Maspeth's newest neighbor....

Commercial Observer 

 

Fly E-Bike — a manufacturer of electric bikes, scooters, moped and motorbikes — is establishing a presence in Maspeth, Queens.

The company signed a five-year, 52,000-square-foot lease to open a warehouse at The Davis Companies’ 58-30 Grand Avenue, Crain’s New York Business first reported. 

The asking rent was unclear but Queens saw an average asking rent of $26.33 per square foot for industrial space in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report.

C&W’s Joseph Hentze, Joshua Kleinberg, Helen Paul, Rico Murtha, Gurpreet “Sonny” Singh and Amanda Gerhardt represented The Davis Companies in the deal while Pinnacle Realty handled negotiations on behalf of Fly E-Bike.

Names of the Pinnacle brokers were not disclosed, and spokespeople for C&W and Pinnacle did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Constructed in 1930, the building has a total of 156,792 square feet and sits at the corner of Grand Avenue and Rust Street.

Fly E-Bike was established in 2018 and has picked up a lot of momentum as it has grown to at least 40 retail locations throughout the tri-state area as well as Maryland and Pennsylvania, including four in Queens.

While the components for its products are fabricated in China, Fly E-Bike’s vehicles, which cater to food delivery workers, are assembled in warehouses in the United States, according to the company’s website.

 

Rapper shot to death outside warehouse studios building

PIX News

Here's a map of what this dump looks like inside. And a review of the "maker" warehouse from someone who also tried to record some tracks.

Since this is mostly a venue to create art, it sounds like this owner wanted to make a couple extra bucks from the drill rap scene and wanted to do this the cheapest way possible.

 

Bad Architect Chapter 2, Steinway warehouse

 

 

 George the Atheist

 Latest views of the neighboring warehouse construction just immediately south of the landmarked Steinway Mansion

That tree is going down.  

How to disappear the Steinway Mansion completely

 George the Atheist

 As predicted nine months ago - HERE, the view of the Steinway Mansion is slowly being obliterated for warehouse construction along 41st Street.   Looking north.  Catch it while you can.

 

 

de Blasio's DHS exploits the pandemic to drop a homeless shelter on Rockaway Beach

The Wave

While the peninsula has been dealing with the COVID-19 crisis, the New York City Department of Homeless Services (DHS) appears to have doubled down on its efforts to circumvent the usual process of siting its shelter facilities.

The Wave has been monitoring the $40 million contract process between the NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer, DHS, and the non-profit Black Veterans for Social Justice (BVSJ). On April 1, we reached out to Stringer’s office to learn if the comptroller had signed the contract, which would clear the shelter for full operation.

“After the Administration suspended procurement rules for essential services during the COVID-19 crisis, the City withdrew the contract from our office to process the registration themselves,” said Hazel Crampton-Hays, Press Secretary for the Comptroller’s office.

We reached out to attorney Mike Scala, who is representing Rockaway Solutions Not Shelters (RSNS) in their fight against DHS. RSNS believes the shelter is a violation under the state’s mental hygiene law.

“While we understand the population of this facility would be 120 single men, a community residence for the mentally disabled requires the approval of the commissioner of mental health,” Scala said. 

“Approval cannot be granted if more than 48 congregate beds are located on the premises. Therefore, it is critical to determine whether this facility would house mentally ill men.”

The original application for the conversion of the manufacturing building into a conforming community facility was listed in parentheses as a “health and mental care facility” before it was revised.

Founding member of RSNS Torey Schnupp — who is running for Assembly District Leader — is frustrated with the latest development.

“I was informed by my contact at Stringer’s office on the 30th day that the Mayor had bypassed procurement laws for health and human service contracts. They apparently had requested more information from DHS to address both community concerns and Stringer’s own concerns the week before, but DHS didn’t respond prior to the crisis happening and Mr. Stringer’s office wasn’t certain DHS would bother addressing them right now,” said Schnupp. “In the wake of COVID it’s even more clear that placing additional people in need on a peninsula that is ill-equipped to handle this crisis is not only careless but dangerous. The mayor once again has chosen to bypass the process and we know that social distancing in homeless shelters is impossible. He doesn’t truly care about this vulnerable population or he would have used budgeting for proper housing and services a long time ago instead of padding the shelter developers’ pockets. We are hopeful that the courts will decide in our favor.”

Sad Steinway saga continues

George The Atheist

   We drove by a few days ago and found warehouse construction at the lot just south of the Mansion proceeding as planned.  A few more months and the view of the Mansion will most probably no longer be visible due to the height of the planned warehouses.  (Our previous blog coverage HERE and HERE.)

