Dutch Kills, Dec ’09, Long Island City

Back in December we did a little update on the veritable development rampage that has blown up in the Dutch Kills region of LIC. You know: the hotel boom, ripped up lots, towering new buildings squeezed between family homes, the whole 9 yards. Recently, some more attention has been given to the residential rezoning that has drastically transformed the area. Now that the zoning ‘growing pains’ are over (are they?), the media pops the question: is DK ready to be the Next Big Thing? »

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 »

Queens West remediation, Hunters Point, LIC

There seems to be some continuing issues with the toxic remediation of the remaining portion of the Queens West site at the Hunters Point waterfront. There’s been a growing number of complaints about petroleum-like odors emanating from the site and causing illness in the neighborhood. This week on Vernon Blvd, the fire department responded to suspected gas leak. None were found, and it was concluded that the callers had mistaken fumes from the nearby development sites (OCA as well) for the gas leak.

Joe Conley of CB2 and Paul Januszewski of Queens West Development Corp are requesting LIC residents to confirm the presence of odors/fumes emanating from the site, and/or any suspected related illnesses »

Casa Vizcaya – circa Aug 2008, Hunters Point, Long Island City

Last we checked into Casa Vizcaya, they were having some trouble regarding damage to a neighbor’s home. Work on the new dev was shut down for a couple months, and we checked in with the sales office and the neighbor for an update on where things are.

Casa Vizcaya has 4 units left for sale, all 1-2BRs with 1000+SF of space. Looks like the sales office on Vernon is being transitioned by Corcoran for another new condo project further down Vernon in Astoria/LIC, called the Orient.

And what’s up with the neighbors? »

Long Island City a la blue glass – Court Square.

liQcity commenters: You may have noticed the captcha. It’s great. No more spam here. We encourage the use of Gravatar for the comments, you can still say anon…we don’t really care who you are unless you spam us. Then, we care. We also encourage the use of a name, as that helps to keep thread integrity in case we have to delete comments (which is not ideal in general).

Update on the current liQcity Editorial policy regarding comments:

Queens West Sportsfield, 5th St between 47th Ave & 46th Rd, LIC

Time to play ball. The Queens West Sportsfield has officially opened it’s astroturf to the public. All you need is a permit and some turf shoes. But leave your pets and propane tanks at home »

Long Island City view of the Sewage Treatment plant at Newton Creek

1) Catching up on some linkage this morning. It seems they’re turning the orbs of the sewage treatment plant at Newton Creek into an art installation. That’s new. A nearby resident of the plant remarked that it ‘smells suspiciously like spoiled Chinese food’. Hmmm… .

2) In more local news »

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Good morning liQcity readers. We’re back to bring you some footage of the toxic dust kicking up on the Queenswest development site. See those tents in the video? Supposedly they facilitate the toxic remediation that Rockrose is required to perform on the site before they can build more residential towers. That particular site used to host a refinery, and like much of LIC, the soil is extremely toxic.

So the question of the morning is: should that dirt be blowing around hither thither? Supposedly it should be tamped down (perhaps with water?) in order to prevent exactly what’s evidenced in the video. Clearly that’s not happening. Obviously to shoot such a video, one has to be within smelling radius, and it’s not flowers and peaches.

There’s a business idea for LIC entreprenuers: respirators and other toxic dust survival gear. Maybe they’ll start carrying them at the ensuing Duane Reade on the compound.

A hawk eyed East Coast tipster sent in a photo of the progress on Avalon Riverview North roofdeck:

“The pool was green for a few days, and just recently turned a nice blue, the roof-deck is Astroturf…so much for a “green” roof-deck. Wonder if they’ll still try to snare a tax rebate for having a roof garden” from the city.“

Hunters Point South, photo by Nathan Kensinger

Hunters Point South is on the table today:

“The city intends to certify the Willets Point and Hunters Point South plans into the land-use process [today], setting the stage for a seven-month battle as the projects are scrutinized by the communities, the City Planning Commission and the City Council.” -Crains

In other news, the Queensbridge Houses are going to start using energy efficient fluorescent bulbs from now on. It’s kind of funny that this is news, but it’s featured in two distinct articles, so we thought we’d follow suit as well. You can sleep in peace now. Seriously though, what is interesting about the Queensbridge Houses in general, is that it’s the largest public city housing development in NYC and the country. That’s a whole lotta light bulbs.

