Remediation is overrated

From the Queens Chronicle:

The site of a development that went bust in Howard Beach sold this week for $4.5 million and is expected to become retail stores and an automobile dealership, according to the individual who handled the transaction.

“The previous owner ran out of financing,” said Massey Knakal First Vice President of Sales Stephen Preuss, who handled the Jan. 14 sale of the 7.5-acre site at South Conduit Avenue and Linden Boulevard. “It has been sitting there for about three years untouched.”

Cobblestone Estates, the previous owner, worked with Bank of New York to sell the site to Brooklyn-based JSB Realty.

Massey Knakal officials said there had been an approved plan for a private gated community consisting of 237 units at the site. Additionally, Community Board 10 Chairwoman Betty Braton said the area had been rezoned several years ago, after which the community had expected a commercial complex at the site named Lindenwood Commons.

Foundation plumbing and basement floors for 111 units were completed by the previous owner, according to a statement from Massey Knakal. Preuss said Cobblestone Estates likely spent “a few million” on the work that has been done up to now.

Preuss said the new owner, who could not be reached for comment, expects to convert the site into retail space and a car dealership. He did not specify what kind of store or stores may be built at the site, though a statement from Massey Knakal did note the space is “ideal for a prime retail or mixed-used site for a big box national tenancy or strip center.”

The $4.5 million JSB Realty purchased the site for is under market value, in part because the group will likely have to pay millions of dollars to address environmental concerns, according to Preuss.

“There needs to be remediation with the soil,” he said. “It used to be a transfer station.”

I like how they were originally planning to build houses on the site of a garbage dump without remediation.