From the Times Ledger:Ground is to be broken by March on a tall glass building to be used as a medical center and residential complex in downtown Flushing, according to a designer working on the project, but several elected officials said they had not heard of it until this week.
The Eastern Mirage project is on track to be built with the help of $17 million in tax-exempt stimulus bonds on three plots at 42-31 Union St. between Franklin and Sanford avenues, a fact that is drawing the ire of area politicians and experts who say they were not notified about the plans by city officials or the project’s developer, Flushing-based mortgage broker Fleet Financial Group, Inc.
North Queens Medical Center is a proposed 80,000-square-foot commercial diagnosis and treatment facility that will occupy one portion of the site. The Eastern Mirage Tower portion is slated to have 62 market-rate apartments, 100 apartment hotel rooms, 200 underground parking spaces and nearly 20,000 square feet of community facility space for amenities such as a restaurant and pool, according to Fleet Financial documents.
Janel Patterson, a city Economic Development Corp.spokeswoman, said the residential tower will not benefit from the stimulus money.
The project is controversial in large part because the developer is awaiting $17 million of triple tax-exempt bonds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The EDC’s Capital Resource Corp. will hold a public hearing on the bond issuance Dec. 9.
“It’s a private development, private health care facility, and meanwhile Flushing Hospital and New York Hospital Queens are both struggling for their lives to stay afloat,” said Paul Graziano, a Flushing planning and zoning consultant. “So where’s the $17 million for those?”
14 comments:
Money can buy you anything.
Ask an old time resident of the area about the stream/river that runs underground beneath the building site.
Underground parking for hundreds of cars?
I strongly doubt it!
So CB#7 didn't know anything about it?
Tell me another fib!
Don't take the "old time resident's" word for the river that runs through it.
Verify the fact by checking out a topographical map!
It's there!
Isn't that part of an underground water system that was created by glaciers? In case of an emergency, the people of Queens could have potable water, provided that these bozos don't contaminate it. I believe this underground river connects north Queens to south Queens. Can anyone provide more information about this?
Ha, ha, ha....those catatonic CB#7 folks wouldn't even know they're being raped until the assailant's member had actually penetrated their orifices!
"As of right....as of right"....that endlessly chanted mantra for sitting around and doing nothing.
Why do we need community boards anyway?
Bitterman gets about $85,000 a year and local hospitals are in need of funding!
Multiply that by every district manager's salary around the city and think of the money we'd be saving.
Bloomberg wouldn't have to be cutting services and raising our taxes.
CBs are all show and no blow...strictly advisory...giving citizens the false impression that they have a say in government!
We've got 311 and can file our complaints directly without having to go through expensive middlemen at the community boards.
Dump 'em all! We're living in hard times!
Let them be stimulated!
Thanks "bud".
Keep Flushing and New York hospitals afloat already!! THe stimulus money should be applied to those vital institions.
THe stimulus money should be applied to those vital institions.
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What's in it for me?
I'll bet "follow the buck" Chuck knew about this!
He runs roughshod over many of the genuinely hard working CB#7 members.
District manager...Marylin Bitterman...winds up getting flack for all his and others machinations.
They should increase her salary for putting up with all the crap she has to deal with in NYC's largest community board.
They should increase her salary for putting up with all the crap she has to deal with in NYC's largest community board.
Agreed!
crap = Apelian & Kelty
The Chinese gave us money (by buying our t-bills) so we can purchase their goods.
Perhaps we could have snuck it into highways and the like.
But, no, our politicans want to line their pockets and their buddies the developers.
In about 3 or 4 years when the deficit starts to climb back, and the Chinese refuse to give us money so the developers get rich (while they are stuck with worthless inflated paper) all hell will break loose.
Of course the developers and pols will be off shore by then.
your tax dollars at work
no wonder your schools suck, sanitation is a mess, power grid fails, and hospitals close.
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