Friday, February 10, 2012

St. John's building getting ready for next chapter

From the Queens Chronicle:

Construction on the building that was formerly the home of St. John’s Hospital in Elmhurst is fully underway, according to Community Board 4, which represents the area. While it looks much the same as it always has from the outside, the former hospital, located at 90-02 Queens Blvd., has been completely gutted, according to CB 4 Chairman Anthony Moreno.

In published reports, a representative for 89-52 Queens LLC said the developer had been open to using the space as a healthcare facility, but that no medical providers had shown interest in the property.

So, as described Moreno, the firm has opted to build a commercial and residential space instead, and he is pleased with the results thus far.

Moreno described the former hospital as “a beautiful building,” which he told board members he toured three weeks ago with the developers and Councilman Danny Dromm (D-Jackson Heights).

The building will have a grocery store in the basement or ground floor and then two floors of retail space. The third floor will be used as offices, while the fourth floor will provide “community services,” according to Moreno, such as doctor’s and dentist’s offices.

The top three floors will be apartments ranging from studios to three bedrooms, Moreno said.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a farce - it's valuable property "location" but the usage suggest desperate plan which will drag the neighborhood surrounding it further down and crowded.

Anonymous said...

Adaptive reuse is a disguise to let developers make private profit from non-profit community assets. Look at what obscenity is happening to St. Vincent's Hospital. May God forgive us for letting this happen.

georgetheatheist said...

Great. When I'm having a stroke they'll rush me to the deli department.

Anonymous said...

"Beautiful building"?!!!! Is he crazy.

Anonymous said...

Any medical services provider would be crushed by the same burdens that crushed St John's and St Vincent's -- illegals and low Medicaid reimbursement rates.

Anonymous said...

Will the morgue space become the meat locker for that supermarket?

Anonymous said...

They should have put the high school there. Guess there wasn't enough money for people to get paid off. Wait until September when the high school opens. It will be a traffic nightmare with 3 schools within a 7-block radius.