A little more housing, a lot more higher rents

QNS 

The average rental price in Queens for studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units maintained an upward trend from the previous year in November 2024, according to a report by the real estate firm M.N.S. Real Estate.

Year-over-year, Queens experienced a 4.44% increase in its average rental price, from $2,763 in November 2023 to $2,885 in November 2024. Studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units each experienced jumps in their respective rental prices over this period of time.

Studios in Queens had a 3.74% boost in the average cost of rent, from $2,239 in November 2023 to $2,322 in November 2024. Despite the year-over-year increase, this cost actually presents a slight drop from the $2,337 rent in October 2024. Among the 11 Queens neighborhoods included in the study, studios in Woodside/Maspeth had the most annual growth, from $2,369 last year to $2,691 this year.

One-bedroom units experienced a 3.92% rise in the average rental price, from $2,673 in November 2023 to $2,778 in November 2024. As was the case with studios, the one-bedroom units actually had a slight dip in rental price from the previous month’s $2,782 average cost. The Rego Park neighborhood had the biggest spike in average rental price, from $2,602 last year to $2,965 this year.

Two-bedroom units had the most significant boost in the average cost of rent among the unit types, rising 5.3%, from $3,375 in November 2023 to $3,554 in November 2024. However, this new cost is the lowest seen for a month since $3,551 in July 2024. Sunnyside had by far the highest jump among the Queens neighborhoods from last year, going up from $2,754 in 2023 to $3,454 in 2024.

 QNS

The median rent in Northwest Queens rose year-over-year in November 2024, marking the second consecutive month to experience such an increase, while the number of lease signings and available inventory continued to climb, according to a report by the real estate firm Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

Northwest Queens encompasses the neighborhoods of Astoria, Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside.

Over this period, the median rental price increased 8.9%, from $3,175 in November 2023 to $3,458 in November 2024. Units ranging from studios to three-bedrooms each experienced jumps in the respective median rent. One-bedroom units had the most significant increase, going up 14.1% from $2,998 last year to $3,422 this year.

One big contributing factor to the maintained rise in the median rent is bidding wars becoming more common for the many new listings in this area, allowing for many rentals to end up with higher prices than what was originally listed.

For the 14th consecutive month, new leases signed were up year-over-year in northwest Queens. There was a 64.9% increase in new leases being signed, from 416 in November 2023 to 686 in November 2024. Similar to the median rent, new leases went up across the board among each type of housing unit, with one-bedroom units spiking the most. New leases among one-bedroom units rose 87.4%, from 183 last year to 343 this year.

Oh, the story about the picture.That is actually the root cause for the rent being too damn high and getting higher and higher and will continue to do so for the City Of Mess. The word affordable has become doublespeak by the NYC Housing Department. 

Queens Post

New York City has launched a housing lottery for 72 units at AURA, a 37-story mixed-use building in Long Island City.

 Located at 23-10 42nd Rd., AURA features 240 residential units, with 168 offered at market rate. The 72 remaining units have all been designated for individuals who earn 130% of the area median income, with an asset cap of $201,890.

Studios account for 25 of the units set aside, 17 of which have a monthly rent of $3,423 and are meant for residents earning an annual income ranging from $117,360-$161,590. The other eight units cost $3,434 a month in rent and are meant for those earning $117,738-$161,590 annually. No more than two people can reside in each of these units.

Another 34 units are one-bedroom and are intended for up to three residents. Five of these units have a monthly rent of $3,674 and are intended for households earning $125,966-$181,740 in annual income. The other 29 one-bedroom units have a monthly rent of $3,661 and each household must combine to earn $125,520-$181,740 annually.

The last 13 units are two-bedroom. These units have a monthly rent of $4,376. Households of up to five people can reside there, as long as they have a combined annual income ranging from $150,035-$218,010.

 

"Affordable housing" lottery is open for S%!thole building in Kew Gardens

 

QNS 

Applications are open for an “affordable apartment” at 81-07 Kew Gardens Rd.

