OuterB on Queens Real Estate

Best phrase of the week in OuterB comments: “millionaire blight” in reference to the development around Queensboro Plaza.

QueensWest.com

has a brand new look to their site. Things are looking great and the new Forums setup makes things easier to follow than their old system. Check it out!

Wikipedia has an interesting list article on past streetcar lines in Queens. I came across it when looking for a possible way to get to the new Trader Joe’s, which opened in Queens Friday morning at 8:30. [Forest Hills 72]

Citi goes green in LIC and wins a Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. [NY Daily News]

In case you hadn’t heard… Queens West South is now Hunters Point South [Curbed]

Queens dominates the Vendy Awards. No surprise here. [NY Daily News]

ZIPSkinny lets you compare demographics between ZIP codes of your choice, based on US Census data. [ZIPSkinny]

Tenants were kicked out of 67 rent stabilized units in two Corona buildings to turn them into homeless shelters, but the method used seems to be illegal. [NY Daily News]

Cat-tastrophe at JFK Airport. [City Room]

Photo credit: Meg Cotner 

Forest Hills Gardens - “a success in community planning“. [NY Sun]

5th Street between 47 St and 46th St. in LIC has been covered in green, the space to become a ballpark and running track open to the public

flash gordon download

… when, I’m not sure, but sometime in the near future. [A Fine Blog]

Whitestone Manor condos are up for sale in northeastern Queens. [NY Houses 4 Sale]

Preserving the Elmhurst Library

? [NY Times]

“Bookworm”, whose mission is to bring a functioning independent bookstore to Astoria, muses on the validity of the Pistilli Riverview East building and encourages us to use our words carefully when constructing an argument. [Good Reading Books]

The QueensWest development brings a variety of changes to the area. [NY Times]

Photo credit: Meg Cotner 

Over on Queens West they have been discussing the issue of views from the Powerhouse, and if those views will be forever. It does seem pretty close to the water, with city-owned land between it and the river, at 50-09 2nd Street. QW member and OuterB friend kyle, posts a map, which I’ve included here. Basically, the conventional wisdom is outlined by user eddie:

Especially in NYC, no one should feel their view is guaranteed unless they look over a park, historic bldg, etc.

To me, this seems like common sense in a place that is sprouting with developments so near the water.

kyle also informs us:

Latest info is that the city is trying to get the land from the Empire State Development Corporation and build, with developers, more housing there. How tall is anyone’s guess.

plannack77 also adds this gem:

[The CB 2 liaison from the Queens City Planning Commission] says that the city plans to buy the land from the public entities who own it now (I think partially the Port Authority) in the near future. The city plans a mixed used site with retail and residential units. The units will be 40-60% affordable housing. She said that all of the relevant parties are on board with this and the site will be developed in a few years.

This is in reference to the 24-acre city owned parcel right there on the water south of the QueensWest development. So, Powerhouse residents, your views may disappear at some point.

Related:
Tennis Courts in front of Powerhouse [QueensWest]
LIC Water Views [previously on OuterB]
Powerhouse [website]

New new online urban development magazine The World Edition, which focuses on the evolution of cities, recognizes the transformation of the East River waterfront in Brooklyn and Queens. Writer John Hill, of the blog A Daily Dose of Architecture, compares our current rate of growth with that of the Robert Moses era, except today the money comes from private developers rather than public sources (federal funds). He also makes the point that all this development on the formerly “forgotten” waterfront may one day shift the “spine of the city” (I like this phrasing) from Manhattan to the waterway. That’s a pretty forward thinking assertion, and I love how thought-provoking it is.

Here’s what he says about Queens specifically:

The massive Queens West Development in Long Island City is just one project pushing this reconsideration of the waterfront, its six residential towers sitting directly across from the United Nations in Midtown Manhattan. Directly north of Queens West are the two towers of the River East Condos and further north still is Silvercup West, a mixed-use development next to the Queensborough Bridge that is comprised of two residential towers, an office tower and facilities for Silvercup Studios. These three developments will eventually create a dramatically different eastern skyline, one previously monopolized by the stepped profile of Roosevelt Island.

All familiar concepts to those of us living here, but this publication is aimed at a global audience. And these familiar concepts, within the context of Hill’s suggestion that the East River may become more central to New York City’s identity, puts them in a new light.

Related:
East River Transformation [The World Edition]
A Daily Dose of Architecture [website]

This month, The Architects Newspaper highlights a selection of projects from the Architectural League’s Spring exhibition New New York: Fast Forward. For this exhibition, the Architectural League surveyed more than 6000 construction and planning projects throughout New York City, from small apartment buildings to developing large public spaces. For this issue, AN asked the League to narrow down the collection of projects to a smaller, more manageable list.

