Long Island City Development

[Kris]

July 18, 2004

SQUARE FEET

Long Island City: An Office District Slow in Emerging

By JOHN HOLUSHA

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/07/18/realestate/sqft.1842.400.jpg
OUT OF MANUFACTURING Gantry Park

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/07/18/realestate/sqft.1841.400.jpg
The Information Technology High School on 21st Street.

Decades-long efforts to develop Long Island City as a major office district received a bit of a boost last week with the news that Citigroup would move 700 employees from Lower Manhattan into a planned new 14-story building across the street from the company's 48-story tower, which has stood in splendid isolation since the late 1980's.

Still, the effort has a long way to go.

Long Island City has for years been designated by planners as a potential fourth central business district for the city, after Midtown and downtown Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn. Citigroup put up its 48-story tower in 1989, and earlier this year Metropolitan Life moved 1,600 employees into two renovated factory buildings in the area.

Much of the area was rezoned a few years ago to allow larger office buildings, and a pending additional rezoning, mainly on the edges of the previous district, would permit more residential development and larger supermarkets.

The proposal has been approved by the local community board and the borough president's office and awaits hearings before the City Council.

Amanda M. Burden, chairwoman of the City Planning Commission, said the zoning change is intended to encourage low-rise residential and retail development in Hunters Point. "We expect that this will trigger high-density office and residential development along Jackson Avenue by making the area more attractive," she said.

In anticipation of zoning changes, developers have been buying old industrial buildings for use as art galleries and schools — and possibly as residences if the changes are approved.

In one notable recent sale, the owners of the Scalamandré silk mill in Long Island City announced early this year that they were moving to South Carolina, and the old mill buildings were bought by a Manhattan-based developer, Time Equities. Francis J. Greenburger, the company's president, said Scalamandré would retain part of the space and the rest would be offered to commercial tenants, although he did not rule out a residential conversion eventually. In the 1980's Time Equities was a major converter of rental buildings to co-ops.

Some properties have already undergone conversion. The former Lion Match factory, a four-story, 60,000-square-foot building on 43rd Avenue, is being renovated for use as offices. A four-story, 130,000-square-foot building on 21st Street that lost its manufacturing tenants is now the Information Technology High School.

The economics driving conversion are compelling in areas zoned for housing or likely to be rezoned, said Richard Maltz, chairman of Greiner-Maltz, an industrial and commercial broker active in Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island.

He said a typical 10,000-square-foot factory building in the area sells for $120 to $140 a square foot, or $1.2 million to $1.4 million. But if a builder can put up 30,000 square feet of residential space on that same site, Mr. Maltz said, the value of the property rises to $2.1 million to $2.5 million.

The manufacturers still in the once solidly industrial area are complaining that the zoning changes, if approved, may drive them from the area, which is prized for its proximity to customers in Manhattan.

Adam Friedman, executive director of the New York Industrial Retention Network, a not-for-profit organization that seeks to assist manufacturers in the city, said there is a danger that adding office workers and residents to the area will significantly change the nature of the community. If that happens, manufacturing buildings will be sold for conversion or rents will increase beyond the financial ability of small artisans or distributors.

"There are still 27,000 industrial jobs in the 11101 ZIP code area," covering Long Island City and parts of some nearby neighborhoods, Mr. Friedman said.

Mr. Friedman said city planners had not accepted his organization's proposal to designate a part of the area as an industrial employment district to reduce the pressure on owners to sell to developers.

Some people, however, doubt that there is that much demand for the existing manufacturing space. Gail A. Roseman, an executive vice president of Sholom & Zuckerbrot, a commercial brokerage in Long Island City, said, "The area has changed, and the need for manufacturing buildings is not there anymore."

John Reinertsen, a vice president of CB Richard Ellis, a major commercial property broker, agreed. The overall situation in the area, he said, is "too much space chasing too few tenants." He said he expected that some of the industrial space would be preserved but that "over time a lot will become residential."

The ideal might be a balance, but achieving it is complex. Robert Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association, a private planning group, said: "We have learned that the most successful business districts are those that are the most diverse. The challenge is to allow for evolution in Long Island City, but also create certainty for the industrial sector."

Despite the general decline of industry in the city, Mr. Yaro said, manufacturing and distribution still provide about 20 percent of the jobs in the city — jobs that are often the first rung on the economic ladder for recent immigrants.

Mr. Maltz said that low interest rates were partly behind the efforts to buy and redevelop industrial properties and that prices might start to decline if rates rise and developers find they cannot get the financing for a major conversion project.

The proposed rezoning will allow for mixed-use development, with housing and stores adjacent to warehouses and manufacturing, said David H. Inerfeld, a senior director of Sholom & Zuckerbrot. But this will be nothing new for the area, where a typical block may already have industrial buildings on the corners and row houses covering the midblock area. Most of this varied development predates zoning rules.

Residential development will attract retailers to serve a growing population, and this will make the area more livable, Mr. Reinertsen said. "Right now, the area pretty much shuts down in the evening."

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company


Hunters Point Subdistrict Rezoning (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/hunterspoint/hp1.html)

[Kris]

July 25, 2004

LONG ISLAND CITY

High-Rises Are Arising, but Are They a Skyline?

By JAKE MOONEY

"The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge," as F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, "is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world."

It should go without saying that Fitzgerald was referring to Manhattan, "rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps." Queens, which Nick Carraway would have glimpsed had he turned around, has always had many things to offer. An awe-inspiring skyline was never among them.

But now the borough, home in Jay Gatsby's world to ash heaps and murderous mechanics, may be taking small steps skyward in Long Island City. The borough's tallest building, the 48-story Citigroup skyscraper at Court Square, is getting a 14-story neighbor across the street, the company announced this month. And Queens West, the development parcel across from the United Nations, is home to 42-story and 32-story apartment buildings, and will get two more rental buildings, each over 30 stories tall. At the East River Tennis Club, two 28-story condominium towers are taking shape.

"Certainly what was there before as you drove along F.D.R. Drive looking at Queens, it wasn't the most inviting view," said Joseph Conley, chairman of Community Board 2. "There used to be this Manhattan view of Queens as being this gritty industrial area, because that's all you saw."

Tall buildings and the zoning that allows them could help give Queens a new image, Mr. Conley said. Still, new development must be done sensitively, he said, to protect residents' "million-dollar view" of Manhattan.

In Brooklyn too, a mini skyline might rise. Its highest building is the 34-story Williamsburgh Savings Bank, but if the developer Bruce Ratner gets his way and builds four towers as part of his Nets arena plan, one of those towers would stand taller than the bank.

But what about the view of Queens?

Carol Willis, the director of the Skyscraper Museum in Lower Manhattan, was hesitant to pronounce it a skyline just yet. Of the planned Citigroup building, she said, "I think it's certainly not a skyscraper." Plus, she added, "You're not going to get a skyline with two buildings."

Ms. Willis said skyscrapers typically required access to mass transit, a waterfront and affordable land, all of which are available in Long Island City. But whether those qualities will yield a memorable skyline depends on a strong economy, a zeal for development and, perhaps most important, a lucky alignment of the stars.

Could that happen in Queens anytime soon?

"I guess you have to define 'soon,' " Ms. Willis said.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[Jeffreyny]

LIC is a fantastic place for new offices, apartments, museums, etc...
Minutes from Midtown Manhattan it is a mystery to me how this area has been so slow in the making.

[Larkin]

Yep And I live there... it is very slow in the making and whats weird was when LIC was first starting to develop it used to be all industrial!

[Larkin]

yep and i live there i live in the citylights building it is very nice...

[billyblancoNYC]

Office plan okayed for Queens Plaza
By James DeWeese
11/26/2004
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Community Board 2 voted earlier this month to approve a business deal that could clear the way for as much as 3 million square feet of new commercial office space along Queens Plaza, another milestone in the business development that is reshaping Long Island City.


Under the agreement, Tishman Speyer Properties, whose other holdings include such iconic city locales as Rockefeller Center and the Chrysler Building, would receive a 99-year lease on city-owned land currently occupied by the Queens Plaza Garage at Jackson Avenue and an adjacent lot, said Jeremy Smith, a project manager with New York City Economic Development Corp.


The board had previously approved a land-use request for the project in 2001.

Under the business agreement approved on Nov. 4 in a 31-1 vote with two abstentions, Tishman Speyer, which has buildings in nine cities across Europe and the Americas, would have to build on the Queens Plaza Garage site by no later than 2015, Smith said.

During construction, the 1,150-space Queens Plaza Garage, which currently houses 180,000 square feet of commercial office space, would be demolished and replaced with similar on-site parking, as outlined in the agreement.

Some residents had expressed concern about the temporary loss of parking, but planners said the majority of the garage's users are actually commuters from Long Island who drop off their cars at Queens Plaza before hopping a train into the city.

"We are very excited about building a building in Long Island City," Tony Mannarino, a representative of Tishman Speyer told the community board. "We have been looking for opportunities to do something outside Manhattan."

Long Island City is fast attracting the businesses and office space that are turning it into one of the city's most important financial centers.

The MetLife building and Citigroup's 48-story Court Square skyscraper call the area home. And Citigroup, which already houses 4,800 employees in the borough, is slated to break ground on an additional 14-story, 475,000-square-foot office complex in 2005.

Tishman Speyer's proposed project would dramatically increase the amount of commercial office space available in the area. As part of the deal, the developer also would be required to spend $1 million to market and publicize the area over a period of 10 years, Smith said.

"One of the major advantages to the commercial space being located in Long Island City is it's basically an extension of Midtown," said Michael Reale, a project manager with the Long Island City Business Development Corp. "It's right over the 59th Street Bridge."

But booming development also is forcing planners to perform a balancing act, Reale said.

"Obviously, it would be great to have more commercial space but also at the same time to try to attempt to retain the manufacturing part of Long Island City which is basically part of the area's heritage," Reale said. "It's kind of juggling both interests at the same time."

Portions of Long Island City were rezoned several years ago to accommodate further commercial and residential development.

Zoning regulations allow for the construction of as much as 3 million square feet of office space between the two lots Tishman Speyer is looking to develop, said Suzanne Halpin, executive vice president of Rubenstein Communications, which is handling public relations for the developer.

It was too early to speculate what shape the buildings would take, Halpin said.

But the project has the resounding support of the EDC.

"One of the exciting things about this is Tishman Speyer is a world renowned developer," said Melanie Lenz, the EDC's vice president for Queens Real Estate. "Something on this site will happen soon. It will happen with the right resources. And it will happen in the right way."

Janelle Patterson, a spokeswoman for the EDC, said the development plan has not been finalized and must still be approved by the Borough Board and the EDC board. Final approval could come as early as February, she said.

Reach reporter James DeWeese by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 157.



©Times Ledger 2004
http://www.timesledger.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13442476&BRD=2676&PAG=461&dept_id= 542525&rfi=6

[NewYorkYankee]

Great! Maybe Queens will finally have a skyline! Great Towers! An extension of midtown...exactly right!

[Kris]

February 6, 2005

LONG ISLAND CITY

A Famed Skyline Fixture, Standing Tall Another Day

By JEFF VANDAM

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/dropcap/t.gifhe Long Island City skyline has but a few jewels. One, the Citigroup tower, is a tall skyscraper of aqua glass. Another is the old Pennsylvania Railroad Power Station, a brick survivor from 1909 with four smokestacks that sits in the shadow of two new condo towers.

