Downtown Jamaica’s big, mixed-use developments are slowly inching towards reality, but further east along Hