Friday, July 18, 2008

Ah, the smell of it!

Muss Development might be billing its new Sky View Parc condos as "luxury residences," but there's nothing upscale at the moment about the 14-acre Flushing, Queens, site where the waterfront complex is slated to rise.

WATER BABY

Across the street heading east is the Bland Houses housing project. To the west sits the Van Wyck Expressway and the olfactory assault of Flushing Creek. Rumbling aboveground just north of the property is the 7 train. Just south is the Long Island Rail Road. Overhead, jets out of LaGuardia Airport roar past every several minutes.

As for the actual construction site, it sits atop a former brownfield that required environmental remediation before development was possible.

So, this isn't exactly a bucolic paradise.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is slated to be an Asian dominated development.

I just don't understand, in a borough that supposedly loves immigrants, why they are channeled to the worst communities, with the worst services.

No one, in their right mind (or desperate) would move into such a marginal location.

This place, like most new Queens developments, will be built with the cheapest materials and construction techniques and will cater to foreign money looking for investment profits by crowding transient immigrants into rooms.

The buildings will be overtaxed and overworked and in a decade will look shopworn and tired.

Anonymous said...

The smells! The smells!

You have not used your nose until you walk through the hallways of a Flushing or Elmhurst apartment building.

Anonymous said...

Muss will be luring Chinese
immigrants with promises of living in the lap of luxury.

Living conditions are far worse in the more remote provinces of China, unless you're one of the lucky ones living in upscale progressive port cities like Shanghai, so Muss' development will appear very "upscale". (Indeed, the purchase price per unit will definitely be)!

Actually, the Bland Houses offer far more green space than there will be included in the completed Sky View Parc's "luxury" condos!

The poorer Chinese/Taiwanese have already moved in and displaced the poorer people of color in the Bland projects.

Take a good look at the basketball courts and see who's playing there today.

You'll see some very boring games, because Asian men can't jump!

Anonymous said...

Nice selective quote. How about this one:
"By the time Sky View Parc is complete, Muss principal Jason Muss says, landscaping will hide the surrounding train track. A waterfront esplanade will sweep residents into the Flushing Meadow park. And 1,100 luxury apartments will rise above an 800,000-square-foot retail center.

"At the end of the day, the site is going to be totally transformed," he says.

So far, people seem to be buying the pitch. Since going to market in mid-February, the development has sold roughly 100 units at around $650 a square foot - about $150 more per square foot than is typical for the neighborhood."

Anonymous said...

Developer Muss contributed $$$$$
to Julia Harrison's political campaign.

(And now, no doubt,
we can expect be hearing from our Julia butt kisser shortly...
extolling her virtues).

Anonymous said...

I'll bet Muss is marketing these
wonders of "luxury" overseas.

Asians with money to burn will purchase these units sight unseen
for speculative purposes.

The owner can always rent out his units to others.

Anonymous said...

So far, people seem to be buying the pitch. Since going to market in mid-February, the development has sold roughly 100 units at around $650 a square foot - about $150 more per square foot than is typical for the neighborhood."
-------

In a country with no borders, and a big neon sign over Queens saying 'tweeded welcome' you can make something out of twigs and whattle and have a family living in it by nightfall.

.. and they will tell you its an improvement over where they came from.

I don't care about speculators looking to shoehorn people in, we are talking about building stable communities in Queens.

And with projects like this, it ain't happening.

Anonymous said...

Spell park backwards and it's Skyview Crap! How appropriate for its grammatically-challenged developers.

Anonymous said...

construction has been like a giant jig-saw puzzle. everything has been trucked in and assembled. the typical beige facade is getting pieced together as we speak.

Anonymous said...

A horrible, filthy location. The creek has stunk up that area for 40 years. Keep your windows closed at low tide! What were they thinking????

Anonymous said...

When borough hall beaks wind,
the stench wafts over the creek and mixes with Flushing's own distinct "aroma".

"All the perfumes of Araby" cannot sweeten the stench of fish, rotten vegetables and "floatables"
that wind up in this waterway
(once the place where elegant regattas were held).

(With appolgies
to Bill Shakespeare).