New York City hotel watchers have been warning of a glut since back when the New York Sun was still publishing, but so far, builders have not been deterred. The latest front in hotel construction is industrial neighborhoods in close-in locations in the outer boroughs, with Long Island City and adjacent neighborhoods seen as particularly attractive, with their easy transit access to Midtown and “M” zoning that rules out more lucrative residential uses.
Dutch Kills, a micro-‘hood centered around Queensboro Plaza, has, despite also being zoned for housing, attracted a fair amount of hotel development. And, according to a permit application filed today, another new hotel is planned, at 39-08 29th Street – right next to the Nesva Hotel, opened in 2012, and across the street from an even larger Holiday Inn.
The hotel planned for 39-08 29th Street would have 30 rooms divided over nearly 15,000 square feet of commercial space. (The owner appears to have purchased some air rights, because the proposed density – it’s planned to have a floor area ratio of nearly three – is 50 percent more than normally allowed in the mixed-use M1-2/R5D zone.) The six-story building would have hotel uses on its first five floors, and a “photo and video recording studio” on the sixth, per the Schedule A filing.
The property’s owner is listed as Nestor Varela, and the designer as prolific outer borough architect Gerald Caliendo. The 50-foot-wide parcel, which includes a nearly vacant lot with a garage and another lot with a two-story prewar building (demolition permits for both were filed yesterday), was acquired in 2012 for $850,000.
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