From left: An AirTrain, the Jamaica AirTrain station and downtown Jamaica

In addition to easing travelers rides to the airport, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s AirTrain to Kennedy International Airport has played a big role in reviving downtown Jamaica (note: correction appended).

According to the New York Times, before the suburban exodus of the 1950s and 1960s, Jamaica was the city’s third largest shopping district, but rapidly deteriorated in the years since. While most AirTrain passengers use Jamaica only as a transfer point, enough of the 3.9 million people that pass through the terminal stay in the area to support at least three new hotels and a growing number of brand-name stores and restaurants. [more]

From left: 90-36 149th Street and George Subraj of Zara Realty

Tenants at 90-36 149th Street in Jamaica, Queens, are suing landlord Zara Realty after they were charged lump sums for capital improvements made to their building, the New York Daily News reported.

Long-time tenants at the rent-stabilized building say they were charged the increase in one installment because the landlord wants to force out lower-income residents. Charges included $145 to replace windows that were broken during construction, according to tenants.

The suit says tenants were charged more upfront than the landlord was entitled to collect, and that repairs tenants should not have to pay for were billed to residents.
[more]

In another example of the outer borough hotel boom, a developer has obtained work permits to construct a seven-story Comfort Inn for downtown Jamaica, the Queens Chronicle reported. But the location has left some neighbors puzzled.

The hotel is set to rise on a 6,300-square-foot lot at 89-34 162nd Street that developer Rajendra Patel purchased for $2.1 million in 2007. It is expected to cost between $7 million and $8 million and contain 72 rooms.

The planned structure complies with zoning regulations for the plot so Patel didn’t need community board approval, but community members in the area are skeptical of the plan’s viability, according to the Chronicle. [more]

One of the allegedly targeted buildings at 99-45 67th Road in Rego Park and DA Richard Brown

(Updated 3:10 p.m., July 13)
A former managing agent for a collection of five Queens apartment
buildings has been charged with embezzling almost $950,000 in
tenant-paid maintenance fees, according to the Queens district
attorney’s office. The defendant, Michael Richter, and his company,
Charter Management Realty, allegedly siphoned off the cash over a
six-year period, concealing his scheme behind a lock- [more]

One of the allegedly targeted buildings at 99-45 67th Road in Rego Park and DA Richard Brown

(Updated 3:10 p.m., July 13) A former managing agent for a collection of five Queens apartment buildings has been charged with embezzling almost $950,000 in tenant-paid maintenance fees, according to the Queens district attorney’s office. The defendant, Michael Richter, and his company, Charter Management Realty, allegedly siphoned off the cash over a six-year period, concealing his scheme behind a lock- [more]

Community advocates are riled over a possible new homeless shelter in southeastern Queens, according to the New York Daily News. Residents and local officials are speaking out over the shelter, which is angling to move into a 54-unit apartment building at 170-02 93rd Avenue in Jamaica, because they say their neighborhood is already overrun with similar facilities. City Council member Leroy Comrie said that the proposed shelter’s proximity to a senior center and single-parent female shelter could spell bad news. “While we want to try to be helpful and open, this location is absolutely the wrong site,” Comrie said. “We have too many vulnerable people in the area already.” Of the 17 homeless shelters currently location in Queens, nine are located in the southeastern region, city officials say. [NYDN]

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Community advocates are riled over a possible new homeless shelter in southeastern Queens, according to the New York Daily News. Residents and local officials are speaking out over the shelter, which is angling to move into a 54-unit apartment building at 170-02 93rd Avenue in Jamaica, because they say their neighborhood is already overrun with similar facilities. City Council member Leroy Comrie said that the proposed shelter’s proximity to a senior center and single-parent female shelter could spell bad news. “While we want to try to be helpful and open, this location is absolutely the wrong site,” Comrie said. “We have too many vulnerable people in the area already.” Of the 17 homeless shelters currently location in Queens, nine are located in the southeastern region, city officials say. [NYDN]

[more]

From left: 120-18 132nd Street, 56-10 Waldron Street, 116-36 139th Street, and the Kalua Club

The Queens District Attorney handed down a 327-count indictment against five individuals who allegedly orchestrated a $2 million mortgage fraud scheme by using fake identities to buy and sell Queens properties. District Attorney Richard Brown described the fraud as “brazen,” and said he believed that the “mortgage frauds perpetrated by these defendants were among the root causes of the severe economic downturn of the last few years.” Four of the five defendants, three of whom own the Club Kalua nightclub, have been captured, while the fifth remains at large. Club Kalua was the site of the infamous 2006 Sean Bell shooting incident, in which police shot three men including killing Bell, on the morning after his bachelor party. If convicted in the mortgage scam, the defendants could face prison terms of up to 15 years each. The three properties involved in the scheme, 120-18 132nd Street in Ozone Park, 56-10 Waldron Street in Corona, and 116-36 139th Street in Jamaica, were allegedly purchased with fake identities. “In this particular case, one of the frauds was so brazen that it allegedly involved the sale of a house by two people posing as sellers — one of whom was dead — to a third person posing as a buyer — with the defendants pocketing an astounding $250,000,” Brown said. “These types of financial crimes have real-life consequences and will not be tolerated.” TRD

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126-32 144th Street

From the January issue: Queens has been called the “Ground Zero” of the New York foreclosure crisis, with the most filings citywide for the past three years.
But while areas like Jamaica and Queens Village have garnered the most attention because of the devastation they’ve endured due to the sheer number of foreclosures there, the community districts that have seen the greatest increase in foreclosure filings are some of the borough’s more well-off areas.
The two solidly middle-class community districts that include Fresh Meadows, Hillcrest, Sunnyside and Woodside saw the greatest spike in the average number of foreclosure filings per quarter, at 64 percent during the first three quarters of last year. In contrast, Jamaica and Queens Village saw increases of 17 percent and 32 percent, respectively. 

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A development group has filed a request to reopen bidding on two shuttered Queens hospitals, citing an unfair bidding process in the last auction. Village Management Group asked a federal bankruptcy court yesterday to allow it a shot at the St. John’s Hospital and Mary Immaculate Hospital properties, located in Elmhurst and Jamaica, respectively, which CB Richard Ellis auctioned last month. The winning bidder, Guttman Realty, which spent a total of $26.63 million on the two properties, was announced Oct. 20. Residents and local officials, including Helen Marshall, the Queens borough president, have expressed concern over Guttman’s intention to transform the properties into non-medical facilities. Village Management Group says that it has been in talks with New York Hospital Queens officials to reopen the St. John’s property as a medical center.