Rendering courtesy of NYC Connect

It’s pitched as an affordable apartment in Queens, yet the rent for a one-bedroom is $3,140 a month.

NYC Housing Connect has opened a lottery for 16 “affordable apartments” inside a new 8-story, 51-unit development in Kew Gardens.

The building, located at 81-07 Kew Gardens Rd., has been developed by FBL Development, and includes a range of amenities, such as a gym and a rooftop terrace.

The units are designated for residents whose income falls within 130% of the area median income (AMI). The range accommodates potential tenants with incomes spanning from $107,658 to $198,250, depending on family size.

There are 11 one-bedroom apartments on offer through the lottery, which will rent for $3,140 and are available for those with an income ranging from $107,658 to $165,230.

There are also five two-bedroom apartments on offer with a monthly rent of $3,753. They are open to individuals and families with incomes ranging from $128,675 to $198,250.

The apartments are being touted as offering modern conveniences, such as a dishwasher, washers and dryers within the units, and recessed lighting. The kitchen areas are also equipped with appliances and finishes from reputable brands.

Applicants have until Jan. 5, 2024

 Wow,. When I rode by this last month it had 5 stop work orders on it. Guess it got the DMO treatment for the "City of Yes"

 

City of Yes or else

 

 

 NY Daily News

Mayor Adams announced Thursday a sweeping package of proposed zoning changes — including the elimination of parking minimums and allowing garages to be legally converted into homes — aimed at facilitating the creation of about 100,000 new homes in the next 10 to 15 years in a move that’s a direct response to New York City’s ongoing housing crisis.

Adams touted it as “the most ambitious changes to zoning in the history of New York City.” Rather than concentrating new housing in certain parts of the city, the measures would try to create “a little more housing in every neighborhood” by easing some of the strict zoning rules currently in place.

“So many of the issues we face as a city are rooted in this ongoing crisis,” Adams said. “We must change the restrictive laws that were put in place 62 years ago [with the 1961 Zoning Resolution].”

The citywide approach contrasts with the neighborhood-level and spot rezonings that have been used to ease zoning restrictions to allow for more and often taller housing.

“This is not tinkering around the edges,” Adams said. “Today, we’re proposing a slate of new rules that, if passed by our City Council, remove longstanding barriers to opportunity and usher in a new golden age of housing in New York City.”

In neighborhoods with smaller and fewer buildings the proposals would attempt to cut municipal red tape to make it easier for owners to adapt their homes.

Among other things, it would allow for certain types of “accessory dwelling units” to be built, such as backyard cottages and basement apartments, and conversions of attics and garages into housing. It would also aim to “safely legalize” existing ones.

One of the buzziest components announced Thursday is the elimination of parking mandates for new homes, space the city says it would rather use for housing.

“If you want to build parking spots, you still can,” Adams explained. “But we will not force people to build parking they do not want.”

The rules would also enable two to four stories of housing to be built above squat, single-story commercial buildings to match the height of neighboring ones.

  The new plan would enable conversion of under-used commercial buildings.

The city currently gives leeway for the creation of affordable senior housing, allowing for increased heights, an exception the administration is proposing extending to now include all forms of affordable and supportive housing in denser neighborhoods.

 The new plan would allow accessory dwelling units for single and two-family homes.

Under the new proposals, housing could also be built on various “large campuses” around the city, such as in the parking lots of houses of worship or on NYCHA property. Other changes include allowing three-to-five-story apartment buildings to be built on large lots near transit hubs as a way of blending in with the community; and making it legal once more for “modest apartments” to have common facilities such as shared kitchens and bathrooms.

 

City converts hospital into luxury public housing building with 125 apartments dedicated to renters making over $120,000

 

 Queens Chronicle

The city is taking steps to address healthcare in ways that go beyond a trip to the doctor’s office.

Mayor Adams and NYC Health + Hospitals announced the “Housing for Health” initiative at the T Building in Jamaica Hills last Thursday. The building, located on the campus of NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens, is a former tuberculosis hospital that has been converted into a 200-unit apartment building, with 75 units dedicated to supportive housing for patients of the hospital system who had been experiencing homelessness.

