The City Of Yes always existed, it just needed a brand

 

Years before the City of Yes became a thing and an annoying catch phrase, the city already approved rezoning to build higher and denser in Jamaica. Like this block here on Waltham St between 97th and 95th avenues. One block away from the behemoth tower hyperdevelopment on Suthphin Blvd.

  

This is the little bit of housing NYC Planning, Mayor Adams and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards wants in your neighborhoods and think this make rents trickle down all over the city.

Unfortunately for the rent-burdened and homeless, those trickle down rents will have to wait for this one since it's in a state of suspension. 

Everything about the City Of Yes is a lie that's been told before for the last decade.

 

Razor blade luxury building joining the rest of the tower pestilence in LIC

NY YIMBY

Below-grade work is progressing at 43-30 24th Street, the site of a 66-story residential skyscraper in Long Island City, Queens. Designed by Hill West Architects and developed by Carmel Partners, the 731-foot-tall tower will yield 921 units spread across 838,000 square feet and 17,400 square feet of ground-floor retail space. The developer purchased the 79,250-square-foot full-block parcel from Stawski Partners for $200 million in March 2022 and secured a $364 million construction loan from Wells Fargo to complete the project. Carmel Construction East is the general contractor for the property, which is bound by 43rd Avenue to the north, 44th Road to the south, 24th Street to the east, and 23rd Street to the west.

Recent photos show the site cleared of the one- and five-story industrial structures that previously occupied it. A significant number of pilings have already been driven into the ground.

 The rendering in the main photo shows a tall rectangular massing clad in a glass curtain wall with horizontal strips of paneling breaking up the wide elevation. Several sections of wave-shaped stacked balconies protrude, further enhancing the texture of the exterior, and a pocketed outdoor terrace is positioned along the midway point of the western corner. The tower rises from a sprawling podium topped with landscaping for a terrace.

69 more floors of tower pestilence coming to Long Island City

Queens Post

Plans have been filed for what will be the tallest building in Queens upon its completion.

A developer has submitted plans that call for the construction of a 69-story, 818-unit development on Jackson Avenue near Queens Plaza in Long Island City. The building, which has an address of 42-02 Orchard St., will be 794 feet tall and located on Jackson Avenue between Orchard and Queens streets—adjacent to Jackson Park LIC.

The tower will be taller that than the Skyline Tower, a Long Island City skyscraper that was completed in 2021 and currently holds that title at 763 feet. Another tall building to have recently gone up in Long Island City is Sven, a 755 foot tall building by the Clock Tower in Queens Plaza. Sven is currently the second tallest building in Queens.

Prior to these two buildings, One Court Square—formerly the Citigroup building—held the title as the tallest in Queens. It was built in 1990 and is 673 feet tall.

The plans for the 69-story tower were filed last year by developer Lloyd Goldman of BLDG Orchard LLC, although additional details were submitted last month. The initial plans were first reported by YIMBY.

The building will contain 635,000 square feet of residential space, which equates to approximately 776 square feet per apartment.

Meanwhile, the plans call for 11,700 square feet of commercial space.

Rezone me once shame on you...

Queens Chronicle 

 A rally was held in Springfield Gardens on Tuesday to protest against the development of an apartment complex.

Civic leaders and some members of the community say the neighborhood is already stressed as it is with traffic and infrastructure — there is constant flooding from an overflow of the sewers during heavy rainstorms — and that a new housing complex for more than 30 people with a parking space would add to the troubles of the area.

“I’m looking at the traffic,” said Marcia O’Brien, president of the Rosedale Civic Association, before about two dozen people at the corner of 147th Avenue and Guy R. Brewer Boulevard. “The vehicles and the trucks are double-parked. I’m standing right here as cars are backing up here, backing there and backing up over there. How are they going to build an eight-story building here?

“We are still waiting for Part B on the flood infrastructure project.”

After Community Board 13 voted down a proposal 32-0 with no abstentions, developer Ranbir LLC told community members that the proposed mixed-use apartment building at 146-93 Guy R. Brewer Blvd. would be seven floors instead, according to Bryan Block, the CB 13 chairman.

There was also construction going on at 182nd Street and 147th Avenue to alleviate flooding in the area.

“I’m here because this also affects Cambria Heights and whatever happens in Springfield Gardens affects all of us,” said Block, who is also the president of the Cambria Heights Civic Association. “This is about density. We don’t need to have any more density in Southeast Queens ... we have to draw the line here.”

Block, who grew up in Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, said that his family moved to Southeast Queens in 1967 over safety and overcrowding. The civic leader also said that many families who were transplants from Harlem and the Bronx moved to have the suburban dream of living in a house with a backyard for the same reason.

“We understand that [the developer] has to make a dollar, but not at the expense of the community,” said Block. “Bartlett Dairy is here, that’s fine. Perfect. This is what we want, businesses. What we don’t want are structures that are going to destroy the quality of life.”

Bartlett Dairy, a milk and food distribution site two stories and 54,000 square feet in size, located between the Nassau Expressway and Rockaway Boulevard in Springfield Gardens, is set to provide 165 jobs. It had its groundbreaking August 2021.

