OuterB on Queens Real Estate

Bad news over at Parkway Village in Kew Gardens - there have been some serious asbestos violations (9 in all), and consequently OSHA has fined the complex $117,000. As well they should - being careless with asbestos can lead to serious health problems and it is very unsafe. Last November both the FBI and the EPA came to investigate potential asbestos dumping at Parkway Village, and with regard to the asbestos remediation:

OSHA said in the release Parkway Village did not monitor the workers’ exposure levels to asbestos, did not inform them of the presence, location and quantities of asbestos, did not institute a training program and did not label material containing asbestos, resulting in $112,000 in proposed fines.

OSHA said it had also cited the co-op for an additional $5,000 for failing to provide appropriate hand, face and eye protection; respirator safety deficiencies; the absence of a hazard communication program, and failing to properly label and dispose of asbestos-contaminated material.

Abby Goldstein, the co-ops counsel, claims “the co-op board had never been informed of the results.”

Related:
Co-op fined for asbestos violations [Times Ledger]
Feds Explore Queens Asbestos Dump [Queens Tribune]
All about asbestos [EPA website]
Parkway Village in Queens [NY Times Neighborhood Report]

It’s Mother’s Day this weekend! Spend time with the mom in your life, but also make some time to check out the houses this week:

Astoria
House: 2-family, 3 bedrooms/3.5 baths
$1,495,000
Sunday, May 13, 12-1:30pm
19-23 23rd Drive
NY Times Listing (Corcoran)

Flushing/Kew Gardens Hills
Co-op: 1 bedroom/1 bath
$132,000
Sunday, May 13, 1:30-3pm
144-2 78th Road, #2J
NY Times Listing (Bellmarc)

Jackson Heights
Co-op: 4 bedrooms/2 bath
$800,000
Sunday, May 13 2:30-4:30pm
35-36 80th Street, #21
NY Times Listing (Brown Harris Stevens)

Little Neck
House: 1940 3 bedroom/2 bath
$872,000
Saturday, May 12th, 2pm-4pm
242-26 Thornhill Avenue
NY Times Listing (Bryce Real Estate)

Whitestone/Beechhurst
House: 2 bedrooms/1.5 bath
$569,000
Saturday, May 12, 12-3pm
156-04 Cryders Lane
NY Times Listing (Prudential Douglas Elliman)

Rapper Aasim and family have found a home in Kew Gardens Hills’ only luxury building, The Opal. The NY Times profile kills me because the building is so much more wealthy retiree than emerging hip hop star.

The Opal is the exception to the rule in its neighborhood, which OuterB covered the other week. In addition to its luxe-deluxe bathroom sinks, the Opal is surrounded by tall fences, set along a huge empty field, and towers over low-rise Kew Gardens Hills. Where the Opal does conform to the neighborhood, it’s in an amenity like dual kitchen sinks to help keep kosher.

• OuterB on the Opal
• The Opal
• Kew Gardens? Or Kew Gardens Hill?
• A Rapper for Diddy Finds a Home That’s Just Dandy (NY Times)

The neighborhoods of Kew Gardens and Kew Gardens Hills really should be as distinct in name as they are in character. Kew Gardens has the subway, LIRR, and a great independent art-house movie theater. Kew Gardens Hills has a glorified home entertainment center passed off as a movie theater, and a long walk or bus ride to get anywhere.

Once again, this time in the NY Times, a newspaper article has confused the two neighborhoods (in a slow-day-at-the-presses story about collecting shopping carts in Kew Gardens Hills). Sure, the names are close, but the two neighborhoods don’t even touch one another.

On the real estate side of things, Kew Gardens has many pre-war and post-war co-ops, plus a solid stock of beautiful pre-war homes and plenty of crappy new ones. There are gems to be found. (And the Kitty Genovese horror story from the 1960s was an anomaly and should not deter anyone from looking.) Kew Gardens is cheaper than Forest Hills, but definitely more expensive than its other peers in central Queens.

Kew Gardens Hills, in contrast, was developed mostly after WW2, and the housing stock is inferior. However, the neighborhood’s popularity especially with Hasidic families has helped to keep prices high, considering the lack of subway.

• Kew Gardens - Map
• Kew Gardens Hills - Map

Detached One-Family House in Forest Hills, 69th Ave   at Nansen St, Forest Hills, NY $549,000  Open House: 7/10/05, 12 to 4 p.m.  Two bedrooms walking distance from the Forest Hills subway and LIRR.  It’s just north of Metropolitan, which makes it a good neighborhood.  Not much can be said about the look of the place — it’s dull.  But for that price in Forest Hills, it’s hard to do better.  Sure, the Craigslist ad says it’s $5,490,000, but we think that must be a typo (or else it’s time to forget about buying real estate).  See Craigslist for more.

Attached One-Family in Flushing/Kew Gardens Hills, 75-29 167th St, Flushing, NY $485,00 Open House: 7/10/05, 12 to 4 p.m.  Owner motivated to sell, so they say.  The neighborhood is good, just between Fresh Meadows, Hillcrest, and Kew Gardens Hills. It’s a short stroll to St. John’s, and luckily, the Grim Reaper doesn’t come with the place ("there is no major reaper.")  See Craigslist for more.

The Opal in Kew Gardens Hills is a luxury apartment building in a neighborhood of unpretentious brick row houses.  The disparity is striking, but most especially when compared to the nearby Pomonok public housing. 

The Opal opened in 2004, the first big apartment development in the area in years and years.

The developers were smart.  There’s definitely money in the area, but no other real estate to spend it on.  It’s just funny to walk down a plain-Jane street of two-story homes and see this mammoth building.

The Opal, 75-25 153rd St (near Parsons Blvd), Kew Gardens Hills, NY 11367