After school, he took a job as a project manager for a developer in Florida and after three years - with funding from friends and family - he began to build spec homes on the side.[2] This eventually evolved into the building of townhouses, mid-rises and high-rises.[2] In the early 2000s, he returned to New York, where he built low-rise houses in the four boroughs.[2]
In a joint venture with Kevin P. Maloney's Property Markets Group, JDS completed the conversion of the Walker Tower at 212 West 18th Street in Chelsea into condominiums[3] built the 1,428 foot 111 West 57th Street in Manhattan[3][4][5] with non-union labor, unprecedented for large-scale construction in Manhattan.[4] JDS also developed The Copper (originally known as 626 First Avenue), a dual-tower residential skyscraper in the Kips Bay neighborhood of New York City, in Manhattan[6] and the 1,066 foot Brooklyn Tower, which became the tallest structure in New York City outside Manhattan.[7]
He was named to the 40 Under 40: Class of 2015 by Crain's New York.[8]