421-a will make your head spin. But let’s see if we can sort it out a bit. The program, officially known as the 421a Tax Abatement, was created in the 70’s to encourage residential development in NYC. It offered developers a 10-25 year abatement on real estate taxes, which were passed on to the buyers of those newly constructed condos and coops. (ie, they don’t have to pay real estate taxes - abatement - you no pay)
Back then, the real estate market needed some serious stimulation. After a certain point, it became clear that lack of residential development was no longer an issue, so the program created ‘exclusion zones’ which required developers to create a minimum of 20% affordable housing units in order to receive the abatement.
Cut to now; when the Hunters Point section of LIC was famously rezoned in 2001, developers were granted a 421-a tax abatement of 15 years in order to encourage development in our little neighborhood. As of July of 2008, the honeymoon’s over. Hunters Point enters the ‘exclusion zone’ and developers will have to meet the affordable housing criteria in order to get the tax abatement. Any building with their foundation poured before July 2008 will still receive the abatement without the affordable housing requirement. But after… it’s a whole different ballgame.
So what does that mean for future development in Hunters Point? »
This is not the usual rat one sees at a construction site, or is it?
Yesterday, liQity photographer Jenni Snead stumbled across a union protest against One Hunters Point for employing non-union workers:
“The first thing I saw when I came out of the subway was the giant, blow-up strike rat on the corner of Vernon & Borden. I snapped a few shots and spoke briefly with the strikers, who claimed they had been on this site for months now, just not with the inflatable rat. I got a photo of one of the guy’s embroidered jacket - Dockbuilders Local Union 1456″. I wandered away when one of the construction workers walked down to the picket line and started getting upset, saying not to take his picture, etc.”
Hmmm, a union striker not wanting publicity? Interesting. Anyway, we hope the giant rat scares away the real ones.
Arris Lofts at 27-28 Thomson Ave, Courthouse Square, LIC
I visited Arris Lofts a long time ago, back in the day when they were still cool. IE before all the Arris bashing began on curbed.com. I can’t really say I blame the bashers, since the building had some ‘curiosities’ even before we heard about the hookers.
For those not in the know, Arris Lofts hit the market last year, and wins the prize for being the most controversial development project in LIC. What they did right: they didn’t knock the building down, but renovated that gorgeous, odd-shaped industrial building; they emphasized large windows and the high ceilings (both already there, but Arris needs points so let’s give them another one), they used Costas Kondylis. Well that last one remains to be seen, because even on my visit I was very confused by 1BR’s with 2.5 bathrooms, and the kitchen being just a console on the living room wall.
Anyway, after all the hoopla, turns out Arris Lofts is still buzzing through the wire, and word’s not so good. Except for this word.
11-15 50th Ave, Hunters Point
This morning, a special liQcity source gave us the scoop that the mystery building at 11-15 50th Ave, just south of Hunters View (by the Pulaski), filed a CPS1 with the Attorney General’s office. CPS1 = Cooperative Policy Statement 1. Essentially, this allows the developer to advertise the project in order to collect ‘expressions of interest’, before the offering plan is accepted. Usually a building does this to test the waters of going condo or rental.
The developer can’t market units with any specific sale prices while in a CPS1 phase, but can engage in general marketing. For example, The Kimaya is currently in this phase. If you read the fine print on their website, they don’t have an accepted offering plan, but the advertisement is pursuant to CPS1. Once the offering plan is accepted and on file with the Attorney General, a developer can market with specific sales prices and execute contracts.
Casa Vizcaya’s coming along nicely. Haven’t seen too much chatter about this development, except of course, the usual LIC bashing on curbed. A search for listings pulls up seven, all listed by Corcoran. Seems like prices have dropped since the original offerings, but don’t quote me on that.
As an interesting side note, these are the same developers bringing us the Kimaya Lofts on Jackson Ave.
For some more construction shots on the Viz, as well as a glimpse of what else is on that street, check out our flickr set. One lucky bonus Casa Vizcaya enjoys, is the proximity to my favorite bar in LIC, the LIC bar on the corner of 46th Rd & Vernon. Killer place.
