Calling Long Island City the next hotbed of residential development puts the cart before the horse – though that’s an outdated metaphor for this Queens locale, which boasts excellent transportation.
The No. 7 subway line is less than 10 minutes from Grand Central Station and the Long Island Railroad makes a stop in Long Island City. Residents are half a mile from the Midtown Tunnel and the Long Island Expressway, as well as a bustling waterfront.
But Long Island City doesn’t yet have its own supermarket, despite being the headquarters of online grocer Fresh Direct. The uneven pace of development is out of sync with the area’s spike in residential projects planned or under construction.
“Developers now are building a lot, but there are really not the services to support it,” said Valerie Dominguez, a Long Island City specialist with The Corcoran Group. “There are certain things that Long Island City is lacking that are kind of crucial, like a supermarket, a movie theater, actual stores.”
For many years, Long Island City has been slated to become New York City’s fourth big commercial district, after Midtown, Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. That vision has not yet come to fruition, but on the residential side, Long Island City is viewed as a potential boomtown, especially since a 2001 rezoning of central Long Island City. The rezoning has recently led to the first plans for residential development away from the waterfront.
Before that rezoning, the lone residential tower to take advantage of gorgeous Manhattan views in Long Island City was Citylights.
Then in 2003, AvalonBay Communities opened the Avalon Riverview with 372 rental units.
The Riverview is part of a waterfront mixed-use development project called Queens West that will install more residential units on about 74 acres. AvalonBay Communities will combine two buildings that were part of the Queens West master plan into one with 602 rental units on parcel No. 9, which should get into full swing by the end of the summer, said Fred Harris, senior vice president of development at AvalonBay.
Also part of the Queens West development package are seven buildings to be built by Rockrose Development for a total of about 3,250 additional units. The first tower will hold about 500 rentals and should open late summer 2006, said Jon McMillan, director of planning for Rockrose.
“We’ll decide on each building as we go along,” McMillan said. “But it’s looking like the second building would probably be a condo.”
A major supermarket may be part of Rockrose’s second building.
A plethora of other residential developments are planned for the Queens waterfront. Silvercup Studios, a movie studio located in Long Island City, has plans to develop a million square feet of residential space, or about 1,000 units, plus another 1.5 million square feet of production studios, office and retail space on a waterfront lot just south of the Queensboro Bridge, said Stuart Suna, president of Silvercup Studios.
Construction may begin by fall on two towers and two low-rises with about 900 condominiums, plus commercial space. Vernon Realty of New Jersey will develop the project, set on the former site of the East River Tennis Club, said Andrew Gerringer, executive vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman.
Elliman is also marketing the Power House, about 190 condominiums to be developed in the old Pennsylvania Railroad Power Station, with the addition of new floors and the demolition of its smokestacks. Sales begin this fall.
“We’re very bullish on Long Island City,” said Hal Henenson of the Development Marketing Group at Elliman. “As prices have gotten so high in Manhattan, people are looking for more alternatives.” Prices for rentals in Long Island City are about 10 to 20 percent below comparable markets in Manhattan, brokers say.
It’s been difficult for developers and agents to get comparable sales prices, since there are so few sales properties. Dominguez said pricing for the co-ops in Citylights start at $250,000 for a 500-square-foot studio, with maintenance around $500 a month. One-bedrooms from 700 square feet to 1,000 square feet range in price from $300,000 to $450,000 and have maintenance ranging from $1,000 to $1,800 monthly. Two bedrooms from 1,110 square feet to 1,300 square feet range from $475,000 to $550,000 with higher maintenance fees of about $2,600 a month.
Besides the waterfront projects, there are almost a dozen developments offering luxurious accommodations going up inland.
About 140 units are going in at 41-47 Crescent Street, Henenson said, and 48-21 5th Street will see about 50 condominiums. 5-35 Borden Avenue will have about 120 units while 46-44 11th Place is 44 units in a loft conversion-new construction combination, he said.
The Andalex Group is launching its first residential project at 45-31 Court Square, a triangular shaped building to be developed into 238 luxury condominiums.
Vantage Purves and Vantage Jackson are being developed at 44-27 Purves Street and 10-50 Jackson Avenue with 57 units and about three dozen units, respectively, by developer alliance Emmy Homes and Lions Group. The buildings will have upscale finishes and penthouses, said Kara Kasper, a vice president at The Corcoran Group.
On a smaller scale, Joseph Escarfullery, partner of Joseph Palumbo Jr., at JCE Construction., is developing 11 condominiums in a building at 50th Avenue and 5th Street, to go to market this summer. They have plans to develop another building on the block.
Joseph Hentze, principal of Hentze-Dor Real Estate, who has been an industrial and commercial real estate broker in Long Island City for decades, has decided to test the waters of residential real estate with two rental buildings he’s developing at 10-30 Jackson Avenue and 12-01 Jackson Avenue, with 24 units and 35 units respectively, with the first development slated for completion in October.
“There is a very big push toward condos here, but we’re looking at a long-term commitment,” Hentze said. “We believe in the area, and we think that we could do very well here.”