• Hunters Point South Rezoning Decided Today [Crains]

• Queensbridge gets new lightbulbs [Newsday]

• Queensbridge gets new lightbulbs (2) [Metro]

• Water Taxi Beach highlighted [Gridskipper]

• Sister Powerhouse Conversion in RI [Providence Journal]

• G-train hearings bypass Queens [Queens Tribune]

Proposed map of Hunters Point South Development (4.4MB)

Yesterday, we took a look at the proposed future of Jackson Ave and Queens Plaza, today we have a peek at the promised promise-land of Hunters Point South. Again, brought to us by the NYC Economic Development Corporation:

“The purpose of the proposed action is the implementation of a large-scale, mixed-use development plan, Hunter’s Point South, that provides a substantial amount of affordable housing on publicly owned land and allows for the residential redevelopment of a privately owned adjacent site, Site B. The development of the Hunter’s Point South site would be an integral part of the City’s plan for the provision of affordable housing over the next 10 years. In addition to housing, the Hunter’s Point South site would also include retail uses, community/cultural facility space, a public school, public parkland and other public and private open spaces, and accessory parking. Redevelopment of the privately owned site would include public waterfront access.”

This map is not really news, nor is the development – but in the coming weeks we’ll be taking a closer look at the major development plans in the works for LIC, and there’s so much info to this one, we could do a whole blog on it. But don’t worry, we won’t.

• Hunters Point South

The future of Queens Plaza, Long Island City

The last in our series of posts on the neighborhood development plans by the NYCDEC is a new vision for Queens Plaza. This park project, which also has been threatening to break ground for a while now, has new wind in its sails starting this summer.

Here’s the plan »

Some more news from the NYC Economic Development Corporation(NYCEDC): the planned Jackson Ave beautification project, which has threatened to begin for a couple years now, is threatening yet again to break ground next month. The project plans to divide Jackson Ave with a landscaped median, incorporating outdoor furniture and sculpture.

From the NYCEDC »

LIC Neighborhood Map by NYCEDC, liQcity additions in red.

Check out this map of Long Island City, put out by the NYC Economic Development Corporation. What’s interesting is how they designated the many sub-neighborhoods of LIC. For instance, I was always under the impression that Hunters Point (no apostrophe) was the whole region of LIC located south of the Queensboro Bridge (outlined in red).

Right at the bridge is the hub of Queens Plaza (also called Queensboro Plaza it seems), which slightly overlaps Dutch Kills, which continues on northward bleeding into a very fuzzy boundary with Astoria. Then west of 21St st and still north of the bridge is the Queensbridge Houses, which also is considered Ravenwood until it also merges with Astoria.

In Hunters Point »

The planned Silvercup Studios $1B development project, Queensboro Br, LIC

Interesting article this morning about stalled development projects. The reasons vary – seems hard to just blame everything on the credit crunch, but it’s definitely more of a trend now compared to a few years ago. Here’s the news about LIC:

…it has also been confirmed that the practice’s 185,000m2 Silvercup Studio complex on the Long Island City Waterfront is on hold. The $1 billion (£500 million) mixed-use development, which won approval in mid-2006, has stalled due to issues over protracted land sales and the delayed removal of power plants from the site.”

Meanwhile CUNY’s going forward with the dorm:

“The development at 5-11 47th Ave. would have 400 total residential units, half of which would be for public rent and the other half will be divided between 188 graduate units and 12 faculty housing units at street level. It would also include a 6,000-square-foot office for the QCA and an open courtyard for art displays.

