Thursday, September 16, 2010

Elimination of express bus leads to condo withdrawal

From Curbed:

The Wall Street Journal reports that a buyer was lined up to pay $999,000 cash for a two-bedroom penthouse listed at $1.1 million with views of the Manhattan skyline. That is, until the MTA shut down the QM22 express bus to Midtown in its recent "Doomsday" cuts.

The buyer backed out, and an Astoria broker says the death of the QM22 is a deep wound for the project: "That killed off sales for us over in that building. … for the people who are looking to get in and out of Manhattan quickly it's going to be a tough sell."

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sure, million dollor condo dwellers take busses around town.

Oh this is Astoria, any silly story to plug real estate is gospel truth.

And the community increasingly looks it.

Anonymous said...

Million $ - buy in Manhattan instead. Not in that crappy building and location.

faster340 said...

Oh please even if you took a jet from over there you wouldn't "get in and out of Manhattan quickly".... Express Bus, what a joke in this city....

Unanimous said...

I agree with all the above. For one million - just buy a place in Manhattan.

Anonymous said...

What a stupid place to spend $999,000 on a condo.

I live in Astoria, and don't hate it, like some other people on this forum, but there is nothing interesting in the area around that building.

Doesn't take much to realize a stupid a location is the real reason they aren't selling.

Anonymous said...

What is the world coming to? If you can't believe a salesperson trying to sell a $1 million dollar condo, who can you believe?

Someone with "$999,000 cash" wringing their hands over the QM22? I see that every day.

Deke DaSilva said...

No worries!!

The city will just build a bike path, or a special lane on the streets for people driving a Prius!!!

$900/square foot in Astoria???

P.T. Barnum was right!!!!

Miles Mullin said...

You have to be kidding - just a few blocks from the Astoria Houses and where Vallone Sr wants to put another 50,000 people on a peninsula served by one road?

Anonymous said...

live in Astoria, and don't hate it, like some other people on this forum, but there is nothing interesting in the area around that building.


Dont think too many people hate Astoria (except the developers), the people here just roll their eyes at where its heading and the recieved wisdom justifying this approacing train wreck that is handed out the the commmunity.

Anonymous said...

This owner is getting his comeuppance. He was the one that wanted to demolish Socrates Park and put up wall to wall 40 story towers there. Until an outcry from the neighborhood got the state to designate it a state park. That was 15 years ago, when people were PROACTIVE around here for the better.

And to make matters worse, that guy was born and raised in the immediate neighborhood. When he didn't get his way, he had the Community board FROM HELL rezone the old Mayflower Moving parking lot - WHICH DIDN'T HAVE A LEGITIMATE ADDRESS NO LESS - to put up that horrible eyesore. George Delis YOU SCUMBAG. You TRAITOR to your own neighborhood. What did YOU get out of the deal?

Not one apartment has been rented in the 3 years that THING has TOWERED over the neighborhood like some alien from another planet.

Whoever 'designed' that thing purposely did not put ANY windows on the rear, the part that faces Queens, the part that faces it's neighbors and had the 'bright idea' of only putting windows facing Manhattan, as this was supposed to be some sort of genius 'marketing ploy' to entice people for the view.

Good for this pig! Go bankrupt in your own neighborhood. You deserve it for the outright greed you have displayed. We're LAUGHING AT YOU.

Anonymous said...

Real estate broker Vickie Palmos is a liar and she knows it. She's blaming this on the MTA cutbacks when she knows damn well this building and the others around have been empty for years.

These real estate liars will do anything for a buck.

44 million people are in poverty in this country, 22% of this city alone, because of the financial industry's CRIME OF THE CENTURY.

And they want to extend tax cuts to these pigs.

Third world country here we come.

Anonymous said...

wow, you astorians should be posting on astorians.com

it needs astorians.

Anonymous said...

astorians.com?

Isn't that just an arm of the Republican party just like Fox News?

Isn't Beck and Hannity posting on that rag in disguise?

Isn't that the place where Pistilli entices the saps into buying a piece of his mold covered concrete palaces?

Pretty soon Christine O'Donnel from Delaware will be posting too!

Fourth Generation Astorian said...

No doubt Astoria is suffering - back in the 70s it was better than Hoboken for Christ sake.

The largest ethnic group are Mexican, the largest number of new restaurants are Spanish, illegal conversions are gospel truth, absentee landlords are skyrocketing, the transient element is growing by leaps and bounds, the place stinks and is filthy and property values are now not geared for homes, but for barracks where they can cram as many people as possible.