As this Queens neighborhood experiences a revival, newer residents have championed the area's industrial past. Last year, a cafe on Jackson Avenue called Ten63 began selling shirts depicting the power plant, its smokestacks adopting the mantle of a neighborhood icon.

But recently, some intrepid Web surfers on queenswest.com (http://queenswest.com/) uncovered an application for a permit filed last month by a developer calling for "demolition of all 4 existing chimneys" of the plant, a prelude to converting the building for residential use. Community reaction, on the whole, has not been positive.

"It would basically disfigure the building," said Monte Antrim, a co-owner of Ten63 and an architect. "At that point it's really a lump of bricks."

Mr. Antrim, along with his wife and co-owner, Talitha Whidbee, has begun a postcard campaign to get landmark status for the plant. "It is a critical part of the aesthetic character of the neighborhood and an important part of its history," said Paul Parkhill, co-director of the educational group Place in History.

Despite the hubbub over the apparent demise of the smokestacks, the developer of the project said on Friday that he had no such plans. "We have no intention to take down the smokestacks," said Cheskel Schwimmer, vice president of CGS Builders, a Brooklyn firm. "We want to try to preserve the smokestacks as much as possible."

The intention behind applying for the permit, he said, was to get permission to remove small pieces of the smokestacks and incorporate them into the design.

To that end, Mr. Schwimmer and the architect he hired, Karl Fischer, have produced a rendering that includes a cube of glass resting on top of the existing building and attached to the smokestacks, which would actually become part of the new building and be equipped with windows. "We will both reinforce the smokestacks and create good living space within the building," Mr. Schwimmer said.

For the time being, he and Mr. Fischer, who was the architect for the renovated Gretsch Building in Williamsburg, are working with the city's departments of buildings and city planning to get the cube design approved. In the meantime, it seems that the smokestacks, beacons of Queens past, will continue to point their brown spires into the sky.

Copyright 2005 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[ZippyTheChimp]

Originally called the Westinghouse Power Station
McKim Mead & White (1909)

Penn RR power plant.
NY & Queens Electric Light & Power Co.
Schwartz Chwmical Co
http://www.pbase.com/zippythechimp/image/21219814.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/zippythechimp/image/21227499.jpg

[Stern]

I have always loved this building and I am glad to hear it might not be torn down. I have always hoped it could be incorporated into an indoor space, how the Winter Garden is for Battery Park City, such incorporation has been done in Cities like Washington D.C. and Pittsburgh and would be appropriate for Long Island City still making the transformation from an industrial district to a 24/7 residential community.

[Kris]

On the Waterfront

With the developments River East and Silvercup West, a stately cityscape would stretch along the river from the Queens line to the Queensboro bridge

BY DANIEL HENDRICK
Daniel Hendrick is a frequent contributor to Newsday.

February 6, 2005

Move over, Queens West.

The Long Island City skyline is expected to get a little more crowded soon as a new mixed-use development rises along the East River and a second complex, just south of the Queensboro Bridge, begins to go from the drawing boards to reality.

In June, construction is expected to begin on River East, a five-acre nexus of restaurants, condominiums, shops and gardens on 44th Avenue between Vernon Boulevard and the waterfront. When the $350-million-plus complex by Vernon Realty is finished, estimated in mid-2007, it will encompass eight buildings, including two 30-story towers.

A third of a mile to the north, on Vernon Boulevard near the Queensboro Bridge, the founders of Silvercup Studios, Stuart Match Suna and his brother Alan, have revived plans for Silvercup West, a film-inspired minicity of apartments, shops, sound stages and even a museum. After the six-acre project nearly fell apart four years ago, work now is expected to begin late this year and end in late 2009.

The two ventures harness momentum generated by Queens West, a public-private partnership that produced the 43-story City- lights building in 1997 and 32-story Avalon Riverview in 2002, and will eventually encompass 19 buildings over 74 acres.

River East and Silvercup West go a step further, incorporating everything from parking to retail to open space. "Even within the presence of some of these very strong architects that work in the neighborhood, we want to do something that raises the bar completely beyond what anyone's done for residential development, including in Manhattan," said Jay Valgora, whose V Studio is designing River East.

River East's plan

Rising between Board of Education and Con Edison buildings, River East will be built on land now occupied by the Fila Tennis Club.

Two eight-story mixed commercial and residential buildings will flank the entrance on 44th Avenue, followed by two eight-story buildings to the east that will include town house-style duplexes on the first two floors and single-floor apartments above.

A pair of 30-story towers will dominate the scene, overlooking a waterfront esplanade, playground and park. The complex will house 902 condominiums overall and include 1.1-million square feet of interior space.

V Studio's design seeks to meld new materials with concepts seen elsewhere in Long Island City. The waterfront towers will be constructed with floor-to-ceiling glass, making them the largest residential glass buildings in the city, Valgora said. Meanwhile, billboard-size architectural slabs atop buildings in the complex will echo the nearby PepsiCo and Silvercup Studios billboards - except that River East's billboards will be parts of rooftop gardens and will be covered with foliage. Two parking garages will be built underground, and noted landscape architect Ken Smith plans to locate trees and shrubbery throughout the development.

Silvercup silent

Silvercup West will be on Vernon Boulevard between 43rd Avenue and the Queensboro Bridge. Silvercup Studios representatives declined to talk about the project, saying it is in the early phases.

But an application filed with a state agency in December offers the most detailed view yet of the 2.3-million-square-foot development, which promises to reshape a neighborhood now home to warehouses and public housing.

Silvercup West will include 1,000 apartments, 655,000 square feet of office space and a 350,000-square-foot film and television studio. The plan also calls for retail space, a health club, catering hall, underground garage, a 125,000- square-foot museum and a waterfront promenade that will be open to the public.

To get a comprehensive design, Silvercup Studios last year selected the Richard Rogers Partnership, a U.K.-based architectural firm known for its work on the Centre Pompidou in Paris and London's Millennium Dome and Canary Wharf.

Silvercup Studios had hoped to get started on Silvercup West after buying a 2.7-acre property on Vernon Boulevard in 1999. But the following year, the New York Power Authority announced plans to install electricity-generating turbines next door.

Silvercup sued the authority, fearing turbine noise would interfere with a planned sound stage, but the company declined to put up a $5-million bond to shield NYPA from any financial damages incurred by a work stoppage.

Plans for Silvercup West now include the 3.3-acre NYPA-owned property - even though the authority has not agreed to sell it. "It's not like it's chiseled in stone that we are going to stay there," said NYPA spokesman Jack Murphy. "We have said that we would consider negotiating, provided that certain long-term conditions were met. But there is nothing definite."

Long Island City residents and community leaders agree River East and Silvercup West will improve neighborhood aesthetics, but raise questions.

Concern for historic factory

The first concerns the fate of the Terra Cotta Works building, a late 19th century edifice that is the sole visible remnant of a ceramics factory complex that once operated on the property. Plans filed with the state indicate the damaged landmark "will be integrated into the proposed development."

"That landmarked building is not supposed to be touched, and the fear with projects like this is that it somehow will go away," said Ray Normandeau, who lives in the nearby Queensbridge Houses.

The larger question for both projects is how they will impact Long Island City, particularly its economics. Community Board 2 chairman Joe Conley predicted that River East and Silvercup West will increase demand for space, leading to higher rents that will displace working-class housing and manufacturing jobs.

"These developments are not a bad thing for the neighborhood," Conley said. "But there has to be some kind of plan to keep the businesses and jobs that are here now. Otherwise, it's the lower socio-economic groups that are going to be pushed out."

For the 30,000 residents of the nearby Queensbridge, Ravenswood and Astoria Houses, however - where rents are fixed and unemployment is high - the construction blitz could be a godsend, said the Rev. Mitchell Taylor, of the East River Development Alliance. "This experience excites me, because it gives us a window of opportunity to connect residents of public housing to all of the changes taking place in Long Island City."

But the greatest benefit to the public has little to do with economics, planners say. Much of the East River waterfront is inaccessible to the public; these two projects will change that and form part of what may one day be a single contiguous riverfront community.

"The grand opportunity here is a set of waterfront parks and connections from Queensbridge Park all the way to Hunters Point," said John Young, Queens director of the Department of City Planning.

Copyright © 2005, Newsday, Inc. (http://www.newsday.com/)

[NewYorkYankee]

YEAH YEAH! This is good news! Im excited! Great for LIC!

[Archit_K]

Nice photos ZippyTheChimp.

[billyblancoNYC]

by Neille Ilel, Western Queens Editor
February 10, 2005
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13931844&BRD=1865&PAG=461&dept_id=152944&rfi=6

Residents and developers in Long Island City are hoping that River East, a 1.2-million-square-foot residential and commercial project in Long Island City, will finally give the neighborhood the “it” status that boosters have been predicting for years.
Vernon Realty, in addition to developing River East, is also in the early stages of three commercial ventures within two blocks of the River East site. One is a large grocery store that the company’s president Marshall Weissman described as “in the Whole Foods type—one of the sexy ones.” Another is the addition of “two very popular New York City restaurants.” And finally there’s talk of a pair of stores of the “Gap-type.” Weissman added that it was too early for him to go into specifics.
According to Weissman, River East is getting 200 to 250 calls a day from interested buyers—and excavation hasn’t even begun on the bu
ildings. “It’s insane,” he admitted.
It isn’t unheard of for real estate developers to create their own buzz. For an area like Long Island City, which has been on the verge of massive development for as long as anyone can remember, developers aren’t the only ones anxious to give it that final push.
The River East complex will include two 30-story glass towers and four 8-story buildings that will be located on 44th Avenue between Vernon Boulevard and the waterfront. In addition, a public park will be landscaped along the waterfront, paid for by the developer, but open to the public.
“This development is long overdue,” said George Stamatiades, a member of the Dutch Kills Civic Association, which is on the north side of the Queensborough Bridge. “We’re just too strategically located to have been skipped over for so long.”
Weissman agreed, noting that the development will be especially attractive to Manhattanites who have been priced out of that borough’s real estate market.
“This is a new vision for Long Island City,” said the project’s architect Jay Valgora, principal of V Studios. He said that as an architect, designing the soaring towers was a thrill, but he is most proud of the waterfront park and playground. The development is situated just north of the Queens West development project.
“We lobbied very hard for the esplanade space,” said Joseph Conley, chairman of Community Board 2. The neighborhood has been working with the Department of City Planning since 1992 to develop the area with a waterfront park reaching all the way to Astoria.
The agency and the site’s previous owners, the East River Tennis Club, agreed on ground rules for the site, including the amount of public space and height restrictions on the structures, before the property was sold to developers.
Terri Adams, president of the Hunters Point Community Development organization said she too welcomed the development, but had reservations about the height and rather large bulk that seem to be standard for the latest string of Long Island City developments.
Silvercup Studios, located just east of River East, has restarted its own plans to develop a mixed-use development in its industrial environs. Relative to the six-acre Silvercup expansion project and Queens West, “this is the most delicately scaled,” Valgora said. The two tall towers will be situated on the waterfront so as not to impose on the rest of the neighborhood. The smaller buildings, which will house townhouses and lofts, will even have their own modern version of stoops.
Valgora said that it makes sense to have large-scale developments on the waterfront because there is a big demand for the accompanying views. Included in the design is 20,000 square feet of retail space, which will be given over to necessities for occupants of the building, like a pharmacy and dry cleaner.
Residents will also have access to an indoor and outdoor pool, a gym and two floors of below-ground parking. The signature design element in all the structures is the glass exterior, which appears frequently in Valgora’s work.
He has recently been involved in the RKO Keith’s Theatre site in Flushing, which also makes extensive use of glass exteriors. It was recently rejected for a variance by the community board, but Valgora and community members are hopeful that an agreement on a smaller building will be reached within the next month.
River East, on the other hand, will be built entirely as of right, meaning the plans are all within current zoning restrictions. Excavation will begin in the coming weeks and the foundation will be laid in June.
“It’s very important that this raises the bar on design,” Valgora said. “Long Island City is one of the most special neighborhoods in New York.” Now will the rest of the city agree?

