Developers are slowly starting to pay attention to Kew Gardens, a middle-class neighborhood in eastern Queens with a burgeoning immigrant population. The latest proof comes in the form of a new building application for an eight-story apartment building at 83-67 116th Street, just east of Forest Park.
Three of the city’s top officials in transportation, housing, and economic development laid out the details of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s controversial plan to build a streetcar line along the waterfront from Sunset Park, Brooklyn to Astoria, Queens during a meeting with reporters on Friday.
The Durst Organization has just stopped construction on its sprawling megaproject on Hallets Point in Astoria, saying the taxes are “crushing” without the 421-a tax exemption. But developers are still rushing to build along the waterfront in the western Queens neighborhood. Developer Wayne Fried has filed applications for a seven-story, mixed-use building at 30-07 Vernon Boulevard, right next to Hallets Point and the East River.
Last September, L+M Development filed plans for a 12-story affordable rental building on a vacant lot next to St. Barnabas Hospital in the Belmont section of the Bronx. Now the hospital is developing a large residential project with two towers on another empty plot at 4507 Third Avenue, between 182nd and 183rd streets.
Ironstate shelled out $150 million last year for a 49-year lease at 363 Lafayette Street in NoHo, right in the heart of New York University’s territory. Now, they’re planning a nine-story office building on the site between Great Jones and Bond streets.