CB 2 Chairman Joe Conley said the board approved the plan with some stipulations. CUNY, for example, has agreed to never sell the property, he said. Conley said the board also asked for 20 percent of the non-student residential units to be offered as affordable housing, though he was not sure if the developer would agree.”

• Silvercup Studios development project on hold [Daily News]

• CB 2 OKs divisive plan to build 13-story tower [Times Ledger]

• ConEd has a $100 for western Queens blackout victims [Daily News]

• Flux Factory in Flux [Artnet]

• Crime Report for 114th Precinct – LIC [Times Ledger]

Arris Lofts, Court Sq

Arris Lofts is a building cursed with a few dark marketing clouds – those elephants and giraffes started the whole mess, which fueled further crucifixion in the form of hooker rumors, and general bashing for the sport of it.

Yet despite the bad PR, Arris has quietly blossomed like the daffodils in their enclosed courtyard. I visited the building once before today, while under construction and it sounded like a total disaster. (More unfortunate PR.) But the new inhabitants have lavishly and lovingly graced their abundantly windowed, uber-sunny, lofty lofts in various nouveau NYC styles, and created a growing and growingly tight knit community of well-heeled creative professionals. That, a pool, a gym, a gigantic Gristedes on the way in the ground floor, and great outdoor space let’s just say…it did not suck.

» » BUYER’S BEWARE Please see the comments below »»

It’s the day of reckoning for the CUNY dorm proposal. Tonight’s Community Board (CB2) meeting is sure to be a riveting wrestling match: community vs developers vs gov’t. You can be sure we’ll have ringside seats.

If you want to see the action yourself, the meeting is held at Sunnyside Senior Center, 43-31 39th St (2nd floor), Sunnyside, NY 11104. At 7pm.

The next Board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, May 1st, in the same location at 7pm. Essentially CB2 meetings are held the first Thursday of every month.

If you would like to contact the CB2, they’re located at 43-22 50th St, 2nd floor, Woodside, NY 11377. The phone number is 718.533.8773, and email addresses listed are: qn02@cb.nyc.gov and commboard2@nyc.rr.com.

• Developers’ CUNY housing plan in Long Island City faces hurdle [Daily News]

New is Beautiful in Long Island City. (?)

So Citi’s (are they not called Citicorp or Citibank anymore?) Two Court Square clocks in as LIC’s first official green building. There were other contenders, but TCS seems to have nailed the title. Interesting – they’re using 100% wind energy to power the building.

And the CUNY dorm site that can’t stay out of the news. That’s back in the mix – two articles reporting on a meeting held between the architects and some local artists. Is there any way to find out about these meetings before they happen?

Incidentally, the CUNY dorm proposal is on the table for the Community Board meeting on April 3rd. Here’s the deets.

• Two Court Square by Citi is a green building! [Power Online]

• Second phase of Noguchi restoration has begun [Zwire]

• CUNY Dorm Architects meet with local artists [Zwire]

• CUNY’s LIC dorm gets tentative praise [Times Ledger]

• The 11101 page on Everyblock [nyc.everyblock]

liQcity received sneakpeek renderings of the new Rockrose Eastcoast building that everyone is so in love with. There an interesting and funny watermark – in what we can only assume is an attempt to prevent brokers from marketing units in the building. (think?) Looks like it will work.

Officially titled The View at East Coast by Rockrose, the view heavy, corporately designed, 184-unit glass tower hits the market next month, starting at a whopping $1100/sqft.

Coincidentally reported, it seems Rockrose has offered all their current East Coast tenants a $500 rebate on rent, for every buyer they refer to The View. How sweet of them. The broker commissions are tens of thousands of dollars. But hey, who’s counting?

Look away at the future of Queenswest »

The smallest house in Long Island City – Courthouse Sq, Hunters Point

Good Monday morning liQcity readers. Some interesting tidbits in recent LIC news…did you know the Noguchi Museum is sinking? Well, apparently so. In other topographical news, the Newtown Creek, site of the potentially (ahem) largest oil spill in the world, is finally getting some money thrown at it for cleanup. We haven’t even touched the topic of toxicity in Long Island City, and you can bet that’s coming.

