Proposed Atlas Park development site sold to Gina Argento-Ciafone

From the Queens Courier:

Glendale is ready for its close-up.

Brooklyn-based television and film production company Broadway Stages plans to build a massive film studio and retail complex in the neighborhood with existing warehouses.

The firm purchased Atlas Terminals, a huge industrial park with buildings adjacent to The Shops at Atlas Park mall, for $19.5 million, as first reported by The Courier on Monday.

“We’re excited to turn the existing warehouses at Atlas Terminals into some TV and film studios and create rental space for local mom and pop retail businesses,” said Jackie Kessel, Broadway Stages spokeswoman. “We look forward to working with local officials as we develop our plans to draw on all of the energy around Atlas Park, bringing new jobs, business growth and economic development to Queens.”

you may recall that this site was promoted as a future shopping center, and in recent months, Fairway was rumored to be the anchor tenant. I guess that's not happening.

Hey, maybe Gina will donate to the anti-homeless shelter fund!

If at first you don't succeed...

Glendale Shopping Center 8200 Cooper Av by queenscrapper

Apparently, the Hemmerdingers have plans for another outdoor mall right next to the one of theirs that failed. Except this time the parking's free and it will actually have something useful - a supermarket - as an anchor tenant.

Atlas Park lot used for towed cabs

From the NY Times:

In sleek black sedans and unmarked blue vans, stretch limousines and family-friendly S.U.V.’s, the city’s unlicensed taxi drivers have long thrived on a simple fact: Officials often could not seize their cars because there was no place to put them.

But about three months ago, David S. Yassky, the chairman of New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission, received an e-mail from an old acquaintance. The man had heard about the space issue, he said. Would the city like to use his lot in Queens?

The man was Damon Hemmerdinger, a co-president at his family’s real estate company, ATCO Properties and Management, and the son of Dale Hemmerdinger, the former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

After reading an article in The New York Times about the dearth of available tow pound space for unlicensed taxis, Mr. Hemmerdinger agreed to allow the city to use his company’s roughly two-acre lot in Glendale. The city needed to pay only for electricity, lot security, and an occasional cleaning.

By the beginning of June, the lot could hold more than 100 unlicensed taxis at a time. Turnover is typically rapid, as drivers retrieve their vehicles after paying fines and fees that often rise to over $500. Over the last year, the commission added about 60 enforcement agents, bringing its total to over 150. In 2011, 1,737 cars were seized, according to the commission. This year, more than 2,400 cars have been rounded up already.

Hemmerdingers selling the rest of Atlas property

From the Queens Tribune:

The former owners of the Shops at Atlas Park in Glendale have put the majority of their surrounding property on the market, approximately 375,000 square feet of space covering 11.3 acres.

The announcement came this week from the family-owned property developer, ATCO. The site, commonly known as Atlas Terminals, was developed as a railroad terminal for warehouse and industrial uses in the 1920s. From this one property, ATCO has been able to develop interests in a slew of Manhattan properties as well as in locations across the eastern United States and Europe.

The site is more than twice the size of the 5.5-acre Municipal Lot 1 in Flushing slated for the development of Flushing Commons, the $850 million project expected to have 275,000 square feet of retail, a hotel, residential towers and plenty of open space. Development of that kind at the site is not considered likely given the isolation of Atlas Terminals. The nearest highway entrance is the Jackie Robinson Parkway on Myrtle Avenue, and the nearest large thoroughfare is Woodhaven Boulevard, several blocks away.

Hemmerdinger could not say what sort of development could be expected from potential buyers, but the site's M1-1 zoning permits manufacturing, office, self-storage, and a variety of retail uses.

Future of Atlas Park up in the air

From the Daily News:

The Shops at Atlas Park will unleash a new weapon during its summertime battle for survival.

The foreclosed Glendale mall - which is expected to be sold at auction next month - has hired a prominent agent to lure tenants ahead of a crucial shopping season for the open-air complex.

The entry of CB Richard Ellis, one of the world's largest commercial real estate firms, ends a 14-month management by Michael Mattone of the Mattone Group, whose contract recently expired.

Next in the Atlas Park saga: a highly anticipated sale - as early as June - that could determine the long-term success of the Cooper Ave. center.

It's also possible that a pact might be struck before the auction date, as teams and players often do prior to drafts in sports leagues.

"It's kind of like the draft," said Paul Millus, the court-appointed lawyer who controls the mall during foreclosure. "Sometimes you have a deal before you start."

Millus said several people have "expressed some measure of interest" in purchasing the mall, though he would not name them.

Community leaders have long figured the mall's founders, the family of former Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Dale Hemmerdinger, would bid on the mall they conceived.

A group of Israeli investors is also in the running, with hopes to shape the mall in the mold of the Tanger Outlets on Long Island, said City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village).

Crowley herself wants the City University of New York to offer classes at Atlas Park - a spot she thinks would be convenient for students in southern and western Queens.

Crowley said she will raise the possibility with university bigwigs after the city passes its budget this summer. CUNY officials did not return calls seeking comment.

Whether CUNY would even be welcome at Atlas Park depends on the philosophy of the mall's next owner.