[NewYorkYankee]

Good news! I cant wait until these start going up! :) :)

[TonyO]

NYSun

February 24, 2005

If City's Olympic Bid Fails, Developers Are Ready

BY JULIE SATOW - Staff Reporter of the Sun
February 24, 2005
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/9672

If New York loses its bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics, a feeding frenzy could erupt among developers jostling to build on a prime piece of riverfront real estate in Long Island City, where the Olympic Village is now planned.

The $1.6 billion Olympic Village is to be developed on a 61-acre site with a view of the Manhattan skyline, but the plan would be scrapped if the International Olympic Committee does not pick New York when it votes for a host city on July 6.

The state, city, and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey jointly own Queens West, as the land is known. The property covers 74 acres at Hunters Point, where a total of 7,500 apartments are eventually planned. Located across the East River from the United Nations, it is near the no. 7 subway line and is also accessible via the Midtown Tunnel and the 59th Street Bridge.

If the Olympic plan falls through, the southern portion of Queens West, where the Olympic Village is to be built, would be put up for development bids. Rockrose Development Corp. and AvalonBay are already developing the northern portion of the site. The $1 billion Rockrose development includes 3,000 luxury condominiums in seven buildings, and AvalonBay is building three luxury rentals.

"This is one of the most attractive areas in New York, just really prime," a senior fellow at the conservative think tank Manhattan Institute, Julia Vitullo-Martin, said. "It has riverfront views and great transportation into Manhattan."

The managing partner at development advising firm Washington Square, Paul Travis, said the land's development value, already high, is likely to grow.

"The land at Queens West is extremely valuable for residential development," said Mr. Travis, who has advised a number of developers with property in Long Island City. "It is going to grow like Battery Park City, where the more people who move there, the more valuable it becomes, even though it has had a relatively slow start."

Mr. Travis also believes retail will be a lucrative market because of its close proximity to Manhattan and the availability of large parcels of developable land.

"It is possible to assemble larger sites for big-box retail here," said Mr. Travis, who advised developers of the Costco store on nearby Vernon Boulevard.

"I continue not to see office or office related development because of the lack of mass-transit access to the waterfront," he added. While a single subway line is sufficient for residential development, office development is more likely where there are a number of transit lines.

"The office hub will be around the Jackson Boulevard and Queens Boulevard corridor," Mr. Travis predicted.

This Olympic Village plan, with 4,500 units of housing in a long ribbon of low-rise buildings with two high-rises overlooking the East River, is the result of an international competition held after the International Olympic Committee panned NYC2012's original plan.

A private developer will pay for the $1.6 billion plan, which NYC2012 will lease from the developer for 11 months during the Games. After that, the developer will transform the area into 18,000 market-rate apartments, including some affordable units. The number of affordable units has yet to be determined, according to officials at NYC2012.

The Olympic Village plan by Morphosis, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based architecture company, was chosen by an eight-member design review panel that evaluated 132 entries from 20 countries. The Morphosis plan reduced the number of high rises in the Olympic Village by a ratio of 10-to-4, and created 43 acres of new parkland for more access to the riverbanks surrounding the village on three sides. The plan also increased the living space for each of the 17,000 athletes, coaches, and team officials to 314 square feet of space, compared to the IOC minimum of 130 square feet.

More parkland allowed for more training sites near the village, with several multisport fields, a full-size Olympic track around a soccer pitch, tennis courts, and smaller fields for personalized workouts just a short walk from the athletes' residences.

"It takes pioneers to go into a site and build critical mass, but this is what is happening in Long Island City," said the director of planning and design for NYC2012, Andrew Winters. "We are optimistic that any development there would be snatched up by developers."

[Kris]

From today's Daily News:

http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/287096p-245810c.html

I'd love to see that hulk be converted into residences, but holy moley, how expensive such a process would be. If the developer can do it, my hat is off to him.
.

[Boonchies]

It's about time LIC gets the attention it deserves. It's perfect for all forms of transportation, the views are great, it has this wonderful community feeling, nice parks & more to come. In addition, I suggest you guys walk around the area-I love seeing the unique and random architecture and land use.

[JCMAN320]

We have our own huge Powerhouse from the Hudson Manhattan Railroad (what we now know as the PATH) dating back to 1904 in Downtown Jersey City which is the cornerstone of our Powerhouse Arts District which is comprised of factories dating back to the late 1800s, similar to DUMBO in Brooklyn, which house artist and musicians. It's going to become our SoHo. The Powerhouse is most likely going to become a performing arts facility for the city. The H & M is on the National and State List of Historic Places. Maybe LIC can use there's in the same fashion, I see it all the time from the East River when I take the ferry to Yankee games, it's beautiful.

[billyblancoNYC]

Yeah Jersey! I didn't know LIC moved there.

[TonyO]

NYSun
3/10/2005

The Remaking of Gritty Long Island City

http://www.nysun.com/edition/2005-03-10_large.jpg

MICHAEL STOLER

Can Long Island City, perceived by many real estate leaders as a gritty, undesirable place in need of infrastructure, become one of the city's central business districts? For years, it has been designated by planners as a potential fourth central business district, after Midtown Manhattan, downtown Manhattan, and Downtown Brooklyn. The CEO and co-principal at Silvercup Studios, Alan Suna, said that "Times Square and the Lower East Side were gritty and dirty, and no one ever thought of these places as places to live, work, or, better yet, as a 24/7 environment where people thrived. Well, those naysayers were proven wrong, and I believe that tradition will continue with Long Island City."

Last December, Mayor Bloomberg signed legislation establishing a business improvement district in the vicinity of Queens Plaza and Court Square. The BID covers 85 properties in Long Island City from 21st Street to Jackson Avenue, in addition to all properties along both sides of Jackson Avenue between Court Square and Queens Plaza.

BIDs have been successful in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The goal of the BID is to attract new businesses for the area while also retaining those already there. City Council Member Eric Gioia said, "When you create a business improvement district, you are putting up a sign that says, 'Welcome, we are open for business,' and you become a magnet for attracting other businesses."

The senior real estate lender at Amalgamated Bank, Tom Graf, said, "Even though the BID was formulated, as a result of New York City rediscovering this barren wasteland after 40 years, the area remains undesirable and unsafe, particularly at night, as evidenced by the abundance of crack-addicted prostitutes. The city exacerbates the social problem in Long Island City by continuing to bus and discharge Rikers Island former inmates in front of the Queens Plaza local 24-hour Twin Donut store," he said.

The president of Shalom Zuckerbrot, Frank Zuckerbrot, said, "If you build it, it does not mean people will come to LIC. Markets dictate what happens, and you have to have the right people packaging the product." A partner at Tishman Speyer Properties, Jerry Cohen, said, "We have to create a product that the market wants and which is comparable to Midtown Manhattan. The cost of construction is identical in Long Island City and Manhattan, and, therefore, we need governmental incentives for construction and incentives for employers to relocate."

***

On December 13, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall announced the terms for the redevelopment of the site of the Queens Plaza parking garage. The 99-year lease calls for the 3-acre site to be developed after demoli tion of the existing municipal garage. In 2003, the New York City Economic Development Corporation designated the site for mixed-use commercial development with office space, a garage, and retail tenants. Mr. Cohen said, "We expect to construct 3 million square feet of state-of-the-art, efficient office space with large footprints, which will attract many corporate users. We believe that the time is ready now. There is a demand for new office space." According to industry insiders, Tishman Speyer plans to construct a building on Jackson Avenue with the Department of Transportation as the major tenant.

A vice president at Brause Realty, David Brause, said, "For a rent 75% less than in Midtown Manhattan, a tenant can have a brand-new class A office space, one stop away from Bloomingdale's on 59th Street."

Mr. Zuckerbrot and Mr. Suna said that Long Island City continues to lack critical mass. "Critical mass means lots of people in an area, which is a 24/7 community, people who want to live, work, and have fun in the area."

Both Mr. Zuckerbrot and Mr. Suna added that, over the next five to 10 years, we are going to have critical mass.

Michael Boxer, who is a managing partner of RCG Longview and Ramius Capital Group - which together with Jeffrey Fiel and Lloyd Goldman of BLDG Management, owns 30-30 and 30-20 Thompson Ave., which have about 1.1 million square feet in space - said he is encouraged by the prospects of Long Island City as a viable office market. He believes the growth of the residential market expected along the waterfront in Williamsburg and Greenpoint will push north into Long Island City. He predicts this will take five to seven years.

***

Commercial development in Long Island City has limped through the past two decades. In 1984, Citibank acquired a 2-acre, 82,000-square-foot trapezoidal site in Queens for about $3.5 million. According to industry insiders, the price was at least 75% cheaper than land in Manhattan. In February 1989, the 48-story, 1.4 millionsquare-foot One Court Square, and a four-story service wing, welcomed its first employees. The site includes a fitness center, a small store, dining rooms, a half-acre public plaza, and direct access to the E, F, and G subway lines. Even today, the area lacks enough foot traffic and many of the local restaurants are empty after 7 in the evening.

Mr. Suna said, "In 1989, Citibank built the building that did not work. Their original intention was not to take the entire building for occupancy. At that time, Long Island City lacked zoning, and there was an absence of political willpower."

Later this year, Tishman Speyer will begin development of the $200 million, 14-story, 475,000-square-foot Court Square Two. Also, plans have been announced that the United Nations Credit Union is planning to begin construction of a 250,000-square-foot office building near Citicorp's office campus.

The executive vice president of valuation services in the capital markets group at Cushman & Wakefield, Brian Corcoran, said, "Major Manhattan developers are becoming active in looking at large sites for new office construction for the first time in over a decade."

In May 2001, MetLife announced that it entered into a lease with Brause Realty for the former Brewster building at 27-01 Bridge Plaza North. The city provided MetLife with $26 million in real estate tax abatements and other incentives for the move. Two years later, Brause Realty completed construction of an adjacent 12-story, 282,000-square-foot building, which was then connected to 1 MetLife Plaza.

David Brause said, "MetLife is very happy in the 690,000-square-foot building. All 1,500 employees are learning about the larger variety of amenities the neighborhood has to offer. Great restaurants are constantly opening. The vibe is very much like what you witnessed in SoHo or TriBeCa 20 years ago."

