Queens developers are pushing into neighborhoods that in the past rarely inspired high-profile construction.
Even as planned development shrinks in the borough, a 58-unit condominium is in the pipeline in Hollis; a 190-unit condo is slated for Jackson Heights; and a 27-unit condo is on the drawing board in Elmhurst.
In the third quarter of 2006, plans were submitted for 636 new condo units in Queens, a sharp drop from 921 in the second quarter and 828 in the first quarter.
The Real Deal gathered a list of unit plans submitted by developers to the state attorney general’s office from the start of 2004 through the third quarter of this year (see map and chart). Data show the numbers are falling, but a look at the projects also shows that standards for new Queens developments are rising, with more luxury product hitting the market.
Condo numbers grew most dramatically in Long Island City/Woodside, where developers submitted plans for 1,199 condo units, fully 20 percent of the 5,757 proposed for all of Queens since the start of 2004.
Next on the list was Rockaway with 1,010 units; Flushing/Whitestone with 977; and Astoria with 935.
Despite the growth in those neighborhoods, development activity has been erratic this year.
In Long Island City, plans for 87 condo units were filed with the attorney general in the first quarter, spiking up to 457 units in the second quarter and then dropping back down to 179 units in the third quarter.
In Astoria, the number of planned units spiked in the first quarter of the year with 398, dropped to 120 in the second quarter and edged up slightly to 150 in the third quarter, according to the data.
The numbers tracked when projects were first submitted to the attorney general’s office, rather than when they were approved for sales or completed, meaning they are a good future indicator of where the market is heading.
With 2.2 million residents, Queens has the second-largest population of the five boroughs after Brooklyn, which has 2.5 million people.
The median monthly rent for a Queens apartment was $903 in 2005, the second highest in the city behind Manhattan, according to a report from the Office of the State Comptroller released in June.
Following is a glimpse at some of the neighborhoods and projects in Queens:
Long Island City/Woodside
Attractive for its waterfront properties and close proximity to Manhattan — just one stop on the subway from Grand Central Terminal — new condo construction still seems to be moving forward in Long Island City despite the cooling residential market.
Development plans were submitted for 179 units at the Powerhouse condo in the third quarter of 2006, the only new project submitted during the quarter in the neighborhood.
The greatest number of units submitted in Long Island City/Woodside over the past couple of years was in the second quarter of 2006 with 457 condos, 180 of them in the 5th Street Lofts condo.
Projects already in the works include the development of Avalon Riverview North, a rental building at the same site as Avalon Riverview on 50th Avenue. Occupancy is expected to begin at the new building in mid-2007.
Rents in Long Island City nearly mirror Manhattan prices. At the existing Avalon Riverview, rents range from $1,800 for a 510-square-foot studio to a $5,000 three-bedroom.
Development continues at the 74-acre Queens West site, the waterfront development parcel created by the state government. Most recently, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the city would use 24 acres in the southern portion of the site for 5,000 middle-income units.
Shvo Marketing’s president, Michael Shvo, said he is excited about the five condo projects he said his company is working on in Long Island City. “There is nothing that is that virgin-like [in terms of land], like Long Island City,” he said.
Shvo said the projects have not yet been submitted to the attorney general, but said plans involve a building on a 1-million-square-foot waterfront parcel, a conversion plus construction of 600,000 square feet near Queens Boulevard, and two buildings off of Jackson Street, one 350,000 square feet and the other 280,000 feet. It was too premature, Shvo said, to discuss the fifth development. A grocer may take space in one of the buildings, which would be the first supermarket to come to the neighborhood, although Long Island City is the headquarters for the online grocer Fresh Direct.
Other Long Island City developments include Arris Lofts, which has 237 units starting at $625,000. In October, the New York City Council approved Long Island City-based Silvercup Studios’ plans to develop Silvercup Studios West, a 3-million-square-foot mixed-use development at the foot of the Queensboro Bridge.
Not all developers have their sights on Long Island City.
Demetrius Partridge of Astoria-based Partridge Realty said that while Long Island City was a popular place about a century ago when it thrived as a shipping district, today “it’s still dead.”
Astoria
Partridge is instead partial to the revitalized neighborhood of Astoria.
“I see the trend for Astoria becoming like the Upper East Side,” for young arrivals to the city, Partridge said. But he noted that Astoria could still use a facelift.
Partridge Realty owns and manages about 1,000 rental apartments, with rents starting at $1,500 for a 600-square-foot one-bedroom and up to $2,200 for a 900-square-foot three-bedroom.
In September, the attorney general received plans for 150 units at the Crescent Club at 41-17 Crescent Street. That project was the second-largest block of units proposed for any quarter in the neighborhood in two-and-a-half years, save for one.
In the first quarter of this year, developers submitted plans for 398 units in four buildings, the highest quarterly total since the start of 2004.
Astoria is already home to Kaufman Studios, and more culture is on the way with the move of the Frank Sinatra High School for the Performing Arts from Long Island City.
The neighborhood also increasingly appeals as a retirement destination. A 15-story senior center is planned for the municipal parking lot at 29th Street between Hoyt Avenue and Astoria Boulevard.
One prolific Astoria developer, Joseph Pistilli, CEO of Pistilli Realty, said, “It’s really a city within a city.”
Last month, Pistilli Realty started selling apartments at the long-awaited Pistilli Riverview East, a luxury cooperative building on the waterfront site of the former Eagle Electric Company factory and warehouse.
