It’s a little chilly in LIC this weekend, but we should see the sun. It’s the usual suspects, plus a sale at Purves Vantage. Have fun condo seekers.

Vantage Purves 44-27 Purves St, Courthouse Sq. 1 available Nestseekers Open House: Sun, 1:15-3PM

Did you know that 5SL is actually not one building but two? The building on 48th Ave is larger, and hosts the majority of the amenities including two roof decks. There’s a smaller adjacent (via the backside) building on 47th Ave that is ‘a little more boutique and cozy’ according to the sales agent. The smaller building does not feature a doorman, and the layouts are a little more ‘unique’ so beware of that boutique buyers.

5SL in general is all sold out of 1BR’s, so get a roommate or get married, or you know… start a business from your home office with a closet and maybe even a nice view. Views from the 5th floor terrace at the 47th Rd building weren’t half bad actually. Though they do look straight at the mystery development where we suspect a dorm might be going up.

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.

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.”

A photo of the building pre-scaffolding »

I saw some work being done on 51st Ave this weekend to an empty lot. Well it wasn’t an empty lot before Dec 07… there was a small house and a small one story industrial building standing there. I went away for two weeks and came back to discover the buildings razed.

The word on the street (gossipy neighbors who are remarkably accurate at times), is that 3 small townhouses are going up, similar to the adjacent renovated townhouse, with Fedders and Gargoyles. Incidentally, the lot(s) in question and the gargoyle building are owned by the same owner. If it’s a few small townhouses being built here, likely these will be rental units, adding some volume to the low-rise offerings in LIC.

A better view of the lot »

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.

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….

Onward »

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.

Wow. The neighborhood has transformed so significantly, but watching it day to day doesn’t really give you a sense of the progression. Looking at photographs from 1 & 1/2 years ago is a different story. I didn’t have time to edit all the shots, so here’s just a little taste.

Left– shot of the Gantry, on the corner of 49th & 5th St, from April 2006 while in construction:

After the jump, a shot of the Gantry today. »

Right behind (or in front of, depending on your perspective) the Rockrose fortress, I found a corner lot being broken down at 46th & 5th. I asked the guys across the street what was going up…they said a building.

Anyone know what this is?

Here’s another shot, including skull and crossbones. »

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.

So here’s something no one else will probably tell you »