Summer development blazes on at the Pulaski Bridge in LIC

You forgot Ten63

What about 10-63 Jackson??

sales have definitely stagnated. All the condo sales are at the same place they were months ago.

please don’t.

There’s always something to argue about.

Developers and buyers in LIC have consistently confounded most of us with their interest in what would otherwise be incredibly poor real estate locations. Butting up against a rail yard with late night and early morning train traffic? Sure, lets put luxury lofts there. At the intersection of two busy four lane roads and the main artery from Brooklyn to the Queensborough Bridge? Sure- lets put FIVE buildings there! In Queens Plaza a block from the strip clubs with a view of the housing project and a tangle of elevated subways? Nothing says luxury like that!

But despite conventional wisdom, the buildings keep going up and the sales seem to ultimately do alright. The wisdom of web forums does not always equal the wisdom of the markets themselves.

My wife and I bought in Hunter’s View. We considered the area very carefully before we signed the contract. Yes, it is a busy intersection, but we found that after business hours and on weekends that the noise was minimal. The building is built with extremely well soundproof windows anyway. We liked the layout and finishes and really liked the price – the closest 2 bd prices were at least $100/sq ft higher. Once all the construction is finished , say 6-8 months or so, the area will be very livable in my opinion. Of the five buildings in the area, possibly 3 of them may have retail space. It will take time, but we think it will be a great place and neighborhood in general to live in.

I agree with #10, 11, & 12. Go to the area right now, and it may not be your cup of tea. NO ONE LIVES THERE, and the only thing you see is the busy commercial vehichle traffic. But what those who’ve chosen to purchase there have realized is that within a year, there will be FIVE brand new large scale developments filled with 800-1,000 people who were willing to put down their hard earned cash to live there. These aren’t idiots, they must have done relatively well financially in life to earn enough income to afford these places. Throw in the extreme close proximity to the 7 station at Vernon/Jackson, the “non-vernon restaurants” (Jackson Ave Steak House, Manetta’s, Manducattis, BANY, etc.) and the ground floor retail still to come. And they’ve gotten a nice discount compared to those purchasing on the west side of Vernon. I would admit, if you look at the present condition without any foresight, this place looks crazy to live in; but mark my words, when these buildings have filled up in a year or two, this will be a legitamate and desireable section of the Hunters Point neighborhood.

Now, let the die-yuppie-scum talk begin…

Keep dreaming, some of these posts on here sound like desperate realtors in disguise. We live in LIC, we love it and we want to see it change for the better. We’re not old timers, but we’ve been here long enough to see the changes and when I say you can’t polish a turd, I say it with nothing but love for the neighborhood.

You might be living close to Bella Via, but you’ll get killed by a dump truck when you cross the cluster@$&# that is the Jackson/Pulaski/21st St intersection to get there. Not to mention that if current trends continue, all the retail you’re talking about will consist of 8 Duane Reades, 5 Wireless Huts and all the Commerce Banks you’ll need. If we’re lucky, maybe we’ll get a Chipotle.

Its nice that these high rises have commercial stores, because this nieghborhood needs it. I’m dying for LIC to make the big time. I’ll be the first person through the doors of the Foodcellar, but all that these sterile filing cabinets bring are sterile chain stores. There will be nothing to replace 10-63 and I mean the coffee shop, not the condo.

Sorry, I’m #13 & 16 – Zap’s name must’ve been in the Name box. Didn’t realize it before I hit sumbit.

All the comments have some truth to them but i tend to agree with #11 the most…the key is to try and vision the area when it’s finished / built out. Hey we live in NYC and unless you have unlimited wealth and can live in some enclave like 15 CPW or the Plaza, buying a place is a balancing act…you never get everything you want. There are always trade offs.

Yes that intersection is busy…but so is every single intersection in Manhattan. Would L Haus be perfect if it was on the water? Maybe, but then pricing would be $1,200/sf. All of LIC is transforming and the Jackson Ave corridor is going to be a cool strip of new development, from Bordon all the way down to Queens Plaza. It’s already begun but the next huge wave will be the influx of retail to support all the new residents.

Yes, there is a symbiosis effect going on. More residential brings more retail, more retail brings more residential. The thing that has been holding back LIC is the lack of retail. This place will really start to pop once that gets going and LIC loses its frontier aura. With a legit supermarket and a Duane Reade we are starting to get some credibility. It’s an exciting time to live in LIC.

What #22? How is talking like that offensive? Do you realize how silly you sound all these years with LIC not turning into what you what it to be? It will never be that, so stop already. NYC shoudn’t have to conform into what Mid-westerners want it to be.

24, Brandon, as an old-timer, I just shrug at this point when I hear those thoughtless comments. As soon as apartments became more than just a place to live, the game changed in LIC. Everything is viewed through the lens of growth, change, money, earnings. There’s no more useful vocabulary to discuss where one lives anymore. Credibility? Why of course.

I just did.