A partner at the real estate financing firm Haves Pine Seligman, Marc Haves, said, "In order for the office market to truly develop in Long Island City, a bulk area similar to Metro Tech development in Brooklyn would have to first be assembled. One obvious area where this type of development could take place is the Sunnyside train yards where a platform would have to be built over the yards. The complex should have a mixed-use purpose to include much-needed market-rate rental and affordable housing, coupled with retail and office."

***

In July 2001, the City Council approved the rezoning of 37 centrally located blocks in Long Island City. The zoning will facilitate commercial development and allow new residences to mix with commercial and light-industry business. The goal of the zoning was to foster reinvestment and redevelopment taking advantage of Long Island City's excellent mass transit access and its supply of large, underdeveloped properties.

One major project scheduled for completion in 2009 on the East River is One Silvercup West. According to Mr. Suna, "The project includes over 2 million square feet, including a 400,000-square-foot building to serve as film production facilities,1,000 apartments, a 100,000-square-foot cultural facility, a 650,0000-square-foot office building, a 1,200-seat catering facility, which is sorely needed in Western Queens, and a variety of waterfront restaurants and pubs, gym, and retail."

Development in the city at large is booming and motivating changes in Long Island City. Still, transportation needs improvement, and the neighborhood lacks retail options and other amenities, such as a supermarkets and cultural activities. The rezoning and planned commercial office buildings, along with residential conversions of industrial properties, new construction, and the possibility of the 2012 Olympics, will help the neighborhood one day reach the critical mass needed to make it the fourth central business district.

[Gulcrapek]

STUDIOS Architecture participated in a competition to design Block 86/72 in LIC, a 1-million sf office building.

http://www.studiosarch.com/ > competitions > Block 86/72

[tmg]

The New York Post
THE HIGH POINT
By JOANNA WALTERS

March 12, 2005 -- If you listen to the buzz, the piece of land deemed to have the most development potential in the area is in -- Queens.

Got that? The race is on for Hunters Point, a lesser-known sub-district of Long Island City, directly opposite Midtown.

The 43-block industrial and residential hodge-podge of factories, rubble and townhouses is currently a little low on glitter right now. But with its combo of unrivalled views of Manhattan (and access to Midtown), and now a crucial rezoning under its belt, loft-living and condos with wraparound terraces are on the way for thousands.

New French bistros, Italian pizza joints, a jazz cafe, lounge bars, gift shops, pet suppliers, boutiques and florists are springing up alongside the Irish pubs and diners on the central retail drag, Vernon Boulevard.

A rezoning that was passed last year gives the green light for more high-rises and factory conversions. "This area has more potential than probably anywhere else in the world," says Queens councilman Eric Gioia.

"This neighborhood is five minutes from Grand Central by subway, and you have a mix of beautiful brownstones, light industry, new condos, lofts, cool restaurants - an artist community and rents and house prices that are half to two-thirds of Midtown," says Luis Chavez, a local manager at Gotham Realty.

The three apartment and office towers that now grace the skyline across the East River from the United Nations building are just the start. At least eight more apartment buildings are planned for the waterfront, and five will be dotted elsewhere in the neighborhood, along with new office space.

That's not counting the planned $1.6 billion Olympic village two blocks to the south, if the city is chosen for the 2012 Games.

Rockrose, a development firm, is spending $1.2 billion to build seven towers on the waterfront, with a total of 3,200 apartments. Some will be for sale, some for rent. The whole thing is coming to market over the next five to 10 years as part of a 74-acre development known as Queens West.

The location is on the site of a former Pepsi-Cola factory, and preserving the famous illuminated sign, and building a park along the esplanade are part of the deal.

LOFTY PRICES

"These are the best views in the world," says Jon McMillan, Rockrose development director. "Our apartments will have style, glamour and services that will make it look like Midtown migrated to Queens."

Since the first Rockrose building will not open until the end of 2006, McMillan refuses to fix the prices yet. "If you look at the prices in Brooklyn Heights and some of the new condo developments in Williamsburg, where they are priced around $675 to $800 per square foot, I would hope to be around that ballpark," he says.

Others are not so coy, as local entrepreneurs create their own piece of the action. Take Joseph Palumbo, who owns one of Hunters Point's best-hidden gems - a spa and hair salon on 50th Avenue called Mind Full Peace.

He supplies upmarket facial and massage products to chic spas all over the country.

While Palumbo ships from downstairs, he and his family run a salon and spa upstairs. He also owns a small parking lot opposite, where he plans to construct a boutique co-op building this year.

The 11 two- and three-bedroom units of around 1,400 square feet will be priced from around $700,000, and will be a two-minute walk from the water.

"Most of the real-estate prices around here have doubled in the past two to three years. I've been here 40 years and I like the progress. I hope this place turns into a new Greenwich Village or SoHo," he says.

FACTORY ROW

Still, some urban myths about Hunters Point need to be shattered. It is not the new SoHo. And it is not the new Williamsburg, as many like to prophecy.

Not in the sense that abandoned factories are waiting for artists and hipsters to move in for peanuts tomorrow.

Instead, it's a five- to 15-year vision for a neighborhood to go from industrial semi-wilderness to tony-town - and not much will be bought for peanuts.

"The factories and warehouses are still functioning as industries," says Chavez. "People are talking about buying them and converting them into artists' lofts, but there are not that many for sale right now."

Experts think many small industries could hold out before selling, as they watch prices for their property skyrocket.

The same is true of the housing stock. From the Italianate brownstones on landmarked 45th 'Millionaire's Row' Avenue to the more modest residential blocks farther south, renting is difficult, and buying and selling is often word-of-mouth only.

New York developers the Lions Group have two apartment buildings in the pipeline; one, opposite the current Citigroup building, will be a 14-story upscale doorman building, with floor plans available now and completion toward the end of the year.

Lions partner Raimon Chirian promises luxury units and a building with a gym, conference rooms and a great view of the river and Manhattan - studios will start at $400,000 and the penthouse with wraparound terrace will cost around $1 million.

The second building will be a similar 13-story condo building on the corner of 50th and Jackson avenues, for completion in 2006. (Corcoran is the broker for both buildings.)

"Stainless-steel kitchens, marble bathrooms, top of the line," says Chirian.

The new buildings will all be a stone's throw from the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center (part of the MoMA), and the cluster of artists' studios that already dot the area.

Larger art magnets such as the Noguchi Museum, the Socrates Sculpture Park and the Museum for African Art are to the north.

Hunters Point has just one public school, the highly regarded P.S. 78 Elementary, at the base of the Citylights building. A middle school and a high school are likely to evolve as the area develops.

The area's other disadvantages? There is not a lot of greenery in Hunters Point, and residents complain that the single local supermarket is lame. Many are campaigning to persuade Fresh Direct, which only delivers to large apartment buildings in the area, to deliver more widely.

The waterfront will likely back onto a massive construction site for the next few years, and once the towers are complete there are likely to be a lot of joggers and dog-walkers for one small park.

SCREEN DREAMS

Hunters Point took off as a transport hub when the LIRR moved its terminus there from Brooklyn in 1861. Commuters can still connect from the local station to Jamaica during rush hour.

Commuters to Manhattan have the E, V and 7 lines, or a water taxi to 34th Street or Wall Street.

The nearest movie theater is a short subway ride away in Sunnyside, though movie options could change dramatically if the derelict hulk that was the Schwartz Chemical Factory is turned into a shopping mall, cineplex and apartment-building monolith, as is being suggested by developer Cheskel Schwimmer.

He bought the factory and another building next door, but the rebuilding involved will make it a longer-term project.

The broker on that deal, Ephrom Allen of Halstead Realty, is also involved with another (unidentified) developer who is planning a new 24-unit luxury condo building.

"There is almost no residential inventory in Long Island City, especially in larger apartments," says Allen. "This is going to be the most elite spot to live outside Manhattan."

[billyblancoNYC]

STUDIOS Architecture participated in a competition to design Block 86/72 in LIC, a 1-million sf office building.

http://www.studiosarch.com/ > competitions > Block 86/72

This is not the one to replace that horrid parking garage by Tishman, right? I think that's to have 3 msf.

[Stern]

New York Daily News:

$1.4M facelift for Qns. park
BY OREN YANIV
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, March 18th, 2005

In a bid to "reclaim the waterfront," officials have announced $1.4 million worth of improvements to Queensbridge Park, a heavily used recreation area on the East River bank.

"We're not just investing in a park, we're investing in a neighborhood," Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Sunnyside) proclaimed during a press conference Friday outside the Queensbridge Houses.

The project will add a new synthetic turf soccer field and revamp athletic courts, walkways and picnic areas, all on the north side of the park.

Plans call for the revitalization of one-quarter of the 20-acre park that stretches between Queensborough Plaza and 40th Ave., and between Vernon Blvd. and the river.

"It's a perfect spot for a wonderful park," said Borough President Helen Marshall, adding that residents of the Queensbridge Houses, the largest housing development in the nation, are the main users of the facilities.

"When you have such a concentration of people, they need a place to go, exercise and just enjoy life," said the Rev. Mitchell Taylor, a community activist.

The park plays host to outdoor concerts, family gatherings and sporting events, said Elizabeth McQueen, the park's stewardess.

"In the summertime, the park is loaded," she said.

The artificial turf, which is becoming the standard in city parks, will prevent wear and tear, allow soccer to be played year-round and all but eliminate maintenance costs, officials said.

Once completed, a youth soccer league would be organized in the park, joining the baseball and basketball leagues that were founded in the area in recent years. The leagues are being run by Gioia's office, the East River Development Alliance and the YMCA.

Queensbridge Park offers panoramic vistas of the Manhattan skyline and Gioia said he hopes that one day Queens' riverside - from Newtown Creek to the Triborough Bridge - would become an attractive destination.

"Our waterfront should be a place where people can go to bike, jog, or simply relax and enjoy the view," he said. "Today, we reclaim the waterfront."

Now that the blueprints are finalized, construction is set to begin in the fall and is expected to last about 15 months.

"I'm looking forward to coming back here and cutting the ribbon," Marshall said.

[Stern]

NYTIMES:

March 21, 2005
American Maverick Wins Pritzker Prize
By ROBIN POGREBIN

Thom Mayne, who has been called the bad boy and angry young man of Los Angeles architecture, will be named today as the winner of this year's Pritzker Architecture Prize, considered the profession's highest honor. Mr. Mayne, 61, is the first American to win the prize in 14 years.

"I've been such an outsider my whole life," he said in a telephone interview from his office at Morphosis, his firm in Santa Monica, Calif. "It's just kind of startling."

Given his reputation as a maverick, Mr. Mayne's selection as this year's Pritzker laureate would seem to signal his induction into the establishment. Indeed, that shift would seem to have begun with his selection for three government projects now rising under the General Services Administration's program to promote "design excellence" in architecture: a glass federal office building in San Francisco that eliminates corner offices in favor of a democratic space, with city views for 90 percent of the workstations; a federal courthouse in Eugene, Ore., that elevates the courtrooms above a glass plinth; and a satellite facility, crowned with 16 antennas and partly submerged in the landscape, for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration outside Washington.

But Mr. Mayne said he saw the prize as a recognition of his iconoclastic approach - and as a mandate to keep agitating.

"I see this as a validation for architecture in general," he said, "and for me to push even harder."

