There goes the neighborhood: Dutch Kills development rampage!

Inside the Hotel Indigo LLC lot, Dutch Kills, Long Island City

While the Long Island City focus has always been on the Queens West waterfront and Hunters Point, Dutch Kills – loosely defined as the area just north of Queens Plaza, heading up towards Astoria – has been quietly gentrifying itself into a frenzy. Not only have two new hotels gone up a block or two from each other on Crescent St (Country Inn & Suites and the Ramada), but lots are being ripped up, developments are starting and stopping and starting again, and towering buildings are settling into quiet blocks lined with family houses. Sigh.

Dutch Kills began its recent transformation after some crafty developers took advantage of the city dragging their feet (for, um, three years) when it came to rezoning the neighborhood to allow for medium-density residential development. Last time we ventured into this strange and rapidly developing land of churches, hotels, small houses, and construction lots, it was actually one of the hottest days of this past summer. Needless to say, we thought it was time for a wintry Dutch Kills update:

LIC art collective Flux Factory semi-recently moved to a new space on 29th St, which is currently getting a vertical extension (compare to this summer).

Touching on the hotel development, Quality Inn, Verve Hotel, and Holiday Inn Manhattan View are all a part of the Dutch Kills landscape. Additionally, a site on 28th St has been marked as a ‘transient hotel,’ and has made definite vertical progress since our last visit.

The yellow and green checkerboard lot next to Holiday Inn belongs to Hotel Indigo LLC (here’s the same view in the summer). They were slapped with a stop work order and have apparently been penalized by the DOB for continuing work. The site currently doesn’t seem to be active, but Hotel Indigo is a large hotel chain, so it remains to be seen what will come of the lot.

Nearby, is a lovely old brownstone building on the corner that was recently renovated and received some media attention because it was “the first time in 48 years that the city has allowed residential development ‘as of right’ in Dutch Kills.”

Brownstone at 30-01 39th Ave, Dutch Kills, Long Island City

Then there’s a cluster of developments around 39th Ave and 28th St. First, this HUGE tower is visible from blocks away. As of right now it’s still shrouded, and doesn’t appear to have made any immediately apparent progress since we saw it this summer.

And last but certainly not least, the Ciampa developers have ripped a cavernous hole into the lot across the street from the ill-fated Crescent Club, and on the same block as Packard Square (also Ciampa owned).

Merry Xmas from storefront oddities, Dutch Kills, Long Island City

Of course, there are also the random new biz or oddities you find along the way.. Going, Gone Auction Gallery.. AE Studios LIC.. a TV on the sidewalk.. a dismembered foot and an ice skate in a storefront..?

Dutch Kills, you land of mystery, you.

• Dutch Kills Update 12/09 Photo Set [Flickr]

• Dutch Kills proposed zoning – approved [NYC.gov]

• After 50 years Dutch Kills gets housing OK [Queens Gazette]

• Long Island Hotel City blossoms; LIC to sprout tallest outer-borough hotel [liQcity]