flushing street beautification
These projects look like things that may make the area more pleasant, though possibly not less congested: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?n...d=574902&rfi=6. I'd like to see them coupled with attempts to make the river usable for recreational purposes, but my guess is that may come later.
While those projects are admirable, there is still a major issue they need to deal with - smell. I think the last thing I'd want to do is sit down on a bench and take in the stink that wafts from all the store runoff.
As for the Lippmann reconstruction, that is great news. I just hope the illegal merchants don't set shop there again.
i think those nuisances are controllable
There is a BID in Flushing now, so if all the retailers move in to Queens and Flushing Commons, etc, they should continue to be able to invest in improving conditions there. Also, as prices in the area rise, I think restaurants will be replaced by less food-oriented retail. I'm actually kind of bummed about that, because I confess aside from real estate I love going to Flushing to eat as I really like authentic Chinese food. But as the concentration subsides a little, so will food related odors I think - hopefully its the best restaurants that survive higher rents.
victoria tower
There's a fairly nice looking mid-rise building going up just off of Main Street called Victoria Tower. The brick finish looks fairly nice - it's not post-modern glassy but for a brick building it looks good to me. I unfortunately didn't get to photo it though.
Thats been going up for over three years, they like to take their time in FlushingOriginally Posted by investordude
SUCCESS STORY The Man Behind The Flushing Renaissance
Thursday, July 13, 2006 1:58 PM CDT
Link
Michael B. Meyer, President, F&T Group
Michael Meyer is helping to lead the Renaissance of downtown Flushing.
With a vast and varied background that includes serving as lead executive and negotiator for the city of Miami Beach in the $250 million development of two convention center hotels and a parking garage, Meyer - currently the president of F&T Group, a real estate development company - aims to make Flushing a “destination location.”
“There will be a transformation of downtown Flushing [from Main Street to Shea Stadium],” he said. “Its time has come. In 10 years it won't be recognized. It's an exciting place.”
Hoping to launch the area as the business and cultural center of Queens, Meyer is working with F&T Vice President of Architecture and Planning Howard Hsu and Sunny Chu, his partner, on mixed-use projects that will make Flushing a retail, housing, sports and entertainment center.
One such undertaking is Queens Crossing, located at 38-25 Main Street.
Slated to open in December, the 407,000 square foot development will include 85,000 square feet of retail space, 80 state-of-the-art condominiums, and a 400-car underground parking garage.
On July 12, 2005, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that awarding F&T and partners the rights to develop Flushing Commons, located on the site of Municipal Parking Lot #1, was “The biggest thing to happen to Flushing since the arrival of the Mets.”
Scheduled to break ground next year, the project will boast 330,000 square feet of high quality retail space, a Multi-Plex theatre, 200 room luxury hotel, 500 condominiums, 100,000 square feet of cultural facilities and 200 parking spaces.
Other projects on the horizon include the Future Flushing Mall, scheduled for construction between 2008 and 2011; the Waterfront Promenade; and the World Trade Center Queens, 75 acres slated to become a “city within a city” with a hotel and expo site. Currently, F&T is one of the final six bidders for this area.
F&T estimates that, through their $5 billion investment over the course of 10 years, 20,000 new jobs will be created.
In that time, Flushing will become a thriving cultural, recreation and economic epicenter where ethnicities interface.
According to the NYC Economic Development Corporation, “Downtown Flushing will become a center of urban activity ... It will be where people come to experience the best of Queens.”
Prior to his appointment as President of the F&T Group, Meyer started his consulting firm, Quest International, Inc. providing real estate advisory and hotel asset management services to such clients as Ty Warner Hotels and Resorts and the Empire State Development Corporation. Prior to running Quest, Meyer was a Global Lead at Accenture, the world's leading management and technology services organization, formerly Andersen Consulting. In that capacity he was responsible for Accenture's worldwide real estate portfolio and office operations.
Before joining Accenture, Meyer was a Vice President of Tishman Realty & Construction focusing on hotel development and consulting. He first started in the real estate and hospitality industry as the Owner's Representative for Port Authority of New York and New Jersey at the Vista Hotel at the World Trade Center.
Meyer holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BA from Oberlin College where he majored in English Literature.
Willets Point businesses unite to fight relocation
BY PETE DAVIS
Thursday, July 27, 2006 3:13 PM CDT
Link
More than a month after the deadline for the Requests For Proposals (RFP) concerning the development of the Willets Point area, some of the local existing business owners are joining together to create a coalition against the development plans that would force them to relocate from their current location.