“This is in our backyard as well,” said Kim Lawton, president of the Spring-Jam Civic Association, whose members live near Bartlett Dairy. “I’m saying this not as the president, but as a single mother and homeowner. I moved in this area to have a certain quality of life ... we want something that fits with the character of the neighborhood.”

Lawton would prefer a community center at the lot.

“Rezoning takes community action and this community does not approve this,” said Rich Hellenbrecht, the former chairman of the Land Use Committee and current first vice chairman of CB 13. “This is a site that is not compatible with a seven-story building. We are looking at maybe 32 apartments and 23 parking spaces. If you look around, there is no place to park for the rest of the people with cars. Some families may have two cars.”

Goodnight, RKO Keith's Theater

 

Hello luxury tower.

 

Long Island City luxury flophouse tower under new management

 

The Real Deal

 One co-living operator is out and another is in at a Long Island City rental complex.

Simon Baron Development announced that Common will take over operations for the co-living units at Alta, its 419-unit tower at 29-22 Northern Boulevard.

Until recently, those units were operated by Ollie, another co-living startup. But that company had a tumultuous year: In February 2020, its co-founders, brothers Andrew and Chris Bledsoe, left the company. And in December, yet another co-living startup, Starcity, acquired Ollie’s assets, which reportedly included its management contracts.

Matt Baron, president of Simon Baron, declined to elaborate on what had transpired since Starcity’s acquisition of Ollie’s assets. In a statement, he praised Common, which he said “has built up the reputation to successfully manage on behalf of institutional owners.”

Alta has both traditional apartments and 169 shared units. According to Alta’s website, rents for an Ollie-operated co-living unit started at $1,300, while traditional studios in the building start at around $2,700.

A Common spokesperson declined to comment on the building’s current occupancy rate, but said that the company aims to bring it above 90 percent.

Founded in 2015 in New York City, Common has expanded its reach beyond co-living in recent years. The company now operates about 900 units in New York — mostly shared units as well as some traditional apartments — with another 1,500 in the pipeline. The company said it expects to open more than 20,000 units across the U.S. in the next few years.

Last year, it added former New York City housing czar Alicia Glen to its board of directors and raised $50 million in a Series D funding round.

Luxury public housing tower in Jamaica accepting applicants for the housing insecure who earn six figures

 

 NY YIMBY

The affordable housing lottery has launched for The Crossing at Jamaica Station, a 30-story mixed-use residential building at 147-40 Archer Avenue in Jamaica, Queens. Designed by FXCollaborative and developed by BRP Companies, the structure yields 539 residences. Available on NYC Housing Connect are 75 units for residents at 130 percent of the area median income (AMI), ranging in eligible income from $68,915 to $192,400.

 Residents will have access to a wide range of amenities including a garage, bike storage lockers, shared laundry room, gym, media room, recreation room, children’s playroom, a doorman, an on-site resident manager, and a landscaped roof garden. Units include floor-to-ceiling windows, name-brand appliances and finishes, and hardwood floors.

 At 130 percent of the AMI, there are six studios with a monthly rent of $1,946 for incomes ranging from $68,915 to $124,150; 29 one-bedrooms with a monthly rent of $2,442 for incomes ranging from $86,195 to $139,620; 36 two-bedrooms with a monthly rent of $2,943 for incomes ranging from $104,092 to $167,570; and four three-bedrooms with a monthly rent of $3,391 for incomes ranging from $120,206 to $192,400.

Queens Is Burning: Castle goes on fire in Woodhaven and Long Island City luxury tower sales are blazing

QNS 

 A two-alarm fire in Woodhaven sent one firefighter to the hospital on Sunday.

Firefighters first got a call about the blaze inside a three-story home located at 84-11 86 Rd. around 7 p.m. on Sunday, April 4, according to the authorities.

QNS 

The Long Island City real estate market is showing signs of life after the COVID-19 pandemic froze the nation’s fastest growing neighborhood a year ago.

At the Skyline Tower at 3 Court Sq., monthly sales more than doubled in March with 20 units going into contract.

“The month of March was on fire and my team was killing it,” Modern Spaces Founder and CEO Eric Benaim said. “Not only the market is coming back but New York City is coming back.”

Modern Spaces is handling the marketing and sales of the Skyline Tower, the tallest condominium building in Queens, rising 67 stories with 802 units. The total value of the project is expected to be the first billion-dollar development in the borough when the condo units sell out.

“We’re at 44 percent sold and we should be at 50 percent by the end of spring,” Benaim said. “We’ve got 25 to 30 units occupied already with more units moving quickly.”

Closings began in February and people began moving in during March. The development features an array of luxury amenities including a state-of-the-art fitness center, a 75-foot indoor pool, a whirlpool spa, sauna and steam room, a children’s playroom, a business center and an outdoor terrace. There are private, outdoor terraces for 155 of the units.

If this monolith seems familiar, it's the building over the Court Square train station where a commuter almost drowned and nearly got hit by a train when the retaining wall collapsed during a storm as the building was still being developed.