Residents started moving into the building over the summer. The other 125 units are dedicated for those with incomes from 60 percent to 80 percent of the area median income, which is $120,100 for a three-person family in New York City in 2022.

The initiative is four-pronged, with NYC Health + Hospitals pledging to counsel and help eligible patients find and apply for affordable supportive housing and dedicate respite beds to medically frail patients no longer in need of hospitalization but still in need of medical care, in addition to converting unused hospital land to affordable housing developments and funding social services at the sites.

Services at the T Building are handled by the Brooklyn-based nonprofit CAMBA and funded through a former Mayor de Blasio-developed supportive housing initiative.

NYC Housing lottery is open for unaffordable apartments at an ugly ass luxury public housing tower

  

Jackson Heights Post

The NYC Housing Preservation & Development launched a lottery Tuesday for 14 income-restricted units in a 12-story luxury building on Jackson Avenue in Long Island City.

The development, called The Green House, is located at 10-25 Jackson Ave. —between 50^th and 51^st Avenues—and consists of 46 units. The building is striking since it is covered by three large murals that each measure about nine stories tall.

The 14 income-restricted units are for prospective tenants who earn up to 130 percent of the area median income. The units are far from inexpensive and are by no means for low-income workers. The most low-cost studio—at $2,431 per month—is for an individual who earns between $83,349 and $121,420.

Two-bedroom units will rent for $3,090, with applicants required to earn a household income of between $105,943 and $187,330 in order to apply.

There are 3 studios, 4 one-bedrooms and 7 two-bedrooms up for grabs.

The building includes an expansive amenity package, ground-floor retail space, and 40 parking spots.

The murals have been painted by Faile. The developer, Charney Companies, commissioned Faile to paint the murals as a means of enhancing the building and the neighborhood. Faile is known for blending fine art, street art, and popular culture together.

Charney is a Long Island City-based firm — headquartered on 46th Avenue—that also built The Jackson, a 53-unit condo building at 13-33 Jackson Ave.

 

City Council approves Edgemere overdevelopment

City Limits
 

 The City Council voted Thursday to rezone a 166-acre swath of Edgemere, approving a plan first proposed by the de Blasio administration that could add more than 1,200 new housing units and improve resiliency in a Queens neighborhood at severe risk of flooding.

The land use plan, part of a broader initiative known as Resilient Edgemere, encompasses the area bound by Beach 35th Street and Beach 50th Street and will change zoning rules to increase density in some areas, limit development in others and raise the shoreline along Jamaica Bay. Resilient Edgemere also includes efforts to develop housing on city-owned parcels, elevate homes, improve parks and infrastructure and designate 16 acres as open space to be used for coastal protection.

The Council specifically approved five applications submitted by the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation and Development (HPD) to amend the zoning and allow for new development with mandatory inclusionary housing (MIH) affordability rules, which force developers to cap rents on a portion of their units for low- and middle-income New Yorkers. Around 530 new units will be affordable under MIH, according to HPD, and 35 percent of those affordable units will be up for sale, not rent. The plan would further a Community Land Trust on up to eight acres of city-owned land.

Resilient Edgemere establishes two special coastal risk districts, which HPD defines as “currently at exceptional risk from flooding and may face greater risk in the future.”

Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers, who represents Edgemere and other neighborhoods in the eastern portion of the Rockaway Peninsula, said the changes will allow for more affordable homes in the waterfront neighborhood, while shoring up the region against rising sea levels and storm-related flooding.

“Edgemere will benefit from vital affordable homeownership opportunities, infrastructure investments and protection from a changing climate,” Brooks-Powers said. “Rockaway has seen a surge of new development in recent years, but that development has not been accompanied by a commensurate investment in local infrastructure.”

Brooks-Powers inherited the project from her predecessor, Donovan Richards, who was elected Queens borough president in 2020 and told City Limits he was pleased that the Council voted to approve the rezoning after seven years of planning and community engagement. Richards recommended the plan in his advisory role in March but urged the city to foster affordable home ownership opportunities in response to community demands.