To be sure, in its citation the Pritzker jury acknowledged Mr. Mayne's countercultural roots, calling him "a product of the turbulent 60's who has carried that rebellious attitude and fervent desire for change into his practice, the fruits of which are only now becoming visible in a group of large-scale projects."

Among those is his recent Caltrans District 7 building, a headquarters of the California Transportation Department in downtown Los Angeles. The hulking 1.2 million-square-foot building has cantilevered upper floors and a mechanized perforated skin that adjusts to the light throughout the day, becoming as transparent as glass at dusk.

Like the name of his firm, Morphosis, with its suggested embrace of constant change, Mr. Mayne's signature style has been difficult to pin down over the years. He became known in the 1980's for his ornamental restaurant renovations on the west side of Los Angeles; his first large-scale residence, the widely influential Crawford House in Montecito, Calif., featured redwood totems topped with skylights.

Yet recurring elements run through many Mayne buildings, like blocky jutting shapes, glass and metal, double skins, shifting degrees of light, curvilinear walls and elevators that skip stops.

In New York Mr. Mayne has designed a nine-story art and engineering building for Cooper Union in Manhattan and an Olympic Village in Hunters Point, Queens - a mixed-use waterfront development that is scheduled to go up whether or not the games come to New York in 2012. The Cooper Union building, to begin construction next year, features a central atrium crisscrossed by sky bridges; the Olympic Village preserves most of the site as parkland, with residential towers at the northern end and low-rise ribbonlike housing tilted at an angle toward the water. Reviewing the Cooper Union design, Nicolai Ouroussoff, the architecture critic for The New York Times, praised Mr. Mayne for his social optimism and "enthusiasm for the congestion and dynamism on which cities thrive."

The bands of windows he designed for Cooper Union echo those at Caltrans and the San Francisco federal building; the billboard-size letters adorning the courthouse in Eugene, Ore., echo a massive street number at Caltrans and the big letters labeling the graduate housing he built at the University of Toronto (completed in 2000).

Mr. Mayne described his style as idiosyncratic.

"The multiplicity of ideas is what I'm interested in," he said. "The hybrid in our society - where there is no singular idea of what is beautiful."

The Pritzker jury acknowledged this eclectic quality in its citation. "Mayne's approach toward architecture and his philosophy is not derived from European modernism, Asian influences or even from American precedents of the last century," it says. "He has sought throughout his career to create an original architecture, one that is truly representative of the unique, somewhat rootless, culture of Southern California, especially the architecturally rich city of Los Angeles."

Born in Waterbury, Conn., Mr. Mayne began his career as an urban planner after graduating with an architecture degree from the University of Southern California in 1968. Four years later, with five other architects, he formed a new school, the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), which aimed to bring to Los Angeles the critical attitude toward the profession that was being practiced at Cooper Union in New York and the Architectural Association in London. The school is still operating, although Mr. Mayne now teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Around the time of the founding of SCI-Arc, he founded an architectural firm with two school friends who were also teachers.

Mr. Ouroussoff has described Mr. Mayne's early works as "militaristic" and characterized by a "brooding aggression." That style was broken by his 1993 design of Diamond Ranch High School in Pomona, Calif., one of his first major public commissions, with two rows of fragmented buildings set on either side of a long central sidewalk "canyon" and a monumental stairway embedded in the hillside that doubles as an amphitheater.

Mr. Mayne's other California projects include two medical office buildings on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles, several distinctive private residences and the Cahill Center for Astrophysics at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, currently under way.

His most recent commission, the result of a design competition, is for a new State Capitol building in Juneau, Alaska.

Internationally, Mr. Mayne designed the Hypo Alpe-Adria Center, a mixed-use bank headquarters in Klagenfurt, Austria; the ASE Design Center in Taipei, Taiwan; the Sun Tower in Seoul, South Korea; and a housing project to be completed next year in Madrid.

Mr. Mayne is only the eighth American to be honored since the Pritzker was first awarded, in 1979 to Philip Johnson. He is to receive a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion on May 31 in Chicago's Millennium Park in a ceremony in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, named for the founder of the prize and designed by the architect Frank Gehry, one of the Pritzker jurors, who won in 1989.

Mr. Gehry, who is based in Los Angeles, said he did not think of Mr. Mayne as an insurgent so much as an individual. "He's a really authentic architect," he said in an telephone interview. "He's developed his own space and language."

Mr. Mayne, too, questioned this persistent characterization of him as contrarian. "I think my clients would tell you I'm a problem solver," he said. "I'm not there to agree with people. I'm there to articulate a point of view."

"Am I insistent and tenacious?" he said. "Absolutely. I could not get this work done if I was not."

At the same time, Mr. Mayne added, experience has taught him the necessity - if not the art - of compromise. "I've grown up a little bit," he said. "I understand the importance of the negotiation. It is a collective act."

[Derek2k3]

Project #1

45-56 Pearson Street
20 stories
Scarano & Associates Architects
Dev-Rosma Development
Residential Condominium
120 units
Proposed July 2005-Late 2006

http://www.nydailynews.com/ips_rich_content/597-building.JPG
Preliminary rendering by Scarano Architects of condominium project at 45-56 Pearson St. near Queens West waterfront.


Condo craze building
in Long Island City

Daily News Exclusive
http://www.nydailynews.com/business/story/292477p-250402c.html

By LORE CROGHAN
DAILY NEWS BUSINESS WRITER

The heart of Long Island City is finally going condo.

In a move that could touch off a wave of apartment construction, a Brooklyn condo developer bought the first major building site sold since the 37-block Queens industrial area was rezoned in mid-2001.

The developer is one of a host of builders from hot residential enclaves like Williamsburg who are looking for a new frontier.

"I see a very good opportunity in Long Island City," Mark Junger of Rosma Development told the Daily News. "I think it's going to be a hot neighborhood."

He paid $16.5 million for the site at 45-56 Pearson St. - where he's going to construct a 20-story "Manhattan-style building,"he said.

Until now, big residential projects have hugged the Queens West waterfront. The new condo tower will be further inland, off Jackson Avenue.

Junger's luxury tower will have fancy touches like a swimming pool with a retractable dome, a running track on one roof of the building, and a garden on another.

There will be 120 condos of varying sizes, from one-bedroom units to big penthouses. He plans to break ground by July, and spend the following year and a half building the project. The site now consists of a warehouse and parking lot.

It's too soon to set apartment prices, but Junger anticipates they'll run around $600 to $700 per square foot - comparable to condo rates in sought-after Williamsburg.

He expects to attract buyers who work in Manhattan - it's about a 15-minute subway ride to Grand Central Terminal.

Most of the 15 bidders for the development site wanted to build condos, and the rest were planning rental apartments, said Jeffrey Troy of Eastern Consolidated, the sale broker with colleagues Alan Miller and Louis Ricci.

Junger paid about $92 per buildable square foot for the site. As demand for sites in the nabe heats up, it will be hard to find land for less than $100 per buildable square foot, Eastern brokers predicted.

Still, that's not as high as Williamsburg land prices, which are approaching $150 per square foot.

Several Long Island City sites are now in play - Junger himself's going after one.

Originally published on March 23, 2005

[Gulcrapek]

Not bad. I'd rather a larger rendering though.

[Stern]

I believe the site, a boarded ware-house is currently being torn down. There's another small condo-development with a rendering posted nearby with excavations starting soon.

[Derek2k3]

Project #2

38-42 11th Street
9 stories 107 feet
Kushner Studios
Dev-KJDS Realty
Commercial
53,000 Sq. Ft.
Under Construction

http://www.pbase.com/archit_kderek2k3/image/41178937.jpg
Kushner Studios
http://kushnerstudios.com/

[Derek2k3]

Project #3

JCJ Condominium Residence
50th Avenue
5 stories
Dev-Palumbo
Residential Condominium
11 units
Proposed 2005-2006

http://www.licnyc.com/albums/2005-02/IMG_2928.sized.jpg
http://www.licnyc.com

The New York Post
THE HIGH POINT
By JOANNA WALTERS

Others are not so coy, as local entrepreneurs create their own piece of the action. Take Joseph Palumbo, who owns one of Hunters Point's best-hidden gems - a spa and hair salon on 50th Avenue called Mind Full Peace.

He supplies upmarket facial and massage products to chic spas all over the country.

While Palumbo ships from downstairs, he and his family run a salon and spa upstairs. He also owns a small parking lot opposite, where he plans to construct a boutique co-op building this year.

The 11 two- and three-bedroom units of around 1,400 square feet will be priced from around $700,000, and will be a two-minute walk from the water.

"Most of the real-estate prices around here have doubled in the past two to three years. I've been here 40 years and I like the progress. I hope this place turns into a new Greenwich Village or SoHo," he says.

[Stern]

Thanks Derek, that's the condo development I was talking about.

Project #4
30-30 Northern Boulevard
15 Storeys
Perkins Eastman Architects P.C.
Dev-Edward J. Minskoff Equities, Inc.
Speculative Commercial
655,000 Sq. Ft.
Proposed

A suburban style office development in Queens.

http://www.mrofficespace.com/ob/pix/mh/dw2075_cp.jpg

EDWARD J. MINSKOFF TO DEVELOP NEW 15-STORY, CLASS-A OFFICE TOWER IN LONG ISLAND CITY
Insignia/ESG, exclusive leasing agent, targets single or multiple users for build-to-suit on Northern Boulevard

New York, NY -- (May 7, 2002) -- A new state-of-the-art Class-A office building is set to rise at 30-30 Northern Boulevard in Long Island City as soon as a single tenant or multiple users pre-lease all or a substantial part of the planned 655,000-square foot 15-story property, to be located just north of Queens Plaza between 40th Avenue and 40th Road.


Offering brand new, high-tech office space, a five-minute subway commute to midtown, and rents at nearly a third of the price for comparable space in midtown Manhattan, the building will be developed by New York-based Edward J. Minskoff Equities, Inc. (EJME). The Insignia/ESG team of Richard Karson, Gregory P. Knoop, Eric Engelhardt, John Reinersten, Dina Raynolds, and Roni N. Horenstein has been named exclusive leasing agent, and Perkins Eastman Architects PC has been retained as project architect.

"30-30 Northern Boulevard presents an unprecedented opportunity for a company to occupy a world-class office building, literally minutes from Manhattan, at prices in the mid-20's per square foot," said Mr. Knoop. "It's a very economically seductive scenario. The State and local economic development corporations are providing excellent financial incentives for companies to move to Long Island City. Transportation is already in place with subway connections to Manhattan via the E, V, N, R, W, F and 7 lines, and direct automobile and bus access via the Queensboro Bridge. Plus, the planned East Side Access project, which will enable Long Island Railroad to access Grand Central Terminal, will soon materialize."

According to Richard Karson who was instrumental in establishing Insignia/ESG's Long Island City office several years ago, "This is an unprecedented and highly financially viable opportunity for a Manhattan-based company to bifurcate its operations between the City and Queens."

Mr. Minskoff has plans in place and can construct a state-of-the-art building in as little time as 18 months.

