From left: Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski and Astoria City Council Member Peter Vallone Jr., who support the plan, and the abandoned pool

Though elected officials, the Parks Department and community groups are backing the restoration of a landmarked abandoned dive pool in Astoria Park, there are fundraising problems, the Wall Street Journal reported. As previously reported, the conversion plan to transform the pool, which hosted the U.S. Olympic diving trials in 1936 and 1964, into an amphitheater seemed to be set in stone. The plan also included the integration of the 32-foot Art Moderne diving platform into the overall design. [more]

Hallets Point (click to enlarge)Developer Lincoln Equities Group is proposing to build 2,300 residential units, a park and a supermarket along the East River in Astoria, according to the New York Daily News. The proposal, dubbed Hallets Point, calls for seven towers with 1,900 market-rate units and 400 units reserved for affordable housing. It’s slated to begin the public review process next year. The project has received strong support from the community, the Daily News said, for the new residents, supermarket and other amenities it could bring to the neighborhood. [more]

For New York City real estate, 2010 in many ways marked a return to normalcy after the tumultuous aftermath of the financial crisis. As the ubiquitous real estate appraiser and Miller Samuel CEO Jonathan Miller put it: “it was a year of a sense of relief.” City home prices stopped their freefall and sales activity improved considerably from the post-Lehman doldrums. Stalled condominium projects like the Sheffield and 1 Rector Park re-started sales. Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim bought Tamir Sapir’s Fifth Avenue townhouse, the Duke Semans mansion, for $44 million. As the unspoken taboo on ostentatious spending faded, a number of high-end residential properties changed hands at the end of the year, including Brooke Astor’s 14-room duplex at 778 Park Avenue, which finally sold after two years on the market (albeit for a significant discount from its original asking price). Japanese retailer Uniqlo snagged 89,000 square feet at 666 Fifth Avenue’s former Brooks Brothers space for a record $300 million, demonstrating that retail is still thriving along the posh shopping corridor.
But the economic downturn continued to make its presence felt. The office market remained uneven and troubled lender iStar Financial fought to stave off bankruptcy amid lingering fears of a double-dip recession.
Here are The Real Deal staff’s picks for the stories that most altered the New York City real estate landscape in 2010, in alphabetical order. [more]

A proposal for a stretch of industrial waterfront in Astoria called
Halletts Point would bring seven mixed-use towers to the area, some as
tall as 32 stories. Developer Lincoln Equities submitted a land-use
review application to the Department of City Planning last week for the
project, which needs to go through the public review process. The
development would also include a supermarket, retail and restaurants,
amenities that residents say Halletts Point lacks, and it would create
new parks that connect to other nearby public spaces. Construction could
start in the fall of 2010. City Council member Peter Vallone Jr. said
the area is in need of development, and that he has already negotiated
with the developer to reduce the size of the planned towers. Vallone is
also pushing for a bank and school on the site. [more]