The merchants in the area currently employ nearly 1,800 people and vow to speak out against the City's plans to redevelop the area.
“First, the city neglects to maintain an adequate infrastructure for local businesses and then those same businesses, which contribute greatly to our economy, are punished for the government's failures,” said Dan Scully of Tully Construction. “Our combined economic future remains uncertain and it's a total disgrace.”
According to a study conducted Hunter College Center for Community Planning and Development, 68 percent of all firms in the area have been in business for five or more years and that 90 percent of the jobs are full-time with 75 percent all the area's employees residing in Queens.
“Our company's 110 employees are primarily immigrants who live in the surrounding residential community and have families with school age children,” said Neil Soni of House of Spices, the largest employer in the area. “They work very hard and are able to survive because their jobs are close to home and family.”
The redevelopment plan has garnered support from a number of Queens politicians including Borough President Helen Marshall, but many of the businesses in the coalition plan to launch a public awareness campaign informing New Yorkers about their fight.
they should make sure it doesn't become antitrust issue
I like this Meyer guy as I think its great someone has the courage to step up and see that Flushing is a significant, still underutilized resource for New York. My one caution would be I think that the city shouldn't give all these projects to one developer - that poses some antitrust risks I feel just because the amount of land he'd end up owning seems really very large. I'd be especially concerned he could make agreements that aren't beneficial - like tell Borders that if they rent in Queens Crossing he won't rent to Barnes and Noble in any of his other properties. Normally I think landlords should be allowed to do this - unless he owns so much key property there is no way for Barnes and Noble to find a viable location.
I'm glad they don't own the Caldor site though. I'd like to see Vornado make something good out of that Caldor store - its such a good location to lie dormant like that.
Sorry, I'm not sure I agree. I don't agree with his vision for Flushing.
Flushing is unique, and we should be seeking to build on this uniqueness. It doesn't need an influx of chain stores. That sounds to be what he's hoping to achieve.
There are a tremendous number of high-end Asian retailers that could be encouraged to open branches in New York given the right opportunity. Given Flushing's burgeoning Korean population, I think seeking Korean commercial and retail investment would be a smart strategy. Does the neighborhood really need suburban mall-style investment?
compatible uses
I think diversity is good. It's also compatible. The Barnes and Noble in Fort Lee is well used, for example, and doesn't drive away Asian oriented businesses that surround it. Or look at San Gabriel, California. They have a mall, which has mainstream items as well as things to attract and support local demographics. I think the local community wants more mainstream retailers to complement what they already have, which is why he's pushing it. I think that's good, and I'm pretty sure retailers will make adjustments to attract the local population.
They have a few buildings going up in Flushing on here.
Dickson Arts
http://www.dicarts.com/renderings.htm
What a building! An improvement from the other apartments there at the moment.
Flushing Focus
August 9, 2006
A Canadian investment firm is betting it can find profits in New York City's slowing condominium market by targeting the growing Chinese immigrant community in the Queens neighborhood of Flushing.
Onex Real Estate, a division of Toronto-based Onex Corp., is developing a $1 billion retail and residential project in Flushing Town Center in partnership with Queens-based firm Muss Development LLC. The venture will include an 800,000-square-foot shopping center and 1,100 condos priced from an estimated $300,000 to $1.7 million.
Onex executives, who previously had been in the area only en route to the nearby U.S. Open tennis tournament in Flushing Meadows, chose the property after noticing Flushing's home-ownership levels and employment-growth rates are higher than the borough average. Flushing has benefited from soaring prices in Manhattan's Chinatown that have pushed Chinese immigrants out to Flushing. According to U.S. Census Bureau data from 2000, Asians account for 44.4% of Flushing's population.
Onex executives hope to avoid competing with the glut of condos expected to come to market throughout the rest of the city by focusing on Flushing. "Outside of Manhattan, this is the most vibrant 24-hour community," says Michael Dana, Onex's chief executive.
Muss Development, which has owned the 14-acre site for 20 years and recently chose Onex as its equity partner, is keeping in mind the preferences of the area's immigrants. The firm hired a consultant to use principles of feng shui -- an ancient Chinese method of evaluating the shape and position of manmade structures in relation to their environment. The first residential floor is on the eighth floor because eight is considered a favorable number in China.