"Our site is not an assemblage and consists of 100,000+ square feet located within two blocks of Long Island City's major transportation hub," said Mr. Minskoff. "What's significant is that the site is close to MetLife's new premises at 27-01 Bridge Plaza. It will also benefit from all the re-development activity expected to ensue in the newly re-zoned LIC district and our tenants will be eligible for the REAP, ICIP, energy programs and rent abatement benefits available through the economic development authorities."

Insignia/ESG is targeting banks, insurance companies and other institutional tenants who need staff offices, a call center, data/tech building, disaster recovery facilities, or payroll/processing location in close proximity to Manhattan. "We're marketing to tenants in midtown, situated between 34th Street and 59th Streets, who seek a cost-effective alternative to Manhattan in which to house satellite or head-office operations."

Amenities at 30-30 Northern Boulevard, among others, will include access to fiber optic systems for high-speed Internet access, cable television access, state-of-the-art security systems, an institutional-quality main entrance lobby with security desk, and parking for 150 vehicles.

Edward J. Minskoff Equities, Inc. owns leases, and manages more than four million square feet of commercial property. It has developed 1325 Avenue of the Americas and 101 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan, the recently completed regional headquarters building for the Federal Aviation Administration in Queens, and owns a condominium interest at 1166 Avenue of the Americas. The company also manages the IBM building at 590 Madison Avenue, 825 Seventh Avenue and Niketown. Edward Minskoff was formerly chief executive officer of Olympia & York, which developed many of the office buildings in the World Financial Center and more than 27 million square feet of office space throughout the country.

Insignia/ESG is one of the largest commercial real estate services providers in the United States, with comprehensive brokerage, consulting, property management, fee development, investment sales and debt placement operations. The company operates in top U.S. markets, including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco, Dallas, Phoenix and Washington, D.C. Nationally, Insignia/ESG provides services for a property portfolio spanning approximately 230 million sq. ft. Insignia/ESG also delivers advanced commercial real estate services in the United Kingdom through Insignia Richard Ellis, and in France through Insignia Bourdais, as well as through other Insignia subsidiaries in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Insignia/ESG is a subsidiary of Insignia Financial Group, Inc., a publicly traded real estate company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol IFS.

http://www.rebuz.com/images/Minskoff.jpg

[Derek2k3]

nice..at least for LIC. Here's one more.

http://www.pbase.com/archit_kderek2k3/image/41374989.jpg


Project #5

Court Square Two
Jackson Avenue
14 stories
Kohn Pedersen & Fox Associates
Dev-Tishman Speyer Properties
Commercial Office
475,000 ft² Commercial Office
Proposed 2005-Early 2007

http://nyc.gov/portal/beans/photogallery/images/2004/07/13/4843/10048/DB7D2955b.jpg

Times Ledger
Citigroup to expand office space in Long Island City
By Matthew Monks 07/15/2004

http://www.timesledger.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12350427&BRD=1079&PAG=461&dept_id=170338&rfi=6

The largest private employer in Queens is about to get bigger. Citigroup is erecting a new 14-story office building across the street from its landmark skyscraper on Court Square in Long Island City, moving an additional 1,500 workers into the borough, city and company officials announced Tuesday.

The $200 million project should foster the neighborhood's transformation into one of New York City's fastest growing business districts, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

Advertisement


"From the start our administration has followed an economic development strategy designed to create jobs throughout the five boroughs," Bloomberg said. "Citygroup's latest expansion to Long Island City does just that."

He said the financial services company decided to expand in the area on its own, with no tax incentives from the city.

In addition to the 475,000-square-foot building, the company will construct an underground escalator between the nearby G and 7 subway lines, improving the connection between the two lines, said Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Charles Prince.

Citigroup is a global company, offering banking, credit cards, loans and insurance. It opened business in Long Island City in 1989, when it completed a 48-story skyscraper on Court Square housing 4,800 employees.

Prince said the company should break ground in 2005 on the new facility and hopes to occupy the building by the end of 2006 or early 2007.

The new office, which is being designed by Manhattan-based Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, will accommodate management workers, Prince said.

When it is completed, Citigroup will have a total of 6,300 workers in Queens. The mayor said it already is the largest private sector employer in the borough.

Queens officials praised the expansion.

"Long Island City is truly coming into its own and we are - by the way - going to give New Jersey a run for their money," said Queens Borough President Helen Marshal, referring to the rivalry between the state to the south and the neighborhood to draw financial jobs from Lower Manhattan.

"I don't think any mayor has come to Queens with as much good news as Mayor Bloomberg," said state Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan (D-Ridgewood.)

With the recent completion of the MetLife insurance headquarters in Bridge Plaza Tech Center at nearby Queens Plaza, the Citigroup expansion means the neighborhood is well on its way to becoming one of the city's major business districts, said City Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Sunnyside)


Thread here:
http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5125&page=1

Links:
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=211187
http://www.realestatejournal.com/regionalnews/northeast/20040728-siteselection.html
http://www.licnyc.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=231
http://www.new-york-info.com/news/new-york-jobs-26/
http://www.cityfeet.com/news/default.asp?lCityID=1

[Stern]

Office plan okayed for Queens Plaza
By James DeWeese

Community Board 2 voted earlier this month to approve a business deal that could clear the way for as much as 3 million square feet of new commercial office space along Queens Plaza, another milestone in the business development that is reshaping Long Island City.


Under the agreement, Tishman Speyer Properties, whose other holdings include such iconic city locales as Rockefeller Center and the Chrysler Building, would receive a 99-year lease on city-owned land currently occupied by the Queens Plaza Garage at Jackson Avenue and an adjacent lot, said Jeremy Smith, a project manager with New York City Economic Development Corp.


The board had previously approved a land-use request for the project in 2001.

Under the business agreement approved on Nov. 4 in a 31-1 vote with two abstentions, Tishman Speyer, which has buildings in nine cities across Europe and the Americas, would have to build on the Queens Plaza Garage site by no later than 2015, Smith said.

During construction, the 1,150-space Queens Plaza Garage, which currently houses 180,000 square feet of commercial office space, would be demolished and replaced with similar on-site parking, as outlined in the agreement.

Some residents had expressed concern about the temporary loss of parking, but planners said the majority of the garage's users are actually commuters from Long Island who drop off their cars at Queens Plaza before hopping a train into the city.

"We are very excited about building a building in Long Island City," Tony Mannarino, a representative of Tishman Speyer told the community board. "We have been looking for opportunities to do something outside Manhattan."

Long Island City is fast attracting the businesses and office space that are turning it into one of the city's most important financial centers.

The MetLife building and Citigroup's 48-story Court Square skyscraper call the area home. And Citigroup, which already houses 4,800 employees in the borough, is slated to break ground on an additional 14-story, 475,000-square-foot office complex in 2005.

Tishman Speyer's proposed project would dramatically increase the amount of commercial office space available in the area. As part of the deal, the developer also would be required to spend $1 million to market and publicize the area over a period of 10 years, Smith said.

"One of the major advantages to the commercial space being located in Long Island City is it's basically an extension of Midtown," said Michael Reale, a project manager with the Long Island City Business Development Corp. "It's right over the 59th Street Bridge."

But booming development also is forcing planners to perform a balancing act, Reale said.

"Obviously, it would be great to have more commercial space but also at the same time to try to attempt to retain the manufacturing part of Long Island City which is basically part of the area's heritage," Reale said. "It's kind of juggling both interests at the same time."

Portions of Long Island City were rezoned several years ago to accommodate further commercial and residential development.

Zoning regulations allow for the construction of as much as 3 million square feet of office space between the two lots Tishman Speyer is looking to develop, said Suzanne Halpin, executive vice president of Rubenstein Communications, which is handling public relations for the developer.

It was too early to speculate what shape the buildings would take, Halpin said.

But the project has the resounding support of the EDC.

"One of the exciting things about this is Tishman Speyer is a world renowned developer," said Melanie Lenz, the EDC's vice president for Queens Real Estate. "Something on this site will happen soon. It will happen with the right resources. And it will happen in the right way."

Janelle Patterson, a spokeswoman for the EDC, said the development plan has not been finalized and must still be approved by the Borough Board and the EDC board. Final approval could come as early as February, she said.

Reach reporter James DeWeese by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 157.



©Times Ledger 2004
http://www.timesledger.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13442476&BRD=2676&PAG=461&dept_id= 542525&rfi=6

An update to the Tishman project:

Project #6

Queens Plaza Development
Jackson Avenue
Raul De Armas
Dev-Tishman Speyer Properties
Commercial Office
600,000 sq. ft. Commericla Office; 3.5 million sq. ft. development
Proposed

NYPOST:

April 13, 2005 -- TISHMAN Speyer Properties, which controls a handful of back office development sites in Long Island City, is negotiating with the city's Dept. of Transportation to develop 600,000 feet on Jackson Avenue.

The site would be the first of five buildings on the block planned for development by TSP, which along with the Modell family owns properties that total more than 3.5 million square feet.

During a luncheon speech yesterday to the Young Men's and Women's Real Estate Association at the University Club, Rob Speyer would only say the firm was beginning to negotiate with an unnamed tenant and that they would be launching a marketing campaign to the industry over the next few months.

He described the buildings as "totally Class A, perfectly efficient...that will have people feeling like they are in a building in Midtown."

Raul De Armas of Moed De Armas & Shannon is the architect and the rent would be in the mid-$20s.

[Stern]

Here are some of the projects from Moed De Armas & Shannon; mostly renovation:

http://www.mdeas.com/images/101%20West%20End/101%20West%20End%20Exterior.jpg

http://www.mdeas.com/images/Montefiore/Montifore%20-%20Exterior%204.jpg

http://www.mdeas.com/images/Wedge%20Bank/wedge%20model%203.jpg

http://www.mdeas.com/images/Hippodrome/ELEVATION1.jpg

http://www.mdeas.com/images/1450%20Broadway/1.jpg

http://www.mdeas.com/images/350%20Madison/350%20Madison%20Rendering.jpg

http://www.mdeas.com/images/340%20Madison/340%20Madison%20CW%20Rendering3.jpg

http://www.mdeas.com/images/430%20Park/2.jpg

[Stern]

Daily News:
10.6M for Queens Plaza
Massive face-lift planned
BY DONALD BERTRAND
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Queens Plaza, the gateway to Queens, will get a $10.6 million federal shot in the arm to improve the roadway and provide a system of bike paths and pedestrian walkways at the foot of the Queensboro Bridge.

"What is happening today is a movement forward to make this the next important business district in New York," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who took to the roof of the Long Island City municipal garage at the corner of Queens Plaza South and Jackson Ave. on Friday afternoon to make her announcement.

Plans call for the garage to be torn down and replaced with a multiuse commercial/residential structure.

"What we are really doing with this grant today is building the economic development foundation for future economic development and growth here in western Queens and to improve the quality of life for Long Island City residents," said Maloney.

Plans for the plaza area call for a section now used for parking at the northeastern end to be made into a park.

They also propose a swath of that property along Queens Plaza South be used for green space and a reconfigured roadway.

Accepting an enlarged check from Maloney were city Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall and Amanda Burden, director of the Department of City Planning.

"This project will make this very important transportation hub user friendly for bicyclists, pedestrians and motorists," said Weinshall.

"All of us feel this is one of the greatest business districts. We are one subway stop from Manhattan. We have every advantage here in Long Island City. We have culture. We have business. We have transportation. It is fantastic," said Burden.

