New York Billionaire Unmasked With Outer Borough Rentals

Outside the front lobby of the Briar Wyck apartments in Jamaica, New York, lies the Van Wyck Expressway, a 12-lane stretch of asphalt where 113,000 vehicles roar past the seven-story building every day.

The rear apartments overlook six lanes of Queens Boulevard. A 10-by-20 foot cement patio with three benches surrounded by a chain-link fence and barbed wire sits outside the back door. A 45-minute subway ride from Manhattan, only one of Briar Wyck’s 201 units is vacant: a 300 square-foot studio listed for $1,070 a month, one-third of the city’s average rent of $3,210, according to market researcher Reis Inc.