A massive waterfront housing development in Astoria that required low- to moderate-income apartments prior to a citywide mandatory affordable housing policy has been scuttled. It's a disappointment for Mayor Bill de Blasio, who had boasted that the project would be a "real game changer" in affordable housing.
From the time the 2.2-million-square-foot Astoria Cove project passed the City Council in November of 2014, developers questioned the economics of the project. Several speculated the builder, Alma Realty, would have a hard time obtaining financing for a development in which 27 percent of the 1,723 planned apartments — 459 units — would be rented to people paying less than the market rate in a neighborhood that does not command top-dollar rents.
Alma had also agreed to pay union rates for construction work, which can significantly drive up the cost of any project.
One developer who has been closely following the project said his firm repeatedly looked at the financial details of the project, only to conclude it would be nearly impossible to find a lender.
10 comments:
Because poor people have to live in hotels in Queens...
But Alma's owner, the not so great Steve Valliotis, owns Alma Bank. Why doesn't he get his bank to put up the money? Answer - because a developer can't turn a profit selling affordable housing. DumBlasio didn't figure that out before he and his blind followers tried to ram affordable housing down everyone's throat. That site will now sit vacant and decrepid. Thanks DumBlasio.
Boo Hoo. It's just the end of the world that we can't build more crappy buildings and stuff more people into an area where the infrastructure simply can't handle it. We should be happy that this project is not getting built. We don't need any more people here, we can't handle what we have now.
Last resort they sell the parcel acres at a time piece by piece to individual developers who then 'Fedderize' the whole area with cheaply constructed multi-family units.
THE NEXT MAYOR WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN IF HE / SHE SURROUNDS THEMSELVES WITH THE RIGHT PEOPLE.
I just love the names they give to these crappy real estate developments..Astoria Cove, Queens West, White Pointe.
Right out of a story book! Our political-developer crooks really know how to bilk the public. They make a used car salesman look honest.
I guess the money is running out!
LOL!
Just wait until Trump gets elected.
He'll get us in a few wars...build a few walls...isolate us from the world and...PRESTO!
Our taxes will surely be raised to pay for his follies and development money will dry up.
Not to worry, Der Donald can handle all this by himself. Narcicists alway believe they can.
Yeah , well building a few golf courses and bankrupting an Atlantic City casino gives this boastful bullying sociopath the "good" experience to be the CEO of the U.S.A. .....hmmmm...at least it's dictator.
Let Trump build it.
He's the only one that can, by his own admission.
He might have tiny hands but his ego is bigger than his ----,
RE Trump:
There's an Olde English term for a shady dealer.
Wanna know what it is?
A "trumper"!
Why make such a fuss over a dipshit piece of land?
You think it was a national park. Did you ever take a look at it?
It makes...LOL....Socrates Park look impressive. And that's another phony assemblage of art crap.
Does Queens deserve any better? It's polpulace is Archie Bunker ignorant.
A reflection of the cultural "heights" of Queens is well represented by the mediocre Queens Museum.
My God.....I wish I could afford Manhattan, or even Brooklyn.
Time for my third Martini, the elixir of forgetfulness.
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