Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Mall to be torn down for Flushing Commons parking

From the Queens Chronicle:

The Flushing Mall at 133-15 39 Ave. is expected to be torn down next year to make way for parking during construction of the Flushing Commons mixed-use development project.

TDC Development owns the 150,000-square-foot shopping mall and will develop Flushing Commons, which is the current site of Municipal Parking Lot 1, between Union and 138th streets.

Although TDC was the successful bidder on the $850 million plan, which was approved last July, the city is not expected to close on the project until the end of the year, according to Michael Meyer, president of TDC. The mall will be torn down after that, probably next year, Meyer added.

Flushing Commons calls for a mix of 620 upscale condominiums, retail and commercial areas, a YMCA, a public green and 1,600 underground parking spaces.

During construction, drivers will lose 1,100 parking spots in the heart of downtown Flushing when the municipal lot is eliminated.

Meyer noted that it was always part of the plan for the developer to offer interim parking elsewhere, especially on College Point Boulevard, but tearing down the Flushing Mall was never mentioned. “We needed more parking closer to Main Street,” he said.

The Flushing Mall was created in 2001 at the site of a vacant former warehouse. TDC officials said then that it was only an interim use for the space. With a change in downtown Flushing zoning and the area seeing a building boom, developers wanted to keep their options open.

Plans for the future use of the mall site once Flushing Commons is completed in about three years have not been announced.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Meyers is TDC/Wellington Chen's "pussy boy".

He does what he's told for a mere salary while the Chinese give him his marching orders.

The Flushing Mall has been total failure from the get-go...only TDC won't admit that (at least publicly).

That's the only logical reason they're tearing it down.

NO ONE TEARS DOWN A SUCCESSFUL PROJECT TO BUILD A MERE PARKING LOT.

Then again...TDC's real estate tax bill will soon be reduced...now that an "improvement" (in real estate parlance) has been removed from the property.

Parking lots are assessed at less $$$$$$ than buildings!

"Flushing Commons" (if it's ever built) will become yet another colossal flop!

Anonymous said...

The only real reason TDC is tearing it down is that Flushing Mall has been a flop from the get-go.

The retail income produced from it has been dismally minimal!

Nobody in their right mind tears down a successful project to make it a parking lot.

So, therefore,. this has been a failure

Anonymous said...

who cares?!?!! Flushing has turned into an ugly dump & a wasteland, its a 3rd world ghetto!!! its great if you want rotten fish heads, just like those ugly people!! YUCK!

Anonymous said...

The retail income produced from it has been dismally minimal!.

Without a doubt! Its funny about the post right before this about signs not being in English. This mall embodies that so much.

Anonymous said...

Don't stop! Keep tearing down buildings and putting up parking structures until there's enough parking in Flushing.

Anonymous said...

Yea, just what Flushing sorely needs: additional upscale condominiums.

Anonymous said...

This will become the future home of the exclusive Donald Manes School of the Corruptive Arts!

Myra Baird Herce will be the head mistress.

JO said...

You forgot the last 2 paragraphs:


Bloggers rave about the restaurants AND cheap prices in the mall’s food court, especially the offerings of shaved ice and ice cream, the steak and spaghetti, fried crullers and the handmade noodles. But they say the mall stores leave a lot to be desired and that many are closed.
Food blogger Jeff Orlick of Woodside likes the Flushing mall cuisine so much that he is having a grazing event there on Feb. 19 from 2 to 5 p.m. He reports he’s gotten a good response and is aiming for 150 people. Those interested can just show up at the food court to participate.

Anonymous said...

Who are you kidding, Wellington Chen & Michael Meyers?

After this flop you're both biting your nails hoping that Flushing Commons will upgrade Flushing from being (how did Chen once pronounce it in the press?) "a crappy little Chinatown".

Too late for everyone...Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, "Whites", etc.

Flushing's down the toilet...a festering cesspool!

The only way it'll "come back" is if it backs up into the streets...which it already has during storm surges!

Anonymous said...

Is "TDC" an acronym for the "Taiwanese Demolition Corp." ?

Do you think that one of Tommy Huang's shell companies has a piece of it?

Anonymous said...

Look out "Crappy"!

Shulman's been reading Q.C. this morning and is getting a case of "the runs".

She's gonna bump you off your bowl seeking a frantic "dump" if you don't watch out!

Anonymous said...

WELLINGTON CHEN, WELLINGTON CHEN, WELLINGTON CHEN, WELLINGTON CHEN, WELLINGTON CHEN, WELLINGTON CHEN!

Is he the man behind the curtain?

While he puts his "front men" on stage...to dodge the rotten tomatoes...might he be safely pulling all the strings?

CALL IN THE FEDS!

Anonymous said...

Chen has appeared in a Willets Point news article sitting right next to Shulman.

How cozy...partners in slime!

"Wellington Pointe At Shulman Shores"!

Anonymous said...

There is (or was at this point) a rather busy Oriental massage therapy parlour operating in the Flushing Mall.

It seemed that it was the only business doing well the last time I visited that seedy backstreet mall.

My companion urged me to snap a photo for Queens Crap but I was rather afraid of their bouncer (?).

He might have knocked me out and harvested one of my organs to sell before I came to.

Anonymous said...

Flushing's finished!

It's an overpopulated ant hill...spewing up thousands...clogging up its narrow streets!

"A destination of Choice"?

Stop blowing smoke up our asses, with your feeble street banner slogans, Flushing BID!

Only "their own kind" is willing to put up with such filth and density...arriving from under-civilized societies.

And meanwhile Flushing's "Olde Tyme" prominent landowners are reaping their share by busily bilking Asian businesses with astronomical rents.

No wonder these new immigrants are building their own projects.

Flushing is not (despite all the hype) a cooperating, tolerant town.

There's been a real estate turf war raging since the mid 1970s.

One group hates the other and until one army wins the final battle, Flushing will continue to be torn to shreds.

What goes unnoticed though...is that Latinos & Blacks are moving out.

But wasn't that the Queens (Manes') machine's plan for Flushing from the very beginning?

Spoken by a former New York State assemblymen in front of witnesses in a backroom and I happened to be there (but, unfortunately, without my micro cassette recorder at hand).

"Thank God for the Asians. We don't want Flushing to become a south Jamaica or the south Bronx".

Yet another "pillar" of Flushing once said:

"We don't want the wrong element (in Flushing)".

The wrong element being those boisterous Blacks using the Q44 from Jamaica, of course.

This is the real sordid planning that went on in our "towne" decades past.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't it Myra Baird Herce's "Downtown Flushing Development Corp." (set up by Donald Manes) that first coined the phrase... "Flushing, a World of Choice"... still visible on some faded metal street signs around town?

You'd think that the (sham) Flushing Bid could come up with a better line other than to re-hash the old one.

Myra's still around, though, currently representing the Flushing Business Ass'n. (or whatever)!

Who are their members anyway?

At least one (or more) listed on their letterhead have already passed on, moved, retired.

Boy if she would divulge all of her (little black book's?) secrets.

But maybe by not doing so she always manages to always keep a paying job ???

No, I'm definitely not suggesting any blackmail on her part.

Anonymous said...

Don't ever call her "Myra Hersh".

She'll correct you quickly, "Herce!", with a scowl.

Does Hersh sound a little too Jewish?

Maybe there's a pinch of anti-Semites
in the Flushing recipe.

Anonymous said...

Stop being cruel and leave her alone.

She's outlived all her face lifts (?) and seems to be basking in her own version of the past.

Myra said...

Stop being cruel and leave her alone.

She's outlived all her face lifts (?) and seems to be basking in her own version of the past.

.......................................................

HEY! I can defend myself. Just give me a minute to get Gene's koch er cock out of my mouth.

Anonymous said...

Smart move on TDC's part.

Close the mall and quickly cover it over with a parking lot before the DEP inspects the place.

It's located in a former MS3 heavy manufacturing zone and most likely is heavily polluted.

Now go and enjoy your economically priced stir fried "street-catch"...seasoned (maybe) with some nice vintage PCBs...in the Asian eateries before it closes!

Anonymous said...

LOL....and wash it down with some nice cold Melamine laced milk!

What's good in China is good in America.

Anonymous said...

1951 they tore down Flushing bus terminal to build woolworth/olnavy. If they didn't turn the streets into a congested bus termnal the cops might have made the two blocks to the Wendy massacre.

Anonymous said...

"the city is not expected to close on the project until the end of the year"

So is there anyway the whole project can still be tabled? Someone seriously get the Willets Points lawyer to help stop it!