A collaged view of Fusion LIC, 4251 Hunter St, Courthouse Sq, LIC
It’s hard to get a unobstructed shot of the well-known condo development Fusion LIC, so liQcity photographer Jenni Snead fused (pun intended) one together. There’s an Open House this weekend for the 6 listings still on the market, all listed by Halstead.
Star Building at 42-26 28th St
We’re running into some more unidentified conversions going on in LIC. How surprising. The latest one is the old Star building, which is located near the Fusion LIC site in Courthouse Square. It seems work has just recently begun. Anyone have any knowledge of what’s happening to the Star Building?
From Forgotten-NY: “Long Island Star building, 28th Street and 42nd Road, was home to the Long Island City Daily Star, founded in 1865 by Thomas Todd, memorialized in a plaque on the building’s exterior. The paper merged with Flushing’s North Shore Journal in the 1930s and soldiered on until 1968 as the Long Island Star-Journal. Developers have it in their gunsights.”
Seems there could be a whole blog just dedicated to Name That Development in Hunters Point, considering how many there are.
Well, regardless, here’s another one discovered: 44-30 Purvis (aka Purves) St. This site also wraps around to Thompson, facing a very notorious neighbor: Arris Lofts. Maybe the hookers will expand their territory? Well, they’ll have to wait a while, because it looks like the development site is still up for sale. Here’s the listing, as advertised by Greiner-Maltz.
For some more shots of the dev site, including a peek through the fence, check out the flickr set.
The weekends are usually a chill time in LIC. The area is still pretty commercial, especially if you count the buildings in progress as sites of commercial activity, which I do. So from 7am to about 4pm on weekdays the neighborhood is packed to the gills with people, and then at night and on the weekends it thins out and quiets down.
Not anymore.
This weekend the hood was PACKED with people filing into the sales offices for the Foundry LIC, Powerhouse, 5SL… everything! Usually on nights and weekends, one can park with ease - FORGET about trying to park in LIC during business hours. All spots are usually taken by 6am. It’s worse than the Upper West Side. On nights and weekends, the commercial people aren’t around so much, so it’s much easier. But this Sunday, I thought twice about taking my car out for a spin after eyeing several Long Island-y types driving around stalker style.
At least all the new developments come with parking spots. That should help a bit. But in the meantime, we’re losing our weekend parking. It’ll be a nice day when those little blocks off of Vernon get resident parking. Who knows if that will happen, but those of us who don’t live in the high-rises with parking need to be protected. Right?
Don’t worry. I’m not holding my breath.
All references to this multi-named building are 26-26 Jackson Ave, 44-01 Purves, or Corner of Purves. (DOB even has it as Purvis) Let’s go with Corner of Purves.
Corner of Purves & Jackson
The building went up very quickly, and then there was work stoppage for a good while. Seems like things have picked back up, because DOB (Dept of Buildings) has a complaint filed today against the building for unsafe working conditions. Interestingly enough, the Certificate of Occupancy is for a garage and factory.
Upon doing some digging, it’s been uncovered that the building is going to be 43 units, mixed residential and commercial, and designed by controversial architect Richard Scarano. He’s controversial for many reasons… here’s one, and here’s another, and if you want more….
Then & Now Shots: The Gantry
Since I’m doing a blog about LIC now, I decided to poke back through my photo archives and dig up shots from the spring of 2006, when I was not working that much and spent days biking around LIC taking photos.
Left– shot of the Gantry, on the corner of 49th & 5th St, from April 2006 while in construction:
A few points on One Hunters Point.
So this building on Borden Ave, One Hunters Point. Let’s just say I live near the construction site. According to the website and the hype etc, the condos seem like they’ll be the standard lux coming through LIC—perhaps even decently constructed. The developers had an extra obstacle to deal with while erecting the building: the Mid-town tunnel runs underneath part of the lot. They couldn’t build directly on the tunnel (someone’s thinking), but close enough that plans were scrutinized, and one can only hope this means intelligent engineers were actually hired. Of course, that has nothing to do with the interior finishings on the apartments.
I know they went around the block trying to buy everyone’s air rights…they definitely managed to get some since the building is 12/13 stories… and they got them at a steal if the $100/sf rumor is true.
