Death of Parking in Queens Plaza, Long Island City

Oh Gotham Center, you’ve made our headlines twice this week! First it’s because the NY Public Health Dept is moving into the bottom 11 floors of your building, and now it’s because there seems to be an issue creating those pesky public parking spots Queens Plaza was supposed to get because of you…

Hot off the presses from our favorite local community board, CB2, is the public hearing notice (tomorrow) for Gotham Center’s developer’s request to create just a few less public parking spaces than they had agreed to when granted approval to build their looming tower in Queens Plaza. (One of three towers, mind you.) Ok, we’ll give you the numbers now… Tishman-Speyer (developers) agreed to create 1,150 public parking spots when they acquired the then city-owned property, a municipal parking garage dubbed the ‘white elephant’, to create their mega-complex Gotham Center. They are back now in front of CB2 asking if they could amend that number to »

Queens Plaza hotel site, LIC

Looks like the hotelification of Long Island City is experiencing a hiccup… one of the more prominent hotels planned for Queens Plaza has been Starwood Capital‘s ‘W Hotel’ offshoot ‘Aloft’, which is now officially in foreclosure, and worse:

“Lender U.S. Bank won a judgment for $17.2 million, in a decision published yesterday, against a developer that sought to build a Starwood Aloft hotel in Long Island City, but the project stalled and the site remains vacant »

JetBlue is heading for Long Island City

After a lengthy debate between relocating to Orlando or staying in Queens, JetBlue, the only NY-based airline, has decided to stay in NYC. They’re moving their HQ from Forest Hills to Long Island City, Queens Plaza to be exact.

From NYT: “Keeping JetBlue is the first economic development coup for the city in a while. Instead of moving jobs to Florida, JetBlue plans to shift its administrative offices from Forest Hills, Queens, to a Citigroup building in Queens Plaza, according to the person who was briefed. The airline also plans to move an additional 70 jobs there from Connecticut.”

It’s not happening anytime soon, but chalk up another highly-publicized new commercial tenant for Long Island City. According to the press release, the new address will be 27-01 Queens Plaza North, where they’re expecting to occupy approx. 200,000 SF by mid-2012 in the historic Brewster Building.

The future of Queens Plaza is very interesting »

Two Gotham Center shot from Queensboro Plaza platform, Long Island City

Tishman Speyer‘s mixed-use Queens Plaza giant, the Class A office tower Two Gotham Center, was officially topped off in Long Island City last week at 21 stories. They’re looking forward to a ribbon-cutting in early 2011, but although that’s still some ways off, this is a definite step towards completion of the proposed 3.5-million SF Gotham Center development.

Via Tishman Speyer’s blog »

Neighborhood rooftops from a bird’s eye view, Hunters Point, Long Island City

The LICBDC‘s latest newsletter landed in our inbox yesterday and included a link to BID bits, featuring informative updates from the LICBID (Business Improvement District), a not-for-profit association of property owners, residents, and businesses along the triangle intersection of Jackson Ave & Queens Plaza North.

In general, a BID is a formal organization comprised of property owners and commercial tenants in a defined area who pay annual assessments. They promote local business development and improve an area’s quality of life through the provision of supplemental services.

“The Long Island City BID is comprised of much of the area that was rezoned as New York City’s fourth central business district in 2001. Currently, the District consists of properties with frontage on Jackson Avenue, from Court Square north to Queens Plaza, and along Queens Plaza west to 21st Street.”

Here’s some highlights from the January 12th LICBID update »

LIC millstone, Queens Plaza, LIC

You probably remember our links to several articles about the saga of the 17th century LIC millstones which are currently in danger of damage due to the machinery and construction of the Queens Plaza reconstruction effort.

Quick update: supporters like the Greater Astoria Historical Society and others who would like to protect these artifacts have started a new website to pool info and get community input regarding where the millstones should be moved. That is, if they can get them out of the construction zone first. For that reason, there’s also an online petition you can sign to rally support to protect the millstones and other ways you can get involved.

From the LIC millstones blog »

Crescent Club Condos, LIC

Oh, Crescent Club. What has happened there? The unfortunates in contract seem to be log-jammed in a buyers remorse situation that has everyone seeing stars. And not the good kind.

Quick condo buying recap 101: when one purchases new construction in progress and the closing doesn’t occur by a certain date (usually contract specific), one enters a rescission period during which it’s possible to legally opt out of the contract and received a full refund on the deposit held in escrow by the developer.

Clearly the Crescent Club developers are having serious financial troubles because they’ve failed to complete the building by all deadlines, and have now reached a second round of irate condo buyers in their rescission period trying to get their deposits back (as documented in forum/comment threads here and here).

Here’s the sordid story direct from a Crescent Club buyer via email »

Court Square subway transfer construction progressing, LIC

We took another walk around Court Square, but this time all the way down Jackson Ave to Queens Plaza. Construction (and impending construction) prevails again, so we decided to check in on a couple of projects going on in the area, including MTA improvements, new developments, and, of course, Queens Plaza’s multi-million dollar facelift »

Hmm… anyone know what happened to The Star Tower condo project in Queens Plaza? Roe Development Corp’s 25-story tower across the street from its first LIC condo project (The Fusion), is (was?) slated to be Long Island City’s tallest residential high-rise. Months ago, as other developments were struggling, the Star Tower had already projected 50% sold, but now it’s pretty much dropped off the face of the earth »

Well hallelujah and praise…Obama? Long Island City is going to see some Stimulus action:

“Queens Plaza, with its serpentine traffic patterns and dangerous pedestrian crossings, is receiving the lion’s share – $39.4 million – of the direct federal funding to the borough. The Queens Plaza project, to be completed by spring 2011, includes new landscaping, a bike path, new sidewalks and lighting.”Bikers, pedestrians and motorists are all being accommodated,” said Gayle Baron of the Long Island City Business Improvement District. “There will be an acre-and-a-half park at the plaza, and the medians will be planted.”

The Greenpoint Ave. Bridge, which connects Long Island City and Brooklyn, will get $6 million in upgrades to extend the life of the bridge by 10 years. “Every time there’s a problem on BQE, that bridge becomes an alternate route,” said Joe Conley, chairman of Community Board 2. “It is money well spent, because that bridge is used by the Fire Department that covers Brooklyn and Queens.”"

• Queens Plaza getting $40M facelift [NY Daily]

• MTA to cause NYC more pain [PolitickerNYC]

• LIC’s Rockrose in a Manhattan building frenzy [Curbed]

• LIC’s small town/village side captured [NY Daily]

• Queensboro Bridge centennial [Queens Gazette]

• National Wholesale Liquidators opening in LIC [Yonkers Tribune]

• Brownfields – LIC’s wild wild south [CityNoise]

• Flux Factory rebuilding their new LIC home. Volunteers? [FluxFactory]

• TV/Film production tax credit disappoints [Crains]

• Review of Chocolate Factory’s dance theater [NY Times]

• Enamored with Tournesol [Queens Courier]

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.

In other LIC media sightings »

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 »

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.

5th Street Lofts (5SL) 509 48th Ave, Hunters Point 23 still available Halstead Open House: Sat & Sun, 11-2PM

Complete list of Open Houses this weekend. »

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.

Of course »

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.”