Council member Brennan looking to curb e-commerce warehouse development

The Real Deal
Politicians’ fight against Amazon is not over.
The e-commerce giant’s bid to build a Queens campus died a year ago, but warehouse projects have proliferated as e-commerce companies seek infrastructure to speed deliveries. And one Brooklyn official has had enough.
City Council member Justin Brannan is calling for a special permit requirement for large warehouse projects. That would give the Council power to stop the developments, which Brannan says are hurting the quality of life, especially in the outer boroughs.
Brannan wrote an op-ed in Crain’s last week saying they have led to “clogged streets, pedestrian hazards, increased asthma, low-wage jobs and the death of brick-and-mortar neighborhood retail.”
He is asking the Department of City Planning to “institute a special-permit requirement for all warehouse development over 250,000 square feet” to give communities and local officials input into when and how such projects come to their neighborhoods.
The move would force large warehouse projects subject to navigate a process similar to the city’s seven-month Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.
“A special permit means a community won’t be bulldozed — literally and figuratively — in the development process,” Brannan wrote. “Local leaders and elected officials will be able to consider the potential collateral damage to long-term plans for neighborhood development, and potentially be able to reach outcomes that benefit local residents, landlords, retailers, and even consumers.”
Other projects have triggered such proposals, some of which have been enacted. In the past two years the city has required special permits for hotel and self-storage projects in certain light-manufacturing zones, and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration said earlier this year that it supported such a requirement for hotel construction citywide. The move would enhance the New York City Hotel Trades Council’s opportunity to unionize new hotels.

Staten Island Amazon warehouse workers demand fulfillment benefits, services and safety provisions

NY Post

Workers at Amazon’s Staten Island packing facility say Jeff Bezos deserves a lump of coal in his stocking for running roughshod over them, especially during the busy holiday season.

Over a hundred Amazon workers and their supporters gathered outside the facility on Monday to protest working conditions that they say only worsen as the e-tailing giant gears up to deliver a rush of packages ahead of Christmas and Hanukkah.

The workers, who gathered outside the warehouse around 5:30 p.m., carried signs, chanted slogans and demanded a manager emerge from the building to accept a petition signed by 600 people — and addressed to Amazon chief executive Bezos, tied for richest man in the world with Bill Gates.

Their petition demands longer work breaks and more dedicated MTA buses to the far-flung facility. It also protests newly released injury data showing that the rate of worker injury at the facility is three times higher than similar warehouse work.

“It has become clear that our safety is a secondary concern in your eyes, lagging far behind line speed,” the petition said. “There are only weak plans in place to prevent more pain, more injuries, and more deaths as we enter the hardest time of the year,” the letter said.

Amazon’s eyebrow-raising injury rates at the warehouse, which opened in 2018, where released Monday by labor advocacy group Make the Road New York based on Amazon’s own submissions to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Among the injuries reported were sprains and strains from pushing, pulling and lifting machinery and merchandise.

And because the facility is kept at an overly warm temperature, workers sometimes pass out from overheating, said Frank Kearl, staff attorney for Make the Road.

“There are serious structural problems in the way that facility is operating,” Kearl said.

Hyper-development swticheroo for Long Island City abandoned warehouse property

This is from last year:

 City Realty

 And this is from this week:

Commercial Observer 

So it went from a multifamily residential project to a purely commercial one? Quite a switch.

No "affordable housing". Not even 20%?

Amazon coming to Queens

From The Real Deal:

Amazon is opening its first fulfillment center in Queens at the site of the former Bulova watch company headquarters in Woodside, sources told The Real Deal.

The e-commerce giant signed a lease for 83,000 square feet with San Francisco-based Terreno Realty Corporation, which bought the three-acre campus near the intersection of Queens’ major highways in March for $25.17 million, according to sources familiar with the deal.

Representatives for Terreno and Amazon could not be immediately reached for comment.

The new fulfillment and distribution center marks a further expansion into the five boroughs for the e-tailer and provides a boost of confidence for investors betting that demand from e-commerce companies will boost industrial property values.

168-unit building to replace Astoria warehouse

From Queens Beans:

David Kronman of Astoria West LLC is working on a new Astoria project. The building will be addressed at 11-37 31st Avenue and it will be 91-feet tall and it will span over 110,000 square feet once completed. The designer for the project is Christopher Fogarty of Fogarty Finger Architecture. The development is a ground-up project set to replace an existing two-story building. There will be 168 residential units on site.

Lawn gone at Steinway Mansion

Photos from George the Atheist

Queens Crap contest: What's wrong here?

Take a hard look at the top and bottom photos here.

This is a Gerry Caliendo warehouse at the former site of St. Saviour's Church in Maspeth.

The winner receives 2 additional years of whatever Queens Machine party hack already represents you in Albany (exception made for residents in AD30).