But "it has never been a great gateway," she added.

The new funding, she said, "will make such a difference to pedestrian safety, to amenities, and will really [boost] this business district, which we think has the greatest potential in all of New York."

The principal objective of the project is to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality along Queens Plaza by encouraging mass transit and alternative forms of transportation, such as walking and bicycling.

The project, already underway and expected to take about five years, will develop a design for new pedestrian and biking amenities and will include new and increased lighting, landscaping, street furniture, crosswalks, public art, and directional signs.

[Derek2k3]

It'd be nice if they built the design that won the competition.

Queens Plaza Competition Winner
Juthathip Techachumreon & Surachai Akekapobyotin

http://www.vanalen.org/__images/drafts/QP_First-Prize-detail.jpg

http://www.art4d.com/back/80/images/queen/q1_head.jpg

Vanalen
The Queens Plaza Design Ideas Competition

http://www.vanalen.org/competitions/queens_plaza/site.htm

"Queens Plaza, as the gateway between Manhattan and Queens, is the most significant commercial district and focus for cultural activity in the area. Our project attempts to develop the area and further the potential of the site as a transit hub by connecting the different modes of transportation, in combination with various communication technologies, for all types of users. The media corridor, the main construct in our design, is partly a connecting device and partly an attempt to create a focus point for the program. The media corridor will serve as the connection between disparate elements: major subway stations, pedestrian ways, medians and public spaces. Walking through this corridor, a variety of users can interact with different programs embedded inside and wrapped around the skin of this passageway. The corridor will also link to traffic medians making them much more accessible and to the plaza at the JFK Commuter Triangle, which can become the main center of the area. Our design encourages a wide range of possibilities. It can accommodate everyday uses such as parking and also, through simple manipulation, can be turned into an exhibition or installation site, market or fair, and can accommodate multiple activities at the same time."

Surachai Akekapobyotin works at Meltzer/Mandl Architects in New York City and also works as a freelance architect in Bangkok. Juthathip Techachumreon works at Meridian Design Associates Architects in New York City and also works as a freelance architect in Bangkok.


Links:
http://www.art4d.com/back/80/queen_1.html

http://www.licbdc.org/news/2004/7-18-04_nydailynews_QPplans.htm
Urban developments
New York Daily News, July 18th, 2004

http://www.gothamgazette.com/citizen/jan02/3.shtml
Thai Team Wins Queens Plaza Design Contest
Muang Nork (The Thai Overseas Newspaper)

[Derek2k3]

Project #7

The Power House
4-5 story addition
Karl Fischer Architect
Dev-CGS Builders
Residential Condominiums
~600 units
Proposed

http://www.pbase.com/archit_kderek2k3/image/42725726.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/archit_kderek2k3/image/42725731.jpg

The New York Times
Four Relics From the Past Will Topple After All
By JEFF VANDAM

Published: April 24, 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/nyregion/thecity/24smok.html?

The much-watched saga of the fate of four smokestacks atop a former power plant in Long Island City, Queens, has a resolution: they are coming down.

Despite a neighborhood campaign to preserve the smokestacks, they will make way for a developer's glass and aluminum tower, which will form a residential complex when combined with the 1909 power plant, the onetime Pennsylvania Railroad Power Station.

"We had no choice but to look for a different design," said Cheskel Schwimmer of CGS Builders, the developer. Mr. Schwimmer said he originally had hoped to incorporate the smokestacks into his design, constructing a glass cube between them. "But the city did not approve it," he said. "We had to look at other options."

In the neighborhood, where the smokestacks' plight has sparked debate for months, Mr. Schwimmer's opponents are not pleased.

"I think it's sad," said Paul Parkhill, co-director of the educational group Place in History, who participated in a postcard campaign seeking landmark status for the plant. "It sort of underscores the fact that the city doesn't do a good job of protecting industrial buildings, especially in the outer boroughs."

Nevertheless, some residents were not particularly disheartened.

"There are mixed feelings in the neighborhood between newer residents and people who are second or third generation here," said Joseph Conley, chairman of Community Board 2. "The artists, the newer arrivals in the neighborhood, they tend to be the preservationists."

But any dispute has been silenced by the scaffolding covering each of the stacks. At last look, one was already halfway gone.


Links:
http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/pennstacks/pennstacks.html
Photos of the demolition.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?p=49830#post49830
More photos of the demolition.

http://curbed.com/index.php?page=2
LIC's Pillars Will Come Tumbling Down

http://www.queenswest.com/neighborhood/discussion/00003446
Thread at queenswest.com

http://www.cityfeet.com/News/NewsArticle.aspx?PartnerPath=&Id=11110
Commercial Real Estate News
SMOKIN’ CONDOS

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1865&dept_id=152944&newsid=14074330&PAG=461&rfi=9
Schwartz Smokestacks Still In Limbo As Developers Negotiate
by Neille Ilel, Western Queens Editor

http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/287096p-245810c.html
The power of condos
LIC smokestacks site eyed for luxe apts.
By DONALD BERTRAND
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5160
February 6, 2005
LONG ISLAND CITY
A Famed Skyline Fixture, Standing Tall Another Day

[Derek2k3]

So a 4 to 5 story aluminum and glass addition.

Queens Chronicle
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14347699&BRD=1865&PAG=461&dept_id=152944&rfi=6

Smokestacks Being Torn Down; Chapter Closes On LIC Skyline
by Neille Ilel, Western Queens Editor
April 14, 2005

The four smokestacks atop the old Schwartz Chemical factory are being demolished in order to construct an addition to the building.
In the latest conflict between development money and aesthetics, money carried the day.
Four iconic smokestacks that have defined the Long Island City cityscape for nearly a century will be taken down in the next several months. A demolition permit was issued to the contractor on March 28th, and the smokestacks have been covered with scaffolding to facilitate their dismantling.
The developer, Cheskel Schwimmer of CGS Builders, is turning the former power plant into luxury condominiums. The site has extra floor-area ratio that Schwimmer would like to take advantage of. But in order to do that he would have to demolish the smokestacks to add extra units to the top of the structure, or get a variance to build within them. Schwimmer said in the end, it was just not feasible to go through the variance process.
“It was a much better design to keep the smokestacks,” said the project’s architect, Karl Fisher. “But he didn’t want to wait.” The variance process requires hearings with the community board, borough president and then the final decision rests with the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals.
“The BSA has changed a lot,” Fisher continued. “There’s no guarantee that it would pass.”
Schwimmer had been meeting with the Department of Buildings for the last several months to see if a design could be worked out that would satisfy the zoning laws and still use the maximum floor-area ratio. No agreement could be reached.
After the smokestacks are removed, a four or five-story addition will be added to the top of the building that will cover almost the entire area of the roof.
The Long Island City waterfront has been in the midst of a large development push. New tower projects, like River East, have followed on the heels of the successful Avalon and Citylights buildings. The neighborhood’s zoning designation was recently changed from light industrial to mixed use including residential, commercial and light industrial use.
“I can’t wait for them to come down.” said Citylights resident Peter Iorlanao. He finds the smokestacks a dirty blot on the neighborhood’s skyline. “You have to go to graduate school to like them,” he said of the structure’s admirers. “They’re stuck in the past.”
Indeed, the smokestacks are a vivid reminder of the neighborhood’s industrial history. Paul Parkhill, director of Place in History, a non-profit community planning organization, started a postcard campaign to get the four chimneys landmarked when they heard of the developer’s plans. “It’s usually an uphill battle,” he said of his chances at the time.
Although there are some vocal proponents of the smokestacks, there was hardly a groundswell of support to save them. Many locals pointed out they were in disrepair and are looking forward to the goods and services that follow an increased residential population. “Upward and onward,” urged Iorlanao.

©Queens Chronicle - Western Edition 2005

[Stern]

Too bad they decided not to keep the smokestacks, the cube in between the stacks sounded really interesting and would’ve made the building an instant landmark, a designation this up and coming neighborhood lacks. On that note the sleek and modern renovation of Queens Plaza is apparently not going to be built either, its ashame because landmark projects like this are needed to spur the greater redevelopment and attract the interest of businesses and residents.

[krulltime]

Reckson Takes Citibank Site for $470M


http://www.globest.com/newspics/nyc_onecourtsquarecitibank.jpg
One Court Square

By Barbara Jarvie
Last updated: May 5, 2005 07:40am

LONG ISLAND CITY, NY-Reckson Associates Realty Corp. has inked a deal for the 1.4-million-sf tower at One Court Square here for $470 million, inclusive of transfer taxes and other transaction costs. The 50-story class A tower will remain occupied by its seller, Citibank NA, under a 15-year net lease.

"One Court Square’s attractive price per square foot offers the potential for material asset value appreciation as the surrounding market continues to develop,“ says Scott Rechler, Reckson's president and chief executive officer. “It is our intention to capitalize on this acquisition to pursue additional value-added opportunities in the Long Island City submarket." Tod Waterman, executive vice president and managing director of Reckson's New York City division, says the acquisition complements its 90-property, 17.7-million-sf portfolio.

Citibank plans to develop a 475,000-sf, $200-million office expansion adjacent to One Court Square. Reckson officials believe the Long Island City submarket will benefit from the strength of Midtown Manhattan's class A office market, the continuing trend of regional decentralization in the New York Tri-State area and the significant infrastructure and zoning upgrades planned for the area.

In 2001, the New York City Department of City Planning identified central Long Island City as a growth area with significant potential for office, retail and residential development and the city council adopted the initiative to rezone 37 centrally located blocks in the area. The zoning was expected to facilitate commercial development at increased densities as well as allow new residences to mix with commercial and light industrial businesses.

In another large Long Island City transaction, New York Blood Center inked a long-term lease for 76,000 sf at 45-01 Vernon Blvd., John Maltz, president. and Gary R. Blum, director of conversion development at Greiner-Maltz, the brokers who represented the ownership of NYBC, say the deal will not only bring jobs to the neighborhood, but validates the area as a prime commercial destination at a time when most properties are looked upon solely for their residential conversion value. NYBC first inspected the property in the summer of 2004 through their exclusive broker, CB Richard Ellis. Negotiations continued through to mid-April, due in part to the detailed requirements of NYBC.

Gayle Baron, president of the Long Island City Business Development Corp., says the deals confirm Long Island City’s desirability as a commercial marketplace, both short and long term. “Moreover as the job base grows, and support services increase, LIC’s potential as the city’s fourth great business hub will be realized. Currently commercial properties are well priced given the vitality of the area, including residential development, strong building stock, proximity to Midtown and mass transit assets.”

Reckson expects to generate an initial unleveraged cash flow yield of approximately 6.5% and a GAAP NOI yield of approximately 6.8% on the total anticipated investment, while the net lease is in effect. The Citibank lease contains partial cancellation options effective during years six and seven for up to 20% of the leased space and in years nine and 10 for up to an additional 20% of the leased space, subject to notice and penalty. Closing is expected sometime this month. To facilitate the transaction, Reckson has obtained a $470-million unsecured bridge loan facility.


© 2005 by GlobeSt

[Derek2k3]

Project #7

The Power House
4-5 story addition
Karl Fischer Architect
Dev-CGS Builders
Residential Condominiums
~600 units
Proposed


The cube between the stacks design. It's listed under "The Power House."
http://www.kfarchitect.com/

[krulltime]

The cube between the stacks design. It's listed under "The Power House."
http://www.kfarchitect.com/

Oh cool Derek2k3!! Good find... Thanks!

