Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Luxury public housing coming after limpdick movie theater demolition

 

The building that housed Sunnyside Center Cinemas on Queens Boulevard will soon be bulldozed to make way for an eight-story, 99 unit apartment complex.

Plans were filed earlier this month for an apartment building at 43-42 43rd St. that will contain 99 units, ground floor retail space and 138 below-ground parking spaces.

The site is located on the northwest corner of Queens Boulevard and 43rd Street and at one time housed a Dime Bank branch, Sunnyside Center Cinemas, P.J. Horgan’s and a dental office.

The proposed building will be 79-feet-tall and will yield 73,762 square feet, with 67,098 square feet designated for residential space and 6,664 square feet for commercial space.

John Ciafone, the owner, told the Queens Post that the plan includes approximately 25 affordable housing units. He will be receiving a 421a tax abatement—which will lower his property tax bill—in return for providing the affordable units.

The property does not need to be rezoned in order for the development to take place. However, Ciafone said that he is waiting for the Dept. of Buildings to approve the plans.

He said that upon approval, he would aim to start demolishing the building within 3 months. He said that it would likely take two years to develop the project.

Ciafone, who bought the property at the end of 2012, has been subject to fierce criticism over the years.

Shortly after acquiring the building he made clear that he would not be renewing the leases of the existing tenants—which led to the closure of long-time businesses such as Sunnyside Center Cinemas and P.J. Horgan’s.

All the tenants had left by 2015 and the building has been vacant since.

 Update: 

Forgot to mention the last movie feature that played at this theater earlier this year.

 

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only thing limpdick about that theatre is that queens crap chose to write about it. The theatre was an awesome place to go for the thousands of of people who grew up in Sunnyside. They always had the hottest releases on day one and who can forget The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Take your limpdick blog and go bully elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

all this luxury housing is for who? wouldn't the people who can afford it want to live in Manhattan or Brooklyn ?

JQ LLC said...

@Anon re:Limpdick

Apologies for the seeming mischaracterization, it was mostly a joke for Queens Crap readers. I updated the post with a photo and link that inspired the headline.

I only been to that theater on a few occasions and it was a great place to see a film. Didn't know Rocky Horror played there.

Anonymous said...

Is this part of the Green New Deal ?
Cram more people into a overcrowed city !

NPC_translator said...

I spent countless hours in my mis-spent youth at PJ Horgans, which was a great neighborhood bar. Cheap beer and a great burger and fries. What more do you want? Too bad it got shut down.

So we'll get more bugman housing for Asian immigrants. Yay.

Anonymous said...

@The only thing limpdick about that theatre is that queens crap chose to write about it.

Are u mentally disturbed? How the heck did you come to this conclusion?
Where the heck do you see a single bad word about the theatre?

Anonymous said...

@So we'll get more bugman housing for Asian immigrants. Yay.

Last time I ventured to Long Island City, the brand new (and empty) apartment buildings looked like the ones in Beijing.
More than sure is not for the political dissidents leaving the CCP paradise.
Looks like they were built for the occupying army of the future.