The preserved wall at the OCA/CUNY development, 47th Ave @ 5th St, LIC

Well, we’ve left this Pandora’s Box alone for a while, but it’s time to face the Furies and update the world on the progress of what we call the OCA/CUNY development site. It’s kind of anti-climactic. Nothing is happening. So far. Except, we know that BSA has forced the development to preserve a lone wall of the previous construction, pictured above, which will serve as the entrance to an internal courtyard.

If you remember »

Parade for Santo Amato, Vernon/Jackson, Long Island City

Fallout from the financial crisis keeps raining down on NYC. Now it’s news that the credit crunch is not just impacting buyers, but developers who depend on bank financing to get their developments completed. Obviously this is relevant to Long Island City, where predictions of a major slowdown in development thanks to the root problem of the financial crisis, the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, have been sounded out now for months. Though in a sense, where LIC is concerned, this is all relative information. There are still a ton of development projects going forward, as evidenced by the constant sound of hammering and drilling, aka the signature song of LIC.

In other news »

OCA & CUNY development site, 5th Street, Hunters Point, LIC

Long Island City developers O'connor Capital Partners won a long fought variance for their development site on 5th Street between 47th Ave & 46th Road. This means »

OCA/CUNY Dev Site, July 2008

The next BSA hearing for the very controversial OCA/CUNY development site on 5th Street is set for next Tuesday, August 19th. According to Queens Chronicle, the latest issue on the table is whether or not the OCA‘s granting of space to the Queens Council on the Arts (QCA) counts as an official community benefit:

“In a submission to the Board of Standards and Appeals »

Corner site of the controversial CUNY dorm building, 46th Rd & 5th St, LIC

Hunters Point new development fanatics: remember our mystery development at 46th Rd & 5th St? Well we did solve the mystery a while ago, that the site is (was?) to be a CUNY dorm.

According to an article released today in the Daily News:

“The initial proposal, which called for a 13-story residential building on Fifth St. with 169 apartments, ground-floor retail and 220 grad-student dormitory units, was unanimously rejected by Community Board 2′s land use committee in November.”

The main reason for rejection was the lack of community use, and a concern on the part of local residents that in the face of so much high-rise condo development, such a large scale dorm will add little value to the hood.

“Now the owner, OCA LIC, plans to reintroduce the plan this spring, and has offered space to the Queens Council on the Arts to sweeten the deal…”

• L.I.C. strife over CUNY dorm plans [Daily News]

• liQcity flickr set of the development site