Illustration courtesy of the Queens Development Group.
Renderings of a proposed redevelopment of Willets Point headed by a joint venture from the Related Co. and Sterling Equities.
Citibank Building is about to make some new friends.
From Long Island City to Hunters Point South, Queens mega-developments — some soaring 40 stories or more — are sprouting up across the borough, promising to transform one of New York City’s least distinguished skylines.
“It’s going to put eyeballs on Queens,” said real estate appraiser Jonathan Miller of the gravity defying new additions now under construction in Queens. “It’s just not on everybody’s radar the way Brooklyn and Manhattan are.”
Destined to become Queens’ tallest residential building when its completed in 2016, a 500-foot-tall skyscraper being helmed by Rockrose Development will stand side by side the Citibank Building in Long Island City.
At 658 feet tall, that 24-year-old skyscraper — officially known as 1 Court Square — was erected in 1990 amidst what real estate professionals at the time predicted would be a major building boom in Queens. That boom never came.
“After the financial crash of 2008, people were a little slow to start developing because it wasn’t that easy to finance a 40- or 50-story tower,” said Modern Spaces real estate broker Eric Benaim, who specializes in Long Island City. “But now banks are a little more lenient. There’s going to be a lot more skyscrapers in that area.”
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Only five blocks away, a pair of 41- and 48-story towers are to rise from the ashes of 5Pointz, the famed graffiti mecca the owners of the site are razing near Jackson Ave.
The $500 million G M Realty project will include roughly 1,000 new housing units in the luxury complex that will include a tennis court, pool and billiards rooms.
“It’s going to spur development,” said GM Realty president Jerry Wolkoff. “It’ll bring a tremendous amount of people.”
At its tallest, the retail and residential complex planned for Hunters Point South will soar 41 stories once the first two phases of the project are completed within five years.
The 30-acre waterfront complex will add about 5,000 new apartments, 60% of which will be affordable housing, the largest such swath of units built since the early 1970s.
Meanwhile, a $3 billion Willets Point project, near Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, will create another 2,500 housing units in buildings growing as high as 20 stories.
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The building, targeted for a Citi Field parking lot, will add more than a million square feet of retail space when its completed in 2028, officials have said.
“Queens is undergoing significant economic growth right now,” said city Economic Development Corp. spokeswoman Kate Blumm. “Hunters Point and Willets Point are creating entirely new neighborhoods.”
But not everyone is a fan of the Queens building boom.
“These big developments are definitely going to change these communities forever,” said local activist and Stony Brook University professor Donovan Finn. “The question is what they will offer the people who are already there.”
He’s worried the projects will introduce big-box national chain stores to the borough, hurting mom-and-pop shops.
“The danger here is throwing this stuff up to make up a buck regardless of the ramifications,” Finn said.
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But in some neighborhoods affected by construction, developers hope to spur new business — not destroy it.
The $1 billion Hallets Point project will spread 2,400 apartments across seven towers, some reaching 31 stories. It will also include a new school and waterfront promenade with shops and cafes. Construction is slated to begin next year and be completed by 2022.
“It’s going to revive a community that’s been relatively isolated,” said Joel Bergstein, president of Lincoln Equities Group, which is developing the project.
Next door, another five towers are expected to be completed by 2015. The Astoria Cove project will add an additional 2,400 units, with buildings topping 30 stories.
Meanwhile, construction will begin this spring on the $850 million Flushing Commons plan, which will replace a parking lot in the neighborhood with 600 luxury condos.
The project will include a YMCA, the creation of a 1.5-acre town square, 1,600-space parking lot and a retail complex.
It’s slated to be completed by 2021.
