MDG Design + Construction

MDG Design + Construction is a New York affordable housing developer, general contractor and property manager based in Williston Park on Long Island. The firm built its practice around occupied rehabilitation, the hardest version of residential work: replacing windows, roofs, elevators and heating systems in buildings where every apartment stays tenanted through the job. MDG is general contractor on the $272.6 million PACT rehabilitation of Metro North Plaza and the Gaylord White Houses in East Harlem, 523 NYCHA apartments across four buildings, both of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its portfolio spans new construction and preservation of low-income and mixed-income housing across New York City and Long Island, usually financed through tax credits, bond deals and RAD conversions.

MDG was formed in 1988 by two principals with a specific aim: affordable housing that low-income New Yorkers would be proud to call home. Nearly four decades on, the firm describes that same people-first philosophy as still guiding the work, whether that means creating homeownership opportunities or rescuing distressed buildings.

Scale here is deliberate rather than large. Through its affiliated companies MDG employs over 70 people across asset management, accounting, development and construction – four functions kept in-house that many developers split across outside partners. On complex multi-site redevelopment that combination is what makes the work manageable: the people advising on financing sit in the same organisation as the ones running the job.

Hiring is part of the model, not an afterthought. MDG hires locally in the neighbourhoods where it builds, provides training and job opportunities there, and describes itself as a leader in engaging MWBE firms across its projects. Staff are treated the same way – the firm’s language is that it treats its people like family.

Design and construction is led by principal Nicola DeAcetis, AIA. The company’s Vital Brookdale development has drawn award recognition that MDG highlights on its own site.

Offices: 170 Froehlich Farm Blvd, Woodbury, NY 11797, (631) 364-1778.