Stores? Sure, with branches in Corona and the Bronx and filled with gangsta clothing.

Social life? Great if you like burkas and sullen men smoking hookahs.

It aint Williamsburg - or Hoboken for that matter.

Every building has a price. In every lot is lurking an as of right monster.

The real problem is the leadership. They are around just to rip out the pipes.

Anonymous said...

astorians.com?

Isn't that just an arm of the Republican party just like Fox News?

NO, ITS AN OUTLET FOR THE DEMOCRATIC MACHINE IMHO.

Isn't Beck and Hannity posting on that rag in disguise?

TRY CHRISSIE QUINN, BLUMBERG AND HELEN MARSHALL.

Isn't that the place where Pistilli entices the saps into buying a piece of his mold covered concrete palaces?

ONE OUT OF FOUR AINT BAD.

Pretty soon Christine O'Donnel from Delaware will be posting too!

NAW, A MOD WOULD BAIT HER INTO A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION AND SHE WOULD GET BANNNED.

Anonymous said...

Until an outcry from the neighborhood got the state to designate it a state park. That was 15 years ago, when people were PROACTIVE around here for the better.
---

Astoria was never proactive. It is probably the least proactive community in NYC.

What saved Socrates was Parks Commisser Henry Stern.

If the locals had their way it would have been developed. Right now Silvercup and the developers ... well just take a look at its board.

Anonymous said...

New zoning?

Lets put it this way. On a 1950s infrastructure they have 40% more people in 2010. Sewage is backed up, schools a joke, and utilities are at the verge of collapse.

Now add another 100,000 planned for the next 30 years.

Astoria already has the worse air in NYC - it will only get even worse.

Only real estate touts, politiical wannabes, and the clueless say things are good.

Anonymous said...

"What saved Socrates was Parks Commisser Henry Stern."

What saved Socrates was the hundreds of phone calls to Henry Stern.

Anonymous said...

"If the locals had their way it would have been developed. Right now Silvercup and the developers ... well just take a look at its board."

The locals didn't want this. The George Delis, Onorato & Vallone run Community Board did.

They are two different things with two different agendas. I was at the meetings and saw the dissent. Everyone was talked down to and verbally cut off by the Community Board. A bunch of fascists. Total scam.

This was the direct precursor to the overwhelming amount of absentee landlords that have turned our neighborhood into one with a diminishing quality of life here. You don't live in the house you own, you don't care what goes on, just as long you collect the rent.

Ever wonder why police helicopters are hovering in the sky three time a week at 4am?

Anonymous said...

They are two different things with two different agendas. I was at the meetings and saw the dissent. Everyone was talked down to and verbally cut off by the Community Board. A bunch of fascists. Total scam.


So attend meetings held by L.I.C.A. and change things.

Anonymous said...

Socrates 2010 Benefit Event:

first level starts at $500

goes to $25,000

real community, eh? not a developer in sight.

right?

Anonymous said...

The last 5 or so years of the sculptures at Socrates have been incredibly horrendous. They do not have the spirit of the originals 11 - 15 years ago when it was not designated a state park and it was a wonderful undergound vibe.

If this is where these grants are going to, no wonder the quality has changed. Art grants are a farce. It's who you know and it's who you blow. Has nothing to do with real talent in this city anymore. Case in point, this year's PS 1 expo. Total trash. The room with the trees that were cut down and sprayed with concrete made me sick. I told the artist he was ridiculous and left. He was! Crap show if there ever was one. There is no more art in this city. It's pretentious corporate tax write offs, that's all.

I doubt many people will be giving. Certainly no one in the neighborhood has that type of money for it. But maybe I'm wrong, isn't that building behind it filled to capacity now with with Harvard grad millionaires? They have a buck or two from the Bush sanctioned Wall Street bail outs from our taxes.

Anonymous said...

Certainly no one in the neighborhood has that type of money for it.
--------------------
Ah, for all intents and purposes,the waterfront is no longer part of the 'neighborhood'

It will be an exclusive enclave that will suck all the resources of the community into it - doesnt even exist and its already happening - look at the blackout - new conduit laid for buildings that dont even exist while Astoria made do with stuff decades old - and got the blackout.

Since they are stupid enought to believe Albany types spinning tall tales, whats is the big deal?

Anonymous said...

Uh ok if you build a monstrosity like that with no convenient fast train service and depend on an express bus for residents then you deserve to have the whole development go under. I'm sorry but I have no sympathy at all for the developers.

If residents were smart they would have their condo or coop board start their own shuttle service or the developer would start it for them as a way to creatively attract buyers.