The Power House:

http://www.pbase.com/image/42994354.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/42994331.jpg

[macreator]

Here are a few shots of the smokestacks being taken down from Forgotten-NY (http://www.forgotten-ny.com).

http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/pennstacks/50ave2ente.jpg
View from 50th Avenue and Center Boulevard
Photo credit: Bernard Ente

http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/pennstacks/bordenave2.jpg
View from 5th Street and Borden Avenue

http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/pennstacks/1907.jpg
The smokestacks in their 1907 hayday
Photo from King's Booklets: The Pennsylvania Railroad Tunnels and Terminals In New York City 1904, courtesy Bernard Ente

It's quite depressing to see the smokestacks going down.

Here's a link to the Forgotten-NY story (http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/pennstacks/pennstacks.html) on the smokestacks.

[Stern]

What ashame.

[Derek2k3]

Project #8

United Nations Federal Credit Union Building
43-35 24th Street
16 stories 241 feet
HLW International LLP
Dev-United Nations Federal Credit Union
Commercial Office
274,433 Sq. Ft.
Under Construction March 2005-December 2006


Long Island City Building Boost
NY Daily News - columnist Lore Croghan, Sept. 24, 2003

http://www.licbdc.org/news/2003/daily-news-9-24-03-credit-union.htm

The city's largest credit union is percolating a plan to build a 200,000-square-foot office in Long Island City - which could jump-start stalled office development there.

The United Nations Federal Credit Union is zeroing in on a site for the office that's a block away from Citigroup's green glass tower on Jackson Avenue and 44th Drive, the lone skyscraper in the Queens industrial neighborhood.

The location under consideration, 43-35 24th St., is one of a half-dozen Long Island City and Astoria properties that belong to the former owners of Eagle Electric, who sold the company three years ago but held onto its real estate.

The credit union's plan would be good news for a 37-block area of Long Island City that was rezoned two years ago to allow high-rise, high-density construction and is a top development priority of the Bloomberg administration.

http://www.queenswest.com/neighborhood/pictures/kyles_corner/20050406_kyle_16.jpg
More photos by Kyle at:
http://www.queenswest.com/neighborhood/pictures/kyles_corner

Links:
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&addtohistory=&formtype=address&searchtype=address&cat=&address=4335%2024th%20St&city=Long%20Island%20City&state=NY&zipcode=11101%2d4609
Map

http://www.unfcu.org
http://www.hlw.com

[Kolbster]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If this goes through it will be amazing for the city and the area!
This is great news! :)

[NewYorkYankee]

It is going through.Construction has begun, good news.

[Kolbster]

Project #8

United Nations Federal Credit Union Building



Long Island City Building Boost
NY Daily News - columnist Lore Croghan, Sept. 24, 2003

http://www.licbdc.org/news/2003/daily-news-9-24-03-credit-union.htm

The city's largest credit union is percolating a plan[/b] to build a 200,000-square-foot office in Long Island City - which could jump-start stalled office development there.

The United Nations Federal Credit Union is zeroing in on a site for the office that's a block away from Citigroup's green glass tower on Jackson Avenue and 44th Drive, the lone skyscraper in the Queens industrial neighborhood.

The location under consideration, 43-35 24th St., is one of a half-dozen Long Island City and Astoria properties that belong to the former owners of Eagle Electric, who sold the company three years ago but held onto its real estate.

The credit union's plan[/b] would be[/b] good news for a 37-block area of Long Island City that was rezoned two years ago to allow high-rise, high-density construction and is a top development priority of the Bloomberg administration.




It's will definately go though, but it isnt quite through yet but who cares, it's gonna be done anayways, all that ends well is well

[Stern]

Project #1

45-56 Pearson Street
20 stories
Scarano & Associates Architects
Dev-Rosma Development
Residential Condominium
120 units
Proposed July 2005-Late 2006

http://www.nydailynews.com/ips_rich_content/597-building.JPG
Preliminary rendering by Scarano Architects of condominium project at 45-56 Pearson St. near Queens West waterfront.


Condo craze building
in Long Island City

Daily News Exclusive
http://www.nydailynews.com/business/story/292477p-250402c.html

By LORE CROGHAN
DAILY NEWS BUSINESS WRITER

The heart of Long Island City is finally going condo.

In a move that could touch off a wave of apartment construction, a Brooklyn condo developer bought the first major building site sold since the 37-block Queens industrial area was rezoned in mid-2001.

The developer is one of a host of builders from hot residential enclaves like Williamsburg who are looking for a new frontier.

"I see a very good opportunity in Long Island City," Mark Junger of Rosma Development told the Daily News. "I think it's going to be a hot neighborhood."

He paid $16.5 million for the site at 45-56 Pearson St. - where he's going to construct a 20-story "Manhattan-style building,"he said.

Until now, big residential projects have hugged the Queens West waterfront. The new condo tower will be further inland, off Jackson Avenue.

Junger's luxury tower will have fancy touches like a swimming pool with a retractable dome, a running track on one roof of the building, and a garden on another.

There will be 120 condos of varying sizes, from one-bedroom units to big penthouses. He plans to break ground by July, and spend the following year and a half building the project. The site now consists of a warehouse and parking lot.

It's too soon to set apartment prices, but Junger anticipates they'll run around $600 to $700 per square foot - comparable to condo rates in sought-after Williamsburg.

He expects to attract buyers who work in Manhattan - it's about a 15-minute subway ride to Grand Central Terminal.

Most of the 15 bidders for the development site wanted to build condos, and the rest were planning rental apartments, said Jeffrey Troy of Eastern Consolidated, the sale broker with colleagues Alan Miller and Louis Ricci.

Junger paid about $92 per buildable square foot for the site. As demand for sites in the nabe heats up, it will be hard to find land for less than $100 per buildable square foot, Eastern brokers predicted.

Still, that's not as high as Williamsburg land prices, which are approaching $150 per square foot.

Several Long Island City sites are now in play - Junger himself's going after one.

Originally published on March 23, 2005

Demolition underway, this building will nicely compliment City Lights.

[Derek2k3]

Good news.
Project #7

The Power House
4-5 story addition
Karl Fischer Architect
Dev-CGS Builders
Residential Condominiums
~600 units
Proposed

Larger rendering of the old Power House design.

http://www.pbase.com/archit_kderek2k3/image/43298741.jpg
Karl Fischer Architect
http://www.kfarchitect.com/

[billyblancoNYC]

Demolition underway, this building will nicely compliment City Lights.

Um, I can only hope Scacrano goes on a tear in Queens like he has in Brooklyn. That would be amazing. I think it's on the way.

[Derek2k3]

Project #9

River View Gardens/Riverview Gardens (Section 202 Senior Housing at Avalon Riverview I)
4-12 49th Avenue/Queens West Parcel 11
8 stories 86 feet
Richard Dattner & Partners
Dev-New York Foundation for Senior Citizens
Residential Rental(Seniors)
80 units 73,640 Sq. Ft.
Under Construction November 2004-2005

http://www.pbase.com/archit_kderek2k3/image/43404930.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/archit_kderek2k3/image/43404929.jpg

Daily News
Taking care of seniors
Break ground for 80-unit facility in Qns. West

http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/254149p-217627c.html
BY DONALD BERTRAND
November 19, 2004

Called River View Gardens, the building will have apartments for people 62 and older, and for frail seniors 65 and lder, under the state-approved Enriched Housing Program, said Zibby Tozer, vice chairwoman of the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens.

River View Gardens is the ninth residential senior development for the foundation.

Six other developments are in Manhattan, one is in Brooklyn and one is in the Bronx.

The foundation is planning the construction of a 77-unit senior residence in Coney Island.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is providing more than $13.9 million for the construction, as well as rent subsidies for the elderly.

The land is being provided by Queens West Development Corp.

"Building this community creates new economic opportunities, setting a stage for new businesses and new jobs to serve the residents and the area," said Empire State Development Corp. Chairman Charles Gargano.

"Under Gov. Pataki's leadership, we've been implementing a strategy to create a growing, vibrant residential community in Queens West, while at the same time creating affordable housing."

Queens West is a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corp.

"There is no higher priority than ensuring that our elderly live in decent, safe and affordable housing," said Marisel Morales, HUD regional director. "That is why River View Gardens is so important - not only for the seniors in New York City, but also as part of the development of Queens West."

Borough President Helen Marshal said, "Many people in Queens, especially senior citizens, need affordable housing, and it is wonderful that the private and public sectors have worked together to include the elderly as part of this project."

Edwin Mendes-Santiago, commissioner of the city's Department for the Aging, said his agency "is dedicated to creating and supporting affordable housing for all those who need it - especially the low-income elderly. River View Gardens fits into this vision perfectly. It is another small step in the greater plan of making New York City the best place to live for the young and the aging alike."

Each New York Foundation for Senior Citizens residence offers a combination of social, medical, educational and recreational services designed to help improve seniors' quality of life.

Originally published on November 19, 2004

http://www.queenswest.com/neighborhood/pictures/kyles_corner/20050420_kyle_02.jpg.jpg

http://www.queenswest.com/neighborhood/pictures/kyles_corner/20050420_kyle_02.jpg
Kyle's Corner
http://www.queenswest.com/neighborhood/pictures/kyles_corner


Links:
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&addtohistory=&formtype=address&searchtype=address&cat=&address=412%2049th%20Ave&city=Long%20Island%20City&state=NY&zipcode=11101%2d5609
Map

http://www.nyfsc.org/services/housing_buildings.html
New York Foundation for Senior Citizens
River View Gardens
River View Gardens, in the new Queens West neighborhood being developed along the East River, will contain 79 one-bedroom apartments, lobby, lounge, community room and kitchen, activity and work rooms, an apartment for the resident superintendent and other resident facilities. River View's residents will have spectacular views of Manhattan.

http://www.dattner.com/html/living4.html
Riverview Gardens, Queens, NYC
Client: New York Foundation for Senior Citizens
Size: 80 Dwelling Units
Construction Cost: $7,750,000
Date Completed: 1999

http://www.queenswest.org/

http://www.nylovesbiz.com/press/press_display.asp?id=509
FOR RELEASE: IMMEDIATE
11/18/2004
GARGANO: GROUND BROKEN FOR NEW SENIOR HOUSING AS PART OF QUEENS WEST DEVELOPMENT, HUD PROVIDING FUNDING
Officials Join in Marking Start of 80 Unit River View Housing Project

http://www.qgazette.com/news/2004/1202/Senior_page/030.html
Councilmember Eric Gioia spoke at the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens River View Gardens groundbreaking in Hunter’s Point, Queens. The new senior citizen building will provide 80 seniors with subsidized housing and social services on the beautiful Queens waterfront.

http://www.licbdc.org/news/2004/11-25-04_queenschronicle_srhousing.htm
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13431671&BRD=1865&PAG=461&dept_id=152944&rfi=6
Ground Broken On Planned 80-Unit Waterfront Sr. Housing
by Paul Menchaca, Western Queens Editor November 25, 2004
Queens Chronicle, November 25, 2004