“There is tremendous promise in the Resilient Edgemere Community Plan,” Richards said, adding that he would focus on ensuring that developers and the city adhere to local hiring and MWBE commitments.

Under the changes, which now await Mayor Eric Adams’ signature, most of the area north of Beach Channel Drive would be zoned for one- and two-family homes, while the stretch between Rockaway Beach Boulevard and Edgemere Avenue would allow for taller, mixed-used buildings. City-owned vacant land next to the Edgemere Houses would be converted to open space, as would much of the land abutting the Jamaica Bay.

In a statement following the vote, Adams hailed the plan as “an important step forward for residents of Edgemere, the Rockaways, and the entire city.”

Woodside twin luxury public housing towers looks even worse than when it was first proposed

This is some development. Well, some over-development. It wasn't long ago when the city promised to build a school here along with promises to devote more units for families, but the folks at Madison Realty Capital had some other plans thanks to the former Mayor de Blasio's HPD very generous upzoning approval, much to the chagrin of the community's and Council member Holden's objections.

 

Have to admire the tenacity of this one holdout homeowner

 

 

Admin note: I was notified that I implied this was a NYCHA building and that's not the case at all. Luxury public housing is what I describe every new "affordable housing" building that has gone up in the last decade, mostly those built during the Blaz years, because of the ratio of incremental low rent units to higher market rate units.

Community board rejects luxury public housing building to replace tower diner

Queens Post  

Queens Community Board 6 rejected a developer’s rezoning application that seeks to replace a popular Rego Park diner and synagogue on Queens Boulevard with a 15-story mixed-use building.

The board, which represents the neighborhoods of Rego Park and Forest Hills, voted 20 to 19 against the plan during a virtual meeting on Dec. 8.

The plan calls for the demolition of several buildings on a large triangular block — occupied by the Tower Diner, Ohr Natan Synagogue and various small businesses — to make way for apartments and retail space.

The application, submitted by RJ Capital Holdings, proposes constructing a 153,400-square-foot building at 98-81 Queens Blvd that would include 17,400 square feet of retail space and 144 units — 44 of which would be “affordable” pursuant to the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing requirement. The plan requires the site to be rezoned and therefore must be approved by the city before it can move forward.

However, neither the community board nor the city can stop RJ Capital from demolishing the buildings — and putting up a new development — since the property is not landmarked. The community board is only able to provide a yes or no recommendation on the developer’s upzoning plans, not its demolition plans.

RJ Capital can build an apartment complex — albeit smaller — as of right. In fact, the company said it would construct a 103-unit building with zero affordable apartments if its rezoning application were to be rejected.

The local community board is the first to review and vote on the plan in the process used by the city to assess rezoning applications — the Uniform Land Use Review Process.

Next, it goes to the borough president, who offers his own recommendation on the plan.

Both Community Board 6’s vote and Richards’ future recommendation are only advisory. The City Council has the ultimate say as to whether RJ Capital’s rezoning application gets approved.

The advisory recommendations, however, do influence how the city council votes.

Community board approves luxury public housing building on Roosevelt Ave.

  

Queens Post

A developer’s application to rezone a large piece of property in Woodside was approved by Community Board 2 last night.

The application calls for the development of a 13 story, 213 unit complex on Roosevelt Avenue­—between 62nd and 63rd Streets. About 10 stores along the strip will have to bulldozed to make way for the project.

There was little discussion by the board about the size of the proposed project, despite it being significantly larger than what is permitted in accordance with current zoning code.

“This is a huge development,” said Christine Hunter, co-chair of the board’s Land Use Committee. “I really regret that we did not have more conversation or push them harder on some of the physical aspects of the bulk increase and height increase. This is not a modest increase.”

The application calls for a building that would be 211,500 square feet and consist of 213 units—154 market rate apartments and 54 affordable units.

