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Top outer borough condos: Long Island City rising

Marina Tencza and daughter Nicole at Arris Lofts. The Tenczas broke the record for most expensive condo purchase in Queens.

Go to chart: The top 10 most expensive Queens Condos

Once characterized by factories, taxi garages and train yards, Long Island City has in the past three years transformed itself into Queens' top neighborhood for condominium sales.

Buyers who would otherwise live in Manhattan are checking out Long Island City's newly constructed, loft-like apartments that are typically convenient to Midtown. While the neighborhood still retains much of its industrial grit, amenities to serve the new residents are opening — last month, it was Food Cellar, the neighborhood's first organic supermarket.

Prices for the top 10 condos in Queens ranged from nearly $3 million for a 3,225-square-foot penthouse at Long Island City's Arris Lofts, a location which dominated the list with eight spots in the top 10, to $1.5 million for a 2,056-square-foot condo purchased in Forest Hills three years ago.

Developer Tibi Zicherman owns the fifth-most expensive condo in the borough, two penthouse apartments he combined in his project, the Badge Building, also in Long Island City.

The more recent pricey deals are happening despite the large amount of condo inventory coming on the market there. Other pending deals, if recorded, would make the Queens top 10 list a more diverse showcase of Long Island City's growth, like a $2 million penthouse in the Karl Fischer-designed PowerHouse Condominium.

Stacy Spielman, sales director, said the sun-soaked penthouse is in contract with an acrobat, who was taken by its double-level cylindrical tower of windows. Fischer created four such towers on the building, a converted power house, to resemble smokestacks.

Spielman, like other brokers in the area, said nearly all of her prospective buyers work in Midtown Manhattan and are also looking at condos in that borough.

This is a significant change for the Queens real estate market compared to a decade ago, said the president of AGH Birchwood Portfolio, Myles Horn, who has specialized in remarketing large blocks of unsold condo and co-op units since the 1970s.

"You never used to see anybody who would otherwise live in Manhattan," Horn said. "These were people who were always outer-borough people. It wasn't an option for them to live in Manhattan."

In all, there are 10 new condo projects totaling 1,100 apartments selling in the neighborhood, with 385 units — or 35 percent — left on the market, according to Melina Starr, a broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman. She said her firm is also tracking five new projects totaling 478 apartments slated to open this year.

Many of these units are priced between $400,000 and $700,000, and are selling fast, which might just buoy Long Island City during the sluggish real estate market while new projects in other neighborhoods, marketed exclusively to the ultra-high-end buyer, are struggling to make sales.

Starr said while buyers are taking longer "to pull the trigger," she's not concerned about Long Island City units because they are significantly less expensive per square foot than the competition in Manhattan.

"Our first project in Long Island City started sales in 2005, and we averaged $665 per square foot. Our current projects are averaging north of $750 per square foot," she noted. That is still half the Manhattan new development average of $1,469 per square foot, according to Corcoran, and less than in many parts of Brooklyn.

Darius Tencza, an attorney who works in Midtown, said he only looked in Manhattan and Long Island City when he and his wife, Marina, decided to move back after raising their three kids in a New Jersey suburb.

"I've been commuting in from the 'burbs for the past 25 years, except for the time that we lived in Manhattan, and it's a hassle," said Tencza. "We had always thought about moving back when I retired, but after our last graduated from high school, we thought about it and said, 'Why wait?'"

After looking at countless Manhattan properties half the size, the couple broke the record for the most expensive condo sold in Queens with their purchase of a $2.995 million, 3,225-square-foot penthouse, with two terraces totaling 4,500 square feet, at Arris Lofts. Counting the outdoor space, that's just $388 per square foot.

Tencza was attracted to the convenience. With the Queens Court transit hub across the street, it takes him 15 minutes to get to work, whereas it takes his son "12 minutes just to walk to the 6 train" from his Upper East Side home. His wife was won over by the space, particularly outdoors, which after moving from their 7,000-square-foot house on two acres in the suburbs was the best possible consolation she could offer their three dogs.

After being on the market for two years, roughly 10 percent of the 237 units at Arris, a converted factory, are still for sale, said Corcoran vice president Tom Lee.

Two other Arris buyers said they decided to move back to the city after raising kids in the suburbs, and ended up choosing Long Island City over Manhattan because it offered more space and convenience.

Lee said empty nesters only comprise a portion of Arris buyers. Many are young, creative professionals, such as the jet-setting superstar DJ Danny Tenaglia. He owns the borough's 13th most expensive condo, a penthouse down the hall from the Tenczas.

Developer the Andalex Group cut into the triangular center of the building to create a landscaped common courtyard, which also pours light into what would otherwise be dark corners of the lofts. Features like a 24-hour doorman, fitness area and 54-foot lap pool also give the building a truly luxurious feel.

But the generous terraces are what really set top condos in the neighborhood apart from others in the city.

Badge developer Tibi Zicherman combined two of his 44-unit building's apartments, and had the 2,700-square-foot penthouse customized by the building's interior designer, Ostap Rudakevych of Studio Lindfors. Among other features, the developer wanted a terrace fit for entertaining.

"Tibi also loves to barbecue outside — he told me if he could, he would grill every day. This led me to create an expansive, easy-to-use stair leading up to the rooftop terrace, where we installed a sink, grill and a seating area," Rudakevych said.

"The stair became the center of the apartment, dividing the guest wing from the public spaces. To give the interior space of the apartment a light and airy feeling, the sculptural stair is illuminated by an oversize skylight, allowing natural light to wash in."

Doron Zwickel, Prudential Douglas Elliman director of sales at the Badge Building, said units are 85 percent sold.

Bill Staniford, CEO of Property Shark, said Long Island City has one of the more promising markets in the five boroughs, relatively speaking.

The top buyers "are definitely going to take a hit, but if they're in it for the long term, they'll be OK in five to 10 years," said Staniford. "If you bought at the peak, then everybody is going to lose some value."

He also said the area's mid-priced units, which still feature luxury amenities and appeal to well-off buyers, would help keep units selling.