Copyright © 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Developer Wants To Change RKO Plan
By BRIAN M. RAFFERTY
Link to article
The plans to develop the RKO Keith’s theater property on Northern Boulevard in Flushing may have to go back to the drawing board now that the developer is seeking to add home businesses to the site.
A special meeting of the Land Use Committee of Community Board 7 was planned for this Thursday night to discuss adding “occupation residences” to the property, a concept that some feel might have an effect on traffic – one of the sticking points in all phases of the plans to develop the dilapidated landmark theater property.
“They’d like to change about 25 percent of the units to make much larger lofts, 2,000 to 2,500 square feet each,” CB7 Land Use Committee Chair Charles Apelian said. “They want to market the spaces as home occupation residences.”
Boymelgreen Developers, who won approval for their plans from the City Board of Standards and Appeals in December, went back to the agency recently to discuss the changes. The BSA sent the developer back to the Community Board, the opinion of which had been instrumental in finalizing the development plans.
The plans had transformed from a mix of retail, business and residential to 200 condominium apartments with a senior center and parking for 229 vehicles. To change the marketing of the property to encourage home businesses to locate at the site could have an impact on traffic patterns and the need for parking.
Representatives of Boymelgreen will be at the meeting to discuss some of the problems they have encountered in the design process.
But the design alone may not be the only problem. Rumors have circulated that Boymelgreen has been trying to unload the property, that the changes necessary would be too costly and cut to deeply into the profit margin.
TDC Development President Michael Meyer, whose firm is developing Flushing Commons on Municipal Lot 1 and whose Queens Crossing on Main Street is already well under construction, said that despite rumors, his company has not been offered the RKO Keith’s property. He did acknowledge that rumors are running around the developers in Queens that Boymelgreen is trying to sell the property.
“I cannot make any comment on somebody else remarks,” Boymelgreen developer Israel Vranaski said of the rumors, though he did not flatly deny that the property was being pitched around.
He said that the change his group is seeking is “something very minor regarding the inside divide of apartments. There is no change in overall square footage or in the number of units.”
He declined to make any further comments.
Local officials who cheered the decision of the BSA in December are still hopeful that shovels will soon be put in the ground and work will begin on the property.
“I’m tired of passing northern Boulevard and Main Street and seeing the eyesore that’s been known as the RKO Keith’s,” Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing) said. “I was delighted when we finally came to agreement for the variance for the developers proposal. I am convinced that any difficulties can be resolved.”
“Boymelgreen has been making progress toward the point of getting the shovels in the ground,” Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) said. “They want to make a modification, and I would certainly expect the community board to think carefully about it.”
As to the rumors of the sale, Liu said he had spoken personally with the head of Boymelgreen, and he “made it clear that he was interested in seeing the fruition of the RKO project.”
“We are all looking forward to bringing this project back from the dead,” Liu added. “I trust that the community board will make the right decision.”
Asia Pacific Opens In Heart Of Flushing
Link to article
By ELLEN THOMPSON
Online investors in Flushing now have more support than ever, with the opening of Scottrade’s first Asia Pacific branch in New York.
Scottrade, a leading online brokerage that serves individual investors who are comfortable making their own investment decisions, opened its branch doors at 36-60 Main St. in downtown Flushing Aug. 21.
“The Flushing branch is located in a very convenient location for our customers,” said Tim Leung, branch manager for the Flushing office. “We are located in a commercial area, near a lot of shops. The branch office is located close to the subway station and there is a big municipal parking lot nearby.”
The new branch, staffed with bilingual brokers fluent in Chinese and English, will provide what the community needs as the lure of online investing broadens, said Rodger Riney, Scottrade president and CEO.
“Our new Asia Pacific branch in Flushing is dedicated to providing personal customer service to our customers in the area,” he added. Scottrade is currently ranked “Highest” in Investor Satisfaction with Online Trading Services by J.D. Power and Associates.
While Scottrade is does not provide advice, branches are available to provide customer support, answer questions about customers’ accounts and give tutorials on the company’s trading platforms. Most of Scottrade’s customers trade online, but 275 local branches are available throughout the country to provide customer service, including 14 in New York. In addition to its online capabilities, Scottrade staffs each branch location with a licensed branch manager plus additional brokers and assistants.
Other Asia Pacific offices are located in California in San Francisco, San Gabriel and Rowland Heights. Scottrade also has a Chinese version of its Web site, chinese.scottrade.com, and a Chinese-language trading platform available to customers in the United States, Hong Kong, China and Taiwan to increase trading.
The Flushing branch is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and can be reached at (718) 321-8542.
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