Anthony DelMundo for New York Daily News
Dan Miner, senior vice president of the Long Island City Partnership, in front of MetLife building on Queens Plaza North in Long Island City. The area is undergoing a renewed real estate boom.
Long Island City is undergoing another real estate boom, buoyed by a new batch of residential towers, hotels and high-profile property deals.
Local real estate experts said they believe the momentum — with an influx of waterfront high rises and almost 20 hotels — is due to the once industrial neighborhood’s soaring reputation and an improved economy.
“As more development has taken place, people’s confidence in the future of Long Island City has increased,” said Dan Miner, senior vice president of the Long Island City Partnership, a business development group.
Jamestown Properties, owner of the Chelsea Market, reportedly entered into a $80 million contract recently to buy the five-story former Gimbel Brothers department store warehouse on 47th Ave.
New hotels also appear to be doing well. Neil Ganko, sales manager at the Wyndham Garden Long Island City Manhattan View Hotel, said the property has been busy since it opened last month.
“We’re actually one [subway] stop from Manhattan,” he said. “We’re less than half the rates.”
He expects to see more lodgings open up in the next few years.
“It’s one of those areas that’s very artistic, very new and very up-and-coming,” Ganko said.
Eric Benaim, CEO of the real estate brokerage firm Modern Spaces, agreed that Long Island City is appealing because it’s close to Manhattan but costs significantly less. And the economy appears to be turning a corner.
“People are outpriced in Manhattan, so they’re moving here,” Benaim said.
He said he is particularly excited by two TF Cornerstone projects on the waterfront that will add about 700 rental units to the market.
That’s in addition to a series of condos and residential towers, boutique buildings and Hunter’s Point South, which will add another roughly 5,000 units. About two-thirds of the apartments will be set aside for low- and middle-income residents.
The first phase of the project, which includes two residential towers and a combined intermediate and high school, is expected to be completed in 2014.
JetBlue recently moved its headquarters to Queens Plaza and the City University of New York School of Law is also planning to relocate to the community.
“You walk around and you can actually feel the boom over here. Everywhere you look there’s a crane,” Benaim said.
