Ozone Park, a sprawling neighborhood in southern Queens, remains a working-class immigrant stronghold. Longtime Italian homeowners mingle with a fast-growing South Asian and Latino community, and many of the neighborhood’s new arrivals come from India, Bangladesh, Colombia, and Ecuador.
But much of the zoning in this neighborhood of one- and two-family homes doesn’t allow for growth. However, one developer managed to snag a parcel along bustling Liberty Avenue, beneath the elevated A train tracks.
New building applications were filed earlier this week for a five-story residential building at 89-19 Liberty Avenue, at the corner of 90th Street. It would have 27 apartments divided across 22,350 square feet of residential space, for typical apartments measuring 825 square feet.
The ground floor would have five units and a rec room, followed by six units apiece on each of the upper floors. The project will also include parking for 15 cars, which is required by zoning.
Jamaica-based Joseph Ferrara is listed as the owner, and Garden City, N.Y.-based Salvatore Ferrara is the architect. The Ferraras have owned the property and run a building supply business there since 1969.
When Ozone Park was rezoned in 2013, this stretch of Liberty Avenue got a major upgrade. The north side of Liberty was only zoned for one- and two-family houses, and now mid-rise residential buildings can be built there.
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Many different countries in the neighborhood, so that’s they want to catch property on their own.