Friday, April 8, 2011

So much for the dorm

From the Daily News:

An industrial building in Long Island City that was on track to become a dorm for graduate students could now turn into a satellite campus for a university.

Alma Realty, which recently purchased the five-story vacant building at 30-30 Northern Blvd. for $21.5 million, is in talks to develop the property into a campus, said officials for Greiner-Maltz, which brokered the deal.

A university has expressed interest in developing 400,000 square-feet into classroom and auditorium space, said John Maltz, president of Greiner-Maltz.

North 30 Associates LLC., which sold the property in January, had planned to build a 19-story, 900-room, state-of-the-art dorm. Community Board 1 gave a thumbs-up in May for the project, but the company decided instead to use its money to develop residential buildings in Manhattan, Greiner-Maltz officials said.

Alma Realty officials declined to confirm whether the company was in talks with a university and would only say there are no set plans to build anything yet.

Locals who were anticipating the economic boom the dorm would have brought said they are still hoping that whatever moves in will benefit the neighborhood.


Looks like EDC needs to update their website. Also find it interesting how their touting Jerry Wolkoff's 5 Pointz redevelopment, even though his building has all those violations...

9 comments:

ew-3 said...

NYC is becoming a version of Boston.
So many tax exempt universities, which is driving business and people away because they have to cover for lost tax revenue.

Check out the Harvard Mamgement Company which manages the endowment. It's worth about $30 BILLION last time I checked. AND IT IS FREE FROM TAXES!

Then look next door to MIT for the same, then Tufts, BU, BC, Emerson and you can see why Boston is in a long term death spiral.

NYC is headed in the same direction.

Anonymous said...

This is right next to the model of civics, the only one in the entire city that wants to UP-zone!

A dorm, or college, shoehorned between a polluted train yard and a busy highway with absolutely no amenities except a bunch of hotels that, unless they are regularly refurbished, will soon get old and become welfare barracks.

Must be EDC and City Planning somewhere in the mix.

But don't worry if there will be objections: the pols will favor it and the local press will say its wonderful.

I always love the renderings of gigantic block busting developments done in 1 inch squares, don't you?

Anonymous said...

Community Board 1 gave a thumbs-up in May for the project ....


CB 1 the community board from hell.

Anonymous said...

A dorm, or college, shoehorned between a polluted train yard and a busy highway with absolutely no amenities except a bunch of hotels that, unless they are regularly refurbished, will soon get old and become welfare barracks.
-----
You forget to mention the clattering elevated just outside the window. With the train horns in the railyard, the truck brakes and the maniac cabbies on their horns this should be a wonderful place for a school - like Drake or the like.

Ever walk past tech schools in the city?

All the green in the rendering is a nice touch. Pity its all going into the developers (and by extension through campaign donations) politician pockets.

Anonymous said...

Myth
Locals who were anticipating the economic boom the dorm would have brought said they are still hoping that whatever moves in will benefit the neighborhood.

Reality
The locals are still in shell shock by all the hotels in the neighborhood and the way they felt they have been betrayed by the process to say nothing of their officials.

Yes, they are so excited to have 1000s of 'scholars' running through their community.

Go ahead. Ask 'em.

Snake Plissskin said...

hahahaha

Sure, put a 15 story hotel in my back yard - and sit back and wait for the 'boom'.

Anonymous said...

"I'm disappointed that we aren't getting the dorms. We hope whatever it is, it will be positive for our community," said Jerry Walsh, president of the Dutch Kills Civic Association.
----

sure, ah, Jerry, ah, uh-ha, ah, just keep hopin'

-------
State Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria) said he is familiar with Alma Realty and is confident it will work with the community. A school would be a good fit, he said.

"Something that focuses on education would be a great use. We could never have enough education infrastructure," Gianaris said.

----

hahahahahahaha
hehehehehehehe
hohohohohohoho

Look at it this way, Mike, is stuff like this zoned where you live?

Anonymous said...

"I'm disappointed that we aren't getting the dorms. We hope whatever it is, it will be positive for our community," said Jerry Walsh, president of the Dutch Kills Civic Association.
++
Jerry also just went on record saying the hotels were great for Dutch Kills, too, an opinion, shall we delicately say, is not shared by too many people.

But then, again, was this the guy that went to Amanda Burden asking to upzone his community?

The bigger question is, with a track record like this, when is this guy going on the lecture circuit as a creditable commentator on a community's development?

Anonymous said...

Seemed to be credible enough for the Daily News ...

(crackle)