Painted building on Jackson Ave, next to Dutch Kills bar entrance, LIC
To kick off the linkage, there’s tons of press about the shooting that occurred this week on 21st St near 41st Ave in Long Island City.
Two Gotham Center, Queens Plaza South & Jackson Ave, LIC
The municipal parking garage at Queens Plaza South and Jackson Ave, an eyesore dubbed the “white elephant” by local residents, is continuing its transformation into a Class A, LEED Certified Green Building:
“First phase construction has started for a mixed-use development here in Long Island City, Queens–dubbed Gotham Center »
Open Houses This weekend in LIC: Feb 23rd - 24th
Well well well. The 5th Street Lofts getting pricechopped. Is this a sign of things to come?
But wait, Purves and Badge have flippers in their waters, so what’s up with that? Good luck figuring it out at the Open Houses, and bring your skates - LIC is ICE city this weekend.
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5th Street Lofts (5SL)509 48th Ave, Hunters Point 23 still available HalsteadOpen House: Sat & Sun, 11-2PM |
Development in Dutch Kills
Back in 2003, Dutch Kills residents feared the neighborhood was being overdeveloped and requested rezoning to encourage residential growth and downsize commercial development. Some forward thinking there. Flash to 2008 when there are so many hotels and new condo buildings in progress it’s impossible to count them all.
Amongst the community complaints: growing lack of parking, inappropriate commercial development, carelessness in handing out business permits, and overly high density in general. The city responded in agreement with Dutch Kills civic leaders, but have been slow to implement the rezoning, and commercial developers have still been snapping up development sites faster than you can say ‘Environmental Impact Study”, which is what is supposedly holding up the rezoning.
It’s been reported that Dutch Kills is headed for hotel-land, thanks to developers trying to beat out impending re-zoning. Though this site is a little remote, Queens Plaza in general is actually a decent spot for hotels… maybe not right now, since it has some serious cleaning up to do, but judging from the amount of slated development, and also the prime subway location, Dutch Kills is really just a neighborhood in waiting. It’s only a matter of time.
Astoria Grand Hotel, 39th Ave & 29th St, Dutch Kills, LIC
Here’s a hotel sprouting up on 39th Ave & 29th St (gotta learn those Queens streets) that we’ve been trying to identify for weeks. Eureka! It’s going to be the Astoria Grand Hotel. liQcity photographer, Jenni Snead reports:
“As I’m nearing the mystery construction of 39th ave & 29th st, I hear some little kids say, “Thats gonna be a nice hotel”. I asked a construction worker on a cigarette break, and sure enough, it’s going to be a hotel. Seems like an odd location for one, but whatever. It’s called the Astoria Grand Hotel and here’s the contact info: Jung T Lee, 917.733.3066. So that solves that mystery. The architect is Peter Casini.”