The project would also come with 7,500 square feet of space dedicated to the arts, of which 2,000 square feet would be set aside for the Woodside arts group Mare Nostrum Elements. There would also be local retail space on the ground floor and cellar, as well as office space on the second floor.

Without a rezoning, the building would be limited in size to 119,500 square feet—and only 123 units could be built. There would also be no performance space required. The building, however, could be up to 9 stories and include commercial space.

Lottery is open for luxury public housing in Woodside

  

Queens Post

A new affordable housing lottery has opened for eight units in a recently-constructed building in Woodside—where rental prices start at $1,750 a month.

The units are located in a nine-story, 74-unit building at 46-02 70th St. — in a building that fronts Queens Boulevard.

The affordable units are for those who make up to 130 percent of the area median income (AMI).

Two studio apartments are available at $1,750 a month to households of one to three people who make between $60,000 and $139,620 combined annually.

Six two-bedroom units are available at $2,400 a month to households of two to five people who make between $82,286 and $167,570 combined annually.

Tenants are responsible for paying the electricity — including heat — and gas bills in addition to rent.

The building features a shared laundry room, covered parking spots and bike storage.

A tale of two Astorias

 

Queens Patch

Volunteers are helping Astoria Houses tenants get cooking as they approach nearly two months without gas in their kitchens.

Queens Together, a local organization dedicated to restaurant advocacy and community service, led a team of volunteers and elected officials distributing crockpots and grocery items Sunday to the dozens of families in the NYCHA complex who have had no cooking gas since Sept. 23.

The outage is affecting 48 apartments, a NYCHA spokesperson told Patch last month. It's unclear when gas service will be restored.

"Where NYCHA has let residents down, the Astoria Houses community has stepped up," City Council Member Costa Constantinides said in a statement. "A gas outage should not take away our neighbors' ability to celebrate Thanksgiving, a holiday rooted in family recipes and celebration."

Since the outage was first reported, NYCHA provided residents with hot plates and is making unspecified "additional contingency measures," the agency said.

  Queens Patch 

 Fourteen apartments in a new Astoria building have hit the city's "affordable" housing lottery, but prospective tenants must make at least $70,000 a year to be eligible, records show.

Applications are open through Dec. 4 for a mix of one-bedroom and two-bedroom units in a new residential building rising at the corner of 31st Avenue and 21st Street, according to the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

The one-bedroom apartments will rent for $2,050 a month, and the two-bedroom apartments will cost $2,500 in monthly rent.

Apartments come with in-unit laundry, and building amenities include an elevator and gym. Parking will be available for an additional fee.

The developer is slated to receive tax breaks in exchange for building the "affordable" units.

Burning Two Bridges from de Blasio's "affordable" housing program

 NY Daily News

The L in LES doesn’t stand for luxury.

A state judge barred a developer from building four high-rise towers that had been set to offer hundreds of pricey apartments.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron upheld a previous ruling finding that the project violated local zoning rules.

Activists had sued the city, which approved the project on the East River between the Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges in 2016. The proposed project included 2,800 units, and one of the towers would have been more than 1,000 feet tall.

“It would drive up the rent and more people would be facing displacement,” said Zishun Ning, an organizer for the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association, one of the groups that sued the city.

He singled out Mayor de Blasio, who expected the project to include affordable units and said in 2018, “The legalities made quite clear that this development could go forward."

“With this decision, we’re very excited to prove that the city is wrong, Mayor de Blasio is wrong,” Ning told the Daily News. “He’s with the luxury developers. He represents their interests.”

De Blasio declined to comment on the suit. A city Law Department spokesman said, “We are evaluating next steps including whether to appeal this decision.”

Ning hopes the developer will go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan more in keeping with the feel of the nabe, which is full of walkups that have long been home to immigrants.

A spokesman for builders including L + M Development and CIM Group said they’ll appeal.

Too bad Alicia Glen was not around to see this, maybe she lit a candle for her bestie who was behind this tower pestilence. Bet current HPD commissioner Vicki Been has a lot of explaining to Glen's old employer Goldman Sachs.