Why Maurice Avenue is just about the worst place for a shelter

From the Newtown Pentacle:

The reason that this little travelogue is being presented today involves the plans recently presented by the De Blasio administration to convert a hotel in the area over to a homeless shelter. A subsequent post will detail the hotel and the area directly surrounding it, but this is the northern side of the zone which the “Big Little Mayor” has picked to warehouse those who are considered socially and economically undesirable. The community of Maspeth has responded with their characteristic flair, and pushed back on City Hall with considerable skill and energy. City Hall, as is its habit under the current Mayor reacted to the protests by implying that Maspeth’s indignation is fueled by racism. Several publications picked up this theme, and the Internet commentarium knee jerk followed the rhetoric offered by the administration of the “Dope from Park Slope.”

My personal views on the Maspeth shelter project were the subject of a debate recently with a former colleague whose views and perspectives I greatly respect, but the argument I make about the placement of people – people who exist at the lowest end of the socio-economic spectrum – in this area is that it’s a human rights violation.

Simply put, it ain’t exactly a bed of salubrious roses out around these parts even if you’ve got money in your pocket, let alone when you’re down and out. This wouldn’t be a shelter, this would be a penal colony.

On the subject of every neighborhood having to do “its fair share” – Maspeth already handles close to 20% of NYC’s garbage, it hosts the LIE and BQE, has several NYS and one Federal Superfund sites in it, and there are intersections where close to 3-400 heavy trucks an hour roll through on their way to Manhattan. The garbage train also transits through Maspeth a few times a day, which represents and comingles Brooklyn’s share of the garbage handling with Maspeth’s.

There are virtually no mass transit lines available from this location, police patrols are infrequent at best, and at night this is a virtually abandoned part of the city. Bus service is spotty, and it’s one of the places in Queens where you truly need a personal vehicle to get around.

There are streets with no sidewalks here in the half mile around the proposed shelter.

The shocking ignorance of City Hall regarding the existential realities of Western Queens never fails to amaze me. All they seem to know about our neighborhoods is what they see on maps rolled out on mahogany desktops that have pins stuck into them by paid cronies.

Strange parking regs at Steinway Mansion

Hello Crapper:

Here's a brand new sign found by the "Steinway Park" warehouses on 42nd Street. Any idea what's going on? I have no idea. The warehouse facades are complete. The sidewalk is open to pedestrians. The work now occurring there is the finishing up of the interiors. The exteriors plus sidewalks are now complete.

At the front,
GtheA

PS The arrow on the sign points leftward but there is no signage further south along 42nd street to indicate where the "no parking" ends.

Steinway heir is part of REBNY

From the Queens Chronicle:

“There’s this neighborhood of warehouses and in the middle, on top of this hill is this incredible old house,” said Miles Chapin, the great-grandson of Steinway & Sons co-founder William Steinway. “It’s really outstanding.”

The mansion was declared a landmark by the city in 1967, which means its facade cannot be altered without approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission. But the rules don’t say anything about the yard around the estate.

Not long after Philip Loria, an attorney in Astoria, and his business partner Sal Lucchese bought the mansion plus an acre of land for $2.6 million in 2014, rumblings began about possible development.

Last spring, residents noticed some trees had been cut down and the warehouses began to appear, forming an L-shape around the front and side of the mansion.

The new buildings hit the market in late February with a price tag between $1.8 and $2.3 million each. Ranging from 3,600 to 5,400 square feet, the structures promise a modern design with state-of-the-art features.

Loria said the warehouses, which have generated a good deal of interest from potential buyers, are a “perfect fit” for the location.

“The area called for that type of development,” he said.

For his part, Chapin understands the allure of the mansion. But he also understands the economic realities and the influence of the real estate market. In addition to being a Steinway heir, Chapin is also a real estate agent and co-chairman of the Real Estate Board of New York’s Queens Residential Committee.

While he said the best use of the site may be to preserve the land as a community resource, he recognizes the greatest value, in financial terms at least, likely lies in building warehouses on the site.

“There is no better example of free market capitalism than the real estate market in New York City,” he said. “This is a city of progress. Anytime something is gained, something is usually lost.”

Perhaps no one would understand that better than William Steinway, who was himself a successful businessman with various business interests throughout Queens.

“There are all kinds of ironies involved with any use or reuse of the Steinway property,” Chapin said.

Photo from George The Atheist

Public toilets sit unused in warehouse for 10 years

From CBS 2:

If you are looking for a public restroom in New York City, you will find a dozen of them by walking down an off-the-beaten-track lane toward a warehouse in an industrial section of Maspeth, Queens. They are automatic and self-cleaning, and they have been sitting there unused for about a decade.

The public toilets are operated, or should be, by the JCDecaux company of France. But currently, there are only four of them installed on the streets of the city, and the one CBS2 found at Corona Plaza in Queens was not even working on Friday.

Steinway Mansion debacle gets even more embarrassing

From George the Atheist

The great walls of history

The Wailing Wall

The Great Wall

The Berlin Wall

The Wall of Astoria

Courtesy of George the Atheist

Warehouse wall erected on Steinway site

From George the Atheist