Because the building is a co-op, an unusual move in today’s condo-dominated development market, Pistilli is selling the 188 units at pre-finished prices ranging from $300,000 to $1.2 million, for 900- to 2,500-square-foot one- to three-bedrooms.
Targeting area residents, sales have been swift, Pistilli said, with 12 deals closing on one day last month.
Another Pistilli building nearing completion is a 200-unit condo at the former Stern’s Department Stores, at Ditmars Boulevard. Pistilli Grand Manor will offer one- and two-bedroom condos, parking, offices and retail space. Units will start at $650 a square foot. Pistilli is also building a 12-story office building on Newtown Avenue in Astoria, he said.
Flushing/Whitestone
In Flushing/Whitestone, 79 units were submitted to the attorney general in the third quarter of 2006. The pace increased in October, the first month of the fourth quarter, when plans for 150 units in three buildings were filed.
This year, Muss Development Organization is building the massive Flushing Town Center on the site of a former Con Ed facility.
“We always knew it was a very valuable property because of its proximity to Manhattan,” said Jason Muss, vice president of Muss Development. “It’s a pretty reasonable trip to anywhere in the region.”
The $800 million complex will have six mixed-use buildings over 14 acres, Muss said. There will be 1,100 condos, three levels of retail with anchor tenants like Target, and a multi-level parking garage.
At Flushing Town Center, tenants “will have anything they need to buy beneath them,” Muss said. And because the retail occupies the first floors, the apartments above will have unobstructed city views. Although the plans have not been approved by the attorney general’s office yet, Muss said he expects the apartments to cost from $400,000 to $1.2 million.
Marketing efforts will focus on Asian-Americans, who make up a large portion of the Flushing population. “We feel the local demand is more than enough to sell out with,” Muss said.
Boymelgreen Developers has its first Queens project on the drawing board in Flushing. The multimillion dollar mixed-use project at the site of the former RKO Keith’s Theater calls for restoration of the landmarked lobby, which will be open to the public, construction of condos, retail space, a senior center and valet parking, said Israel Vraneski, director of development with Boymelgreen. The building will be 16 stories, with 200 apartments starting at $650 a square foot. “For the time being we are hoping we will be able to sell,” Vraneski said. “If worst comes to worst, it will work also as a rental building.”
The Rockefeller Group and TDC Development and Construction Corporation are developing the five-acre former Municipal Parking Lot 1 in Downtown Flushing. Called Flushing Commons, the complex will include a hotel, residences, a community center, retail space and recreational facilities.
Flushing also made news last month when the New York Mets broke ground at the team’s new ballpark, slated for completion in 2009. Thanks to a 20-year, $400 million agreement with Citigroup, the stadium will be called Citi Field.
The Rockaways
A beach resort area that fell on hard times, the Rockaways is still in need of restoration.
“There’s a lot of new building going on where builders are tearing down older homes and putting up new homes,” said Donna Reardon, branch manager of Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Bayside office.
Smaller buildings are being proposed in the Rockaways. Most recently, in July, plans were submitted for 28 units at the Rockaway Beach Condominiums.
Last month, development partnership Benjamin-Beechwood broke ground on a 30,000-square-foot YMCA Center at Arverne by the Sea, a 117-acre mixed-use project with 4,100 units of housing, 2,300 of them for middle-income New Yorkers, as well as a school, parkland and commercial space.
Bluestone Organization, L & M Equity Participants and Triangle Equities will develop Arverne East, a 97-acre site adjacent to Arverne by the Sea, with 47 acres of housing and commercial space, a 35-acre nature preserve and a 15-acre dune preserve.
Jackson Heights
The largest new condo project submitted in Queens in October, and one of the biggest all year, was in Jackson Heights. The Stratford Hall condo at 80-09 35th Avenue will have 190 units.
A dense melting pot, Jackson Heights is protected from overgrowth as much of the neighborhood falls within an historic district.
Jamaica/Hollis
It’s not quite a hub of development, but plans for new projects also include units in the Jamaica and Hollis neighborhoods, which have only had 68 units proposed in the past two–and-a-half years, fewer than 10 of 12 Queens neighborhoods surveyed.
Only Bayside, where 34 units were proposed in the period examined, had fewer units on the table.
In the third quarter of 2006, a plan submitted to the attorney general called for 58 units as part of the Parsons Windsor condo at 88-10 Parsons Boulevard. In October, plans were filed for 11 units at 91-53 191st Street, the only other project submitted this year.
Despite the fact that condo buildings are few in Jamaica and Hollis, Jack Mangra, a realtor with Weichert Realtors Elite Associates, said a condo would attract locally based immigrants or residents from the rental-dominated Bronx looking to own a home. But if prices are steep, the developers might have to look to other folks.
The 191st Street condo could do well, he said, because it is only a 10-minute bus ride to the subway and the sale price would likely be less than for a house. For developers, “the properties are much cheaper there to buy,” Mangra said.
Efforts are underway to convert former industrial land near the Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus depot on South Road into housing, said Dan Andrews, spokesman for Queens Borough President Helen Marshall.
The Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, a nonprofit community-building organization, is overseeing plans to develop the area around the AirTrain into an “airport village” complex that includes a hotel.
Development is happening in other areas of real estate in Jamaica. Last month, Sterling National Bank unveiled a branch and Queens Hospital Center opened a new ambulatory care pavilion.