• Sinking Noguchi Museum gets $8M [Daily News]

• State Targets Brooklyn’s Ultra-Polluted Newtown Creek With $625G Grant [Brooklyn Eagle]

• Signs of Spring: Putting the ‘Beach’ into Water Taxi Beach [Eater]

• The end nears for Kosciuszko Bridge [Daily News]

• Artisan bakery mixes tradition with social activism [AM NY]

• CurbedWire: Fifth Street Lofts Price Madness [Curbed]

Purves St, Court Sq, LIC

So the word on the street is 44-15 Purves St (or Purvis St, whatever suits your fancy) is going to break ground this spring, like everything else. It’s brought to us by the Lions Group, who also produced the top ten hits Vantage Purves and 10-50 Jackson Ave.

So far, the deets are: 57 units, condos, to be listed by Corcoran.

Purves really has some mojo going on. Not to mention this development site might produce a behemoth sibling as well.

• Photos of Purves St (Purvis) [liQcity Flickr]

Old building to be knocked down for Rockrose Tower, Courthouse Sq, LIC

Walking around Courthouse Square this morning with a fellow LIC real estate obsessive, liQcity learned that this beautiful old building (along with the gigantic, adjacent parking lot behind it) at the corner of 44th Rd and Crescent St, right next to the United Nations Federal Credit Union, is being torn down to make way for a 42 story, 704 unit Rockrose rental building. Nice that it’s rentals – wish the price was as nice. Super lux apartments with fancy trimmings (expect any less?) – studios start at $2100/mo.

They’ll be knocking this building down and breaking ground in the spring. Supposedly there is one guy left living there, whose days are obviously numbered.

Incidentally, Rockrose also owns the triangular development site across the street as well. If anyone knows what’s going there, feel free to send us the scoop.

• A shot of the UN building construction in Spring 2006 [liQcity Flickr]

Artwork on 5Pointz Studios, Hunters Point, LIC

Ok it’s time for the weekend. Looks like a bit of snow coming our way. If you missed Bjork’s screening of Wanderlust, you’ve got another shot tonight. It starts at 7pm, but get there early!

• Bjork’s ‘Wanderlust’ premiered in LIC’s Deitch Studios last night [Gothamist]

• Queenswest library set for 2009 [Times Ledger]

• Is Long Island City the next big thing? [Gridskipper]

• City View Raquet Club is now open in LIC [City View website]

• Music Events in LIC this weekend [LICpop]

Here’s a short clip of a lengthy Stoler Report about the development in Long Island City. Being interviewed are representatives from Cushman & Wakefield, Silvercup Studios, and Brause Realty. The full episode (16 minutes long) is available courtesy of a great new video sharing site aimed at the real estate industry, Wellcomemat. Here’s a 3 minute snippet that addresses the climate of purchasing real estate in Long Island City, and the amenities situation. What was of most interest (personally speaking) is the part towards the end where they address the fact that there is no national brand presence in LIC. Now, I’m not very sad about that, but from their perspective (broker and developer) it’s only a matter of time, and it’s desired of course, to foster the draw of the neighborhood.

The Echelon & Manhattan Skyline from Hunters Point, LIC

What? No Starbucks? According to the Racked article, there’s no reason cited for the deal dying, except speculation that Starbucks is limiting their ‘outer borough’ presence. Poor Queenswest. The little engine that couldn’t. Well, hopefully the Amish Market will come through someday. And the Duane Reade. In the meantime, QW’ers will just have to truck it all the way to Vernon for some local coffee, which is not half bad. In fact, some of it is darned good. We don’t even need or want a Starbucks – well not all of us. I know some were waiting for the chain, cigarettes and jitters in hand.

• CRIPPLING: Long Island City Denied S’bux [Racked]

• Powerhouses to the people [NY Times]