Flushing commercial rates rise amid development boom

Prime properties grow in value, fueled by Willets Point, Flushing Commons projects

From left: Rendering of Willets Point, 41-60 Main Street and rendering of Flushing Commons
From left: Rendering of Willets Point, 41-60 Main Street and rendering of Flushing Commons

The Flushing Landmark building at the heart of the bustling Queens neighborhood hit the market for $92 million last month, the latest in a recent flurry of commercial sales and development at the end of the No. 7 train.

The growing entrepreneurial class in Flushing has increasingly drawn big banks like HSBC and JPMorgan Chase to the neighborhood, and mainstream retailers are coming to the area in droves. Nordstrom inked a 700,000-square-foot lease at SkyView Center mall at 4022 College Pointe Boulevard in January, while Restoration Hardware and big box store Target are already tenants in the space. A plan to turn a 5.5-acre parking lot into an $850 million residential, retail and commercial project dubbed Flushing Commons was finalized late last year.

“I keep waiting for [property] prices in Flushing to top out,” Rob MacKay of the Queens Economic Development Corporation told Crain’s. “I’ve been waiting for years now, and it just doesn’t look like it’s going to peak, ever.”

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Another project at 112-21 Northern Boulevard, where a 360,000-square-foot lot sold for $17 million to Flushing-based developer Fleet Financial Group, is slated to use Chinese investment to develop a convention center, 25-story hotel and 263-unit residential building, Crain’s reported.

Willets Point is also slated to become a retail, hotel and residential hub in the area, with construction to kick off later this year on the 62-acre site by Citi Field. The first stage is set to be completed by 2025, as previously reported. [Crain’s]Julie Strickland