The stalled Long Island City site where developer Edward Minskoff once planned 635 dorm rooms will become a retail and commercial complex, the New York Daily News reported. Alma Realty purchased the vacant structure, at 30-30 Northern Boulevard, in January 2011 for $21.5 million, and were reportedly in talks with a university to convert it into a 400,000-square-foot college campus.
But the developer told the Daily News it would build out the shell into a seven-story, 270,000-square-foot, LEED-certified Gold complex by early 2013.
“This is an opportunity to impact the neighborhood in a positive way,” said George Valiotis, project director at Alma Realty. “We really believe in this area.”
The firm has not selected a marketer yet, but it hopes to land tech tenants for the office space above the ground-floor retail.
And the plans for a university have not been completely scrapped. Within five years Alma hopes to build a campus adjacent to the existing structure on the property. [NYDN]