesspeople from Jiangsu Chinese emigrants to the United States