Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Mega hotel will sit next to YMCA


From the LIC Post:

A hotel is likely to go up at 32-45 Queens Blvd. significantly higher than zoning permits, due to a planned deal with the adjacent YMCA.

The hotel will be constructed on a 10,000-square-foot lot, which would ordinarily permit only 20,000 square feet of building space for a hotel. When interviewed by the Sunnyside Post in December, developers said plans were only for a 12-story hotel.

However, the YMCA, located on a 40,000-square-foot property at 32-23 Queens Blvd., plans to merge its zoning lot with the adjacent hotel site.

This maneuver would allow the hotel to stand 17 stories as of right – or 100,000 square feet of building space – according to Jessica Rubenstein, an attorney with Eric Palatnik, representing the YMCA.

Rubinstein also said that the YMCA could transfer its air rights to the hotel, which could bring the total building space up to 140,000 square feet.

The YMCA was granted a zoning variance in the 1990s to open this Queens Boulevard location in the middle of a manufacturing/hotel zone.

Therefore, in order for its deal with the hotel developers to go through, the YMCA needs approval from the Board of Standards and Appeals to modify that variance.

Neither Rubenstein nor the BSA were able to explain exactly how the air rights transfer would work in conjunction with the zoning lots merger.

14 comments:

Joe Moretti said...

Really they need to build another hotel in that area. I mean the just turned a relatively new hotel, The Verve, into a homeless shelter for low-life women who indulge in uncivilized behavior.

Guess they need one for single homeless low-life men now.

(sarc) said...

Homeless shelter???

Anonymous said...

A hotel? Yeh, right.

Anonymous said...

I know the YMCA is always looking for new sources of funding, but this is really gross and opportunistic. Shame on them.

JQ LLC said...

Looks like we need a sequel for "how the other half lives"

I should post this also by that other post about overcrowding in Queens

Really, the city plans to warehouse the homeless along with the middle class and poor who are eventually going to be disenfranchised from their areas because of the affordable housing scam.

Which if you add it up with the imminent towers and market speculation, the aggregate AMI will go up dramatically

Anonymous said...

WHY WOULD ANYONE GO STAY AT A HOTEL IN THAT AREA? I DON'T KNOW BUT IT SEEMS THAT HOTELS AND MOTELS ARE BEING BUILT IN RECORD NUMBER SINCE DIBLASIO TOOK OFFICE. I GUESS IT'S HIS ANSWER TO SHELTERING THE HOMELESS...

Anonymous said...

at least when it's converted to a homeless shelter they'll just have to go down to the corner of Honeywell and Northern to get their food stamps.

Rich Parkwood said...

Who invented the bullshit concept of "air right"??

Anonymous said...

it is probably a done deal already for a homeless shelter and Jimmy Van Bramer knows all about it from day one --

Anonymous said...

Tax breaks.

Jerry Rotondi said...

Just wait until the Flushing YMCA moves into Flushing Commons.
Would anyone like to bet that their old building on Northern Blvd. gets torn down and gets replaced with a mega structure?
There is a whole row of one story taxpayers adjacent that which will also be turned into high rise.
Also, the Flushing YMCA owns a big piece of property behind their old building.
Unfortunately, the buses that serve the area are already crammed to capacity.
However, that is not the developers' concern. They build and bank their mega profits , then leave to build more.
Where are our infrastructure upgrades? Not coming soon, since most of the local politicians are owned by the building industry.Mine, Paul Vallone, actually lobbies for them.

Anonymous said...

Hotel? Section 8 coming soon!

Anonymous said...

here comes the rubber stamp!

Jerry Rotondi said...

Yes...CB7 always keeps their rubber stamp well inked!