The Bloomberg Administration and environmental officials have named the Jamaica Bay as their next cleanup target area. Meanwhile, Chase, the consumer and commercial banking arm of JPMorgan Chase, announced today the opening of two new centers in the tri-state area to help distressed homeowners avoid foreclosure. Click here for more. [more]

Toby Klein of Muss Development in front of a model of Sky View Parc, a massive mixed-use development in Flushing.

From the January issue: In the incredibly dense neighborhood of Flushing in northeast Queens, a new crop of luxury condos has quietly sprouted.
Unlike other parts of the city, where developments conceived during
the boom have been converted to rentals, these new condos remain sales
developments. And they seem to be holding up better than other parts of
the borough, thanks, in part, to demand from a vibrant local Asian
community and recession-friendly prices. Although upscale condos still remain a fraction of Flushing’s
housing stock, new developments such as Sky View Parc, Residence 8, and
the Sequoia are slowly starting to reshape the neighborhood, the last
stop on the number 7 subway line.

The North Queens Medical Center, a 80,000-square-foot office building at 42-31 Union Street in Flushing whose development was halted by the recession, is slated to receive $17 million in Recovery Zone Facility bonds, part of the federal stimulus package. The Recovery Zone program allows states to issue tax-exempt bonds to private developers working in underserved neighborhoods. “There’s demand for a medical facility that people can walk to from downtown Flushing,” said Richard Xia, president of Fleet Financial Group, the developer. The building, whose total cost is projected to be $42 million, will be used for outpatient hospital services and doctors’ offices, Xia said. The project needs final approval from the city before receiving the bonds, after which construction is expected to begin in March and take 18 months to complete. The city has already allocated roughly $80 million in Recovery Zone bonds to five “shovel-ready” projects in the city, including two at the Arverne by the Sea development in Far Rockaway, where 2,300 middle-income housing units, a school and a YMCA will be housed. The city has $40 million in bonds left to distribute before they expire at the end of 2010. [NYDN]

Several local elected officials in Queens said they were left in the dark on a multimillion dollar medical center development scheduled to break ground in March on three plots of land at 42-31 Union Street in downtown Flushing, according to Yournabe.com. Marilyn Bitterman, district manager of Community Board 7, said that she and other area officials weren’t informed of developer Fleet Financial Group’s plans — either by city officials or the developer itself. “What a mess it’s going to be,” Bitterman said. “If it goes in as an as-of-right development, there’s nothing we can do.” The development, planned as a mixed-use hospital and apartment complex, has been granted $14 million in tax-exempt stimulus bonds, according to a representative from the Economic Development Corporation. State Senator Toby Stavisky said that while the Department of Buildings may have approved the plans, local officials should have been made aware of the upcoming project. “I know we have secrets, but I don’t think this proposal should be a secret,” Stavisky said.

A Midtown-based real estate investment firm is in negotiations to take control of the troubled RKO Keith’s Flushing Theater from Boymelgreen Developers by the end of the year. Venator Capital has agreed to purchase a $20 million note secured by the Flushing, Queens, property located at 135-27 Northern Boulevard from Doral Bank, said Sam Suzuki, a principal with Venator, ultimately giving the company full control of the theater. Investors affiliated with Venator are active in the Bronx as well, where they are in contract to buy 16 mostly rent-regulated apartment buildings owned by Ocelot Properties, after buying six earlier this year. The RKO Keith note purchase would be followed by a so-called friendly foreclosure in which Boymelgreen would sign over the deed to the new owner without a protracted court proceeding, Suzuki said. [more]

An Arizona-based company called Major Event Rentalz, which allows
homeowners to rent out their homes during sporting events that attract
thousands of out-of-town spectators, has now targeted homes in
Flushing, Queens, the site of the upcoming U.S. Open. The company is
offering residents of Flushing $2,000 a day to sublet a three-bedroom
and upwards of $10,500 a day to sublet an eight-bedroom home to
spectators who will flood the neighborhood for the tennis tournament,
which starts August 31. So far, 10 residents have offered their homes
through the online service, which collects a 10 percent commission,
while others are cutting out the middleman altogether and utilizing
Craigslist to advertise two-week sublets to tournament goers. However,
not all Flushing residents are thrilled about an influx of transients
entering the neighborhood. Sandi Viviani, president of the
Broadway-Flushing Homeowners Association, called the advertisements
degrading to the community and said she tears them down when she spots
them. Comments

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A Chinese-American woman who sued the board of her building for discrimination won a $225,000 verdict, but the jury said there was no proof of racism. The jury awarded Lisa Sheen the money because it said her building, the Mainstay Cooperative in Flushing, Queens, criticized her for doing renovations to her apartment. Sheen, who sued the co-op board for $11 million, said the board tried to oust her from the building because she is Chinese. Sheen said this is the second time the co-op board has been sued for racial discrimination against Asians. [more]

More
than a dozen stores have closed at a shopping center on Kissena
Boulevard in Queens. The remaining store owners in the Kew Gardens Hills mall say they do
not know how much longer they can survive in a shopping center with so
few stores. A spokesperson for the center’s leasing agent Pelcorp
Management, said the landlord is not trying to force businesses out to
sell the property, and that they are actively looking for new tenants.
The spokesperson said the stores were left empty because the anchor
tenant, National Wholesale Liquidators, was expected to expand and
renovate the space, but the company filed for bankruptcy a few months
ago. Pelcorp is now talking to other national retailers about becoming
an anchor tenant.

Lisa Sheen, a Chinese woman living in the Mainstay Cooperative building
at 14455 Melbourne Avenue in Flushing, Queens, with her husband and two
children, is suing her building’s co-op board for $11 million. She
alleges that they tried to oust her from the building because she is
Chinese. However, a lawyer representing the board claims it has been
trying to evict Sheen since early 2005, after she made unauthorized
renovations to her apartment. Sheen said this is the second time the
board of Mainstay Cooperative has been sued for racial discrimination
against Asians — the first suit was in progress when Sheen filed
papers for her apartment in December 2004. That case is still pending
in Queens Supreme Court. [more]

In Flushing, Queens, local businesses on Main Street are surviving the
downturn because of Asian immigrants’ customer loyalty. Flushing
resident Fred Fu, who owns a travel agency in the area, told WNYC
reporter Richard Yeh (listen below) that almost all of his business happens within
Flushing. “I live in Flushing downtown, my business is in Flushing, I eat in Chinese restaurants in Flushing, everything’s in Flushing,” Fu said. Pharmacy owner Peter Koo said that while he’s seen a drop in sales, he
can compete with nearby chain store Duane Reade because of his loyal
customer base. Koo said he and his employees can explain doctors’
directions in Chinese to residents, and also help them understand
things other than prescriptions. “If they have a bill they don’t
understand, we’ll explain, ‘oh, this is a Con Ed bill,” Koo said.
Between 1990 and 2000, the number of Asian immigrants in Flushing
almost doubled.

[more]