I think the 50% sold is their automatic response. I can’t see them saying “Yeah, we’re 10% sold”.
They have to make their properties look better than they really are.
They’re probably telling the truth 50% of the time.

I’m 21, and I’m not sure what is so offensive about what I said. The fact is that these two business that will make the neighborhood much more inhabitable (and marketable) when they finally open.

Credibility Among whom? Among anyone that has a need to eat and buy groceries or fill a prescprition who does care to cross a river to do it.

Yes I guess you are right – technically it has always been a neighborhood. However, most people prefer that their neighborhoods they live in have these amenities. That’s all I’m saying. Why must everything in LIC be seen through the eyes of old and new? That makes you take a simple comment acknowledging that the addition of these amenities makes the area more livable and turn it into a referendum on yuppies. It’s all getting very tired.

Why is it that people like 34 have to tear down the old LIC as they talk up the new? I always sense an inferiority complex with these saddies.

32, when I was growing up in the 70s, we had two supermarkets on Vernon, a butcher, two bakeries, an outstanding Italian deli and fruit and veg market, a pharmacy, tailors, barbers, and many other local shops that were able to prosper for years before they got run out of town on the heel of rising rents.

It’s funny that even with all the mega-millions flowing through LIC these days, we had far more “credible” neighborhood services than is available today.

I agree with 37. But I suspect that many people don’t view neighborhoods in the same warm and fuzzy (human?) way. To them, the choice of living in LIC is purely a cold, calculated money-making proposition. They have their eyes on the 5-, 7-year time horizon, when they’ll sell and bid a quick goodbye to a”credible” “marketable” LIC.

Everyone has their own idea and perspective, on what a neighborhood should be. Hunters Point was not only a neighborhood, but a real community, where the residents mostly knew each other, and interacted in all sorts of situations, on a daily basis. Many of the families had been here for generations. To say this was not a bonafide neighborhood, as #33 did, is a slap in the face of all of those families and individuals who have called this place home. It’s okay to have a different point of view, but don’t insult others by putting the neighborhood down, which you and so many others have eagerly moved into. It’s thoughtless posts like this one (and others like it), which start the bickering, fighting and throwing of insults. It’s all unnecessary. State what you have to say, and ditch the insults.

Charlie

Charlie has it completely right. I’m getting sick and tired of hearing people — our neighbors, no less — badmouth LIC without any regard to the people who lived in the area in the past. It’s just evidence to me of a coarsening of behavior and is plain obnoxious.

Of course, no one ever thought we were living in some ritzy neighborhood! But what did it matter? I have (mostly) fond memories of growing up in LIC, mainly because we were a tight community and we grew up with generations of one another’s families. That’s been lost not just in LIC but throughout many other parts of the country. Everything feels isolating and transient today. And though it’s great to see the neighborhood physically improve, bricks and mortar are not really what a neighborhood is all about. So prove me wrong and let’s see evidence of people supporting one another like we used to in LIC.

The proliferation of buildings in that area is the product of a market on steroids. It will result in a glut of apartments for years to come.

Five buildings, a bridge and an avenue don’t make a neighborhood–these buildings have come about with no planning to support city life as we know it in New York, with pedestrian traffic and a sense of urban scale.

It is not that they are bad buildings, they are bad building sites lacking a context.

The people who have purchased at what is still the height of the market, at least in terms of what developers are asking, will see the prices drop in the next ten years. They will find themselves owning second quality apartments.

Lets hope that the people who will fill them will be first quality people.

you are right 44, nobody knows for sure. There are zoning changes in LIC that have allowed for all this new development to occur. These buildings would not have been possible 10 years ago. I am referring to changes in the credit environment that permitted these buildings to come about, changes that will impact not only developers but also buyers as well. The pool of buyers is being restricted by this credit crunch, and prices will show the smaller market that will have access to credit to purchase an apartment. LIC is not isolated from the rest of the nation in this, and a macroeconomic view indicates that LIC will also fall victim to this. How much is anyones guess.There will always be better times to get into the market and out of it, everyone is a genius in hindsight.

The question is not whether prices will fall or how much, what I’m discussing is the fact that many of these buildings being presently built, like the ones at the corner of 11th and Jackson and near the entrance to the Midtown tunnel, are built with no regard to context, with a lack of a pleasant urban environment. Yes, they’ll be close to transportation, but the truth is that there is nothing unique or interesting about them or their contxt to make them an appealing long term investment.

I have commented on the prices of condos starting to fall quite rapidly in LIC in the nearly future. Before last weeks meltdown in the financial markets, the italian named developer that is building the buildings near the LIRR and the other near the Pulaski bridge (one is 30% sold, the other 50% sold) and who has been getting prices of around $720 PSF has been shopping both projects in bulk (all units) to investors and getting offers in the low $400′s for the balance of the projects. This is from someone inside the industry. This will start bringing the retail price of these units down or will allow for these projects to work as rentals. Like it or not, just wait and see. Sorry for bringing the bad news.

44 and 45