How it feels… to develop where you grew up

Eddie Hidary, 26, COO of commercial real estate company Hidrock Realty

I grew up in Midwood on Avenue J. My parents still live in the house I grew up in, and I live down the block. I’m
working on a development in Midwood, a 15-minute walk from my house.

I never had any special fantasy of what I wanted to do when I grew up. I had no interest in construction when I was younger, and I am not very handy. If I tried to put a cabinet together, it would come out crooked.

I’m developing the East 19th Street Condos in Midwood [at 1288 East 19th Street and Avenue M]. It was a single-family home that was basically vacant and left for dead. It wasn’t occupied for as long as I can remember and was basically boarded up.

As a kid, any sites that were boarded up were spooky to me. I was always worried that homeless people were living in them.

I have the same feeling today, and that is a reason why I like to turn such sites into new usable areas. Blocks that were scary at night don’t feel unsafe when you have a new lit-up building on the block.

There has been some change in the stores in the neighborhood since I was younger, but there are a few diners, fruit stores and ice cream shops that are still there. I would go to the Carvel ice cream shop down the block from the site every weekend with my parents, and then we’d go to the park. Both are still there.

I went to school a couple of blocks away from my home at the Yeshiva of Flatbush. Ever since I can remember, I walked to school on the Avenue J corridor, which is two blocks away from the Avenue M site. Since I know the area well, I am more comfortable analyzing a project there. If you look at a deal in an area you don’t know, there is always a feeling of whether or not you are missing some key information that may affect the project at some time down the road. It is also easy to travel to the sites, which helps move it along faster, and I get to see the projects progress daily since I live in the neighborhood.

I am a believer of changing with the times. Some buildings can’t stand forever and are in need of renovation or a demolition and new building all together. As long as you pay attention to the area while designing new construction and keeping the context of the neighborhood the same, it should be welcomed.

The Midwood project is as-of-right, and we used a lot of brick to try to blend in as much as possible.

I don’t feel remorse about the project. If you were taking down some historic place that was close to your heart or had some
significance, then there might be an issue. But this project, like the other ones I’m
doing and have done, really is on sites that are better to be developed than sitting the way they were.

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Joshua Muss, 65, principal of Muss Development Company

Between the ages of three and 11, I lived in Flushing at 148-09 Northern Boulevard, close to the mixed-use center we are building at College Point Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue, in downtown Flushing.

I certainly remember the area. It was always a retail center, and it was bustling and busy at the time.

I used to play in the empty lots of undeveloped properties that abounded in Flushing, across the street and around the corner and down the block. I remember bringing my tricycle down the elevator and exploring the wooded lots by myself.

I was great at building blocks and drawing buildings. I wanted to be a “builder,” which is what my father and grandfather were.

As far as Flushing is concerned today, it appears that most of it is only 15 years old, and there’s a new building being built almost every week.

I would say the community there would be unrecognizable to the young man that grew up in the ’50s, but creating change is the business in which I am. Unfortunately, in Flushing, for many years that change was virtually unregulated, without an overall master plan.

This led to some lousy development. The local community, legislators and the city have stepped up big time in recent years.

The biggest loss is the closing — but not yet complete loss — of the RKO Keith’s Theater on Northern Boulevard, which was by far the most iconic landmark in Flushing of my childhood. I loved to go there.

There is a great sense of satisfaction that comes when one has the opportunity to create and build such special projects within the neighborhoods that one has had a lifetime association with. I also think the local community and legislators have a better comfort level with developers whom they recognize as a part of the landscape, past or recent.

And, of course, a “local” person has a better sense as to what is needed and what will work. To be able to develop a site that you recall as a kid? Priceless.

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