In the words of the Architects Newspaper:

The projects illustrated on the following pages barely begin to suggest the full extent of building and planning currently in process or under consideration, but they do indicate that it is clearly an optimistic moment. The specifically physical nature of many of the challenges now facing the city, however— the need to house a growing population, to update and re-envision infrastructure, to radically reduce our ecological footprint— make this a particularly critical moment for architecture and planning, one that offers the greatest scope, most compelling demands, and most significant opportunities for long-term impact that architects and planners have been afforded in New York for quite some time. The future of New York is being built now.

The developments from Queens included in this issue are:

RKO Keith’s Theater (Flushing)
River East (LIC)
Anable Basin (LIC)
5-20 46th Road (LIC)
East Coast Site 5 (LIC)
Queens West Site (LIC)

Related:
The Next NY [The Architects Newspaper]
Long Island City Development [Wired NY]
Fast Forward [Architectural League]

Photo credit: Meg Cotner

Well, the city and the state have come to an agreement on the 421-a tax abatement bill.

The middle income developments in Queens (like Queens West) seem to have greatly affected things with regard to this modified bill. Here are some important points that relate to Queens, quoted from Crain’s:

• The new bill guarantees 35 years of affordability for subsidized units.
• Developments that use substantial government assistance must provide 20% of their units on-site to people earning no more than 125% of area median income (AMI) for homeownership.
• Rentals will be an average of 90% of AMI for buildings over 25 units, with a cap of no more than 120% of AMI in any rental.
• The new agreement also does away with a controversial carve-out that would have allowed certain developers (like Forest Ratner in Brooklyn) to qualify for 421-a abatements without integrating affordable and market-rate units.
• The 421-a program automatically provides tax abatements for new apartment buildings, except in various “exclusion zones”. These exclusion zones are being expanded into 12 neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Queens, northern Manhattan and Staten Island.

Related:
City reaches 421-a agreement [Crain's/New York Business.com]
City and State Agree on 421-a Bill [The Real Deal]
Affordable Housing Zones Comes to Queens [previously on OuterB]

Last Thursday, affordable housing advocates with community leaders met to send a message to Mayor Bloomberg: don’t leave the planning of affordable housing in Queens to a state real estate trade association. Makes sense to me. I think these guys are totally in it for the money. They are developers, after all, and mainly developers in the “luxury” end of things.

The waterfront is a tasty area for luxury condos, and the “affordable housing” slated to be built is for families earning between $60,000 to $145,000. But some feel that is still too high a bar to reach, as it excludes 50% of the boroughs residents. Hmmm…

Eric Gioia was quoted in the Times Ledger article:

“This sends the wrong message to our growing neighborhood,” Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Sunnyside) said. “We don’t want buildings on the waterfront which are only affordable for the wealthy who will only live there for a few years.”

Related:
LIC leaders rally against large developers

NYC plans to develop the Long Island City area formerly slated for the 2012 Olympic Village into housing with 5,000 units rented to families earning $65,000 to $145,000. Officially that’s middle income these days.

The 24 acre area is at the southernmost part of Long Island City’s Hunters Point, on the East River and separated from Greenpoint, Brooklyn, by Newtown Creek. Rents for the middle income folks would be $1,200 to $2,500 a month, quite a bargain. It’s the Mayor’s version of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village for the 21st Century. But there are precious few details yet on its schedule.

The City picked up the land from the Port Authority at $29 a square foot, another bargain considering the real estate mania that has overtaken the Hunters Point area. Bargain, that is, if the environmental factors turn out in the City’s favor. The area was heavy industry for a hundred years, and a huge oil spill under Hunters Point and Greenpoint still hasn’t been fully resolved.

Oh, the name? Queens West South? That’s the nickname the good folks at Queens West stuck to it. It sticks fine.

• Queens West South Map
• NYC Press release
• City Plans Middle-Income Project on Queens Waterfront [NY Times]
• Queens West Forum on Queens West South

Happy Fourth of July! Fireworks got me thinking about the amazing views of the East River show from the Citylights building.

Luckily, our favorite Long Island City arrivistes Zarro-Stahl are showing a few Citylights properties this Sunday, July 2, 3-4:30. All the details in their NY Times ad.

• Playing Games in the Park - Jackson Heights Gets Surreal Online [NY Times]
• Long Island City Rising Update: New Site, Many Drawings [Curbed]
• Housing Tighter for New Yorkers of Moderate Pay [NY Times]
• Report details boro’s ‘vibrant’ economy [Daily News]
• Real Estate 2006 [Money]
• LIC Beaches [New York Harbor Beaches]
• The Gantry a New Epcot? [QueensWest]
• Revisiting the Deli [Joey in Astoria]