Avella to protest Astoria medical building today with neighbors

ADVISORY: AVELLA AND ASTORIA RESIDENTS TO RALLY AGAINST DEVELOPER OF MEDICAL OFFICE WHO IS THREATENING TO SUE RESIDENTS TO GAIN ACCESS TO THEIR PROPERTIES

Today at 10:30 AM, Senator Tony Avella will be joined by Astoria residents at a rally protesting the developers of a proposed Medical Ambulatory Care center being built at 23-25 31st Street who are threatening to sue the residents in order to gain access to their properties to complete the construction. This is despite the fact that the developer has already encroached on and caused damage to adjacent private property.

Avella held a rally this past May regarding the obnoxious and blatant violations of the zoning and building codes by this developer at this construction site. At the time of the initial rally, the construction was causing severe damage to the abutting homes, causing them to shift from their foundation. Residents had also obtained reports from professional structural engineers confirming that the homes located at 23-26/28 32nd Street are no longer salvageable and have to be torn down due to all the damage incurred by the construction. The homes located at 23-24/22/20/18 were also severely damaged and repairs would be extremely costly.

Now, the developer has sent letters to the residents indicating that they will be taken to court unless they are given access to their properties in order to allow the developer to finish the work.

WHO: Senator Avella, neighboring residents

WHERE: In front of developer’s office at 23-18 31st Street in Astoria

WHEN: THURSDAY, September 26, 2013 at 10:30 AM

Anyone notice who's missing? (Vallone, Gianaris, Simotas...)

Queens Gazette cries a river for troubled medical building

From the Queens Gazette:

Recently a police report was filed with the 114th Police Precinct by Pali Realty for extensive graffiti damage done to the multimillion dollar medical facility under construction at 23-25 31st St. in Astoria. Graffiti vandals damaged the façade and exterior glass windows. Damage to the building is estimated to cost more than $150,000, causing an unnecessary expense and delays.

“It is a real travesty that damage by graffiti vandals continues to plague our neighborhood. We deserve a neighborhood free from graffiti and vandalism,” said Yianni Konstantinides of Pali Realty, the developer of the property. “Every bit of damage done places burdensome costs for this project and negatively impacts this building and other hard-working small business owners in New York City.”

Pali Realty has invested millions of dollars into the Astoria Medical Facility on 31st Street. Upon completion, it will serve as a full-time medical facility featuring 134 underground parking spaces and offices for 26 physicians with a support staff of approximately 80 people, bringing jobs and medical care to a largely underserved community. The medical office building will be occupied by various medical groups and hospitals. These local medical services and new jobs will be a major benefit to the Astoria Community.

We're supposed to feel bad that the shady developer of the building that bought off all the area legislators, got a variance it didn't deserve, and made neighbors' lives hell, has to shell out money to remove graffiti?

Developer demands access to properties it damaged

From the Queens Courier:

Developers of a nearly complete medical center in Astoria plan to take adjacent homeowners to court to gain key access to their backyards, residents said.

Pali Realty needs permission to enter the backyards of about five adjacent homes in order to wrap up an eight-story ambulatory care center project at 23-25 31st Street.

But dozens of residents, who say they have suffered foundation cracks and water damage since the project broke ground in late 2009, plan to adamantly deny them entrance.

“We don’t want them in our yards,” said homeowner Robert Draghi. “They have done severe damage to numerous houses and they refuse to even discuss settling damages. They never made a single offer to any of the homeowners.”

The company is prepared to gain access through a court order, according to a letter it sent the homeowners early last month.

Pali Realty wants no more than 60 days to waterproof and apply a cement stucco finish to the back wall of the medical center, the letter says.

The developer would need access to a four to six foot wide strip of land behind the building to erect scaffolding and remove piles of shoring steel.

It said it would obtain “additional insurance” to cover any potential damage to properties.

But Draghi, who has lived in his home for 13 years, said that promise has been made before.

“We have a letter from two years ago saying if any damages happen during construction, they would fix them,” he said. “They didn’t do that.”

Draghi said the homeowners would only grant Pali Realty access if developers formally agree to repair damages made since construction began.

Final BSA decision on Astoria medical building coming soon

Hello,

I just wanted to give you and your readers an update:

The final BSA ruling regarding 23-25 31st Street is scheduled for May 21st.

Pali Realty, LLC and owner Yiannis Konstantinidis assigned the insurance claims to Chartis, the insurer for Sea Breeze, the General Contractor.

Chartis turned down offers of a settlement offered up by two of the most heavily damaged homeowners.

Attached is my final letter to the Board of Standards and Appeals; please feel free to publish it.

Kind regards,

Norm Sutaria

Sutaria BSA Testimony

New hospital building is causing problems

From DNA Info:

A group of Astoria neighbors says the construction of a massive eight-story medical facility in the neighborhood is putting their buildings on life support and might endanger residents' health.

The 53,993-square foot building at 23-25 31st St. abuts the backyards of several houses on 32nd Street, and a portion of it was mistakenly built 10 feet closer to the properties than zoning regulations allow, according to city records.

For the last several years, residents on 32nd Street have fought against the project, saying construction errors have caused damage to the foundations of their homes, which they say shifted and cracked.

Neighbors say their latest trial is the discovery that the developer, Pali Realty, has confirmed plans to install mechanical equipment — including exhaust vents for a 134-car parking garage — in the space directly behind their backyard patios and gardens.

According to the developer, the building was mistakenly built according to outdated zoning.

The developers are now applying for a special city permit to legalize the rear yard and continue construction of the site, with their application set to be reviewed by the Board of Standards and Appeals in the coming months.

So what does Vallone have to say about this?

Lock your windows!

From DNA Info:

Astoria has been hit with dozens of home burglaries in recent months with suspects using fire escapes to climb in through unlocked windows, police said.

The NYPD recorded 41 such incidents in the 114th Precinct since mid-December, the majority of which took place between 35th and 49th Streets between 30th and 34th Avenues, Deputy Inspector Kevin Maloney said.

The string of break-ins came after dozens more occurred in Forest Hills and Rego Park during the past six months, police said. In those, the burglar also entered through open windows.

In Queens North, which includes Astoria and Forest Hills, the last police statistics show burglary went up more than 25 percent through Feb. 23, even as the number of reported break-ins dropped more than 4 percent citywide during that period. Seven of the incidents took place on 34th Street between 30th and 31st Avenues, Maloney said.

Police believe the burglar or burglars are gaining access to the roofs of residential buildings, then walking down the fire escapes to look for unsecured rear windows. The rooftops of many buildings in the area are connected, allowing the suspects to hit more than one building at a time, police said.

Once inside, the burglars make off with handheld electronics, cash and jewelry, Maloney said.

There's also been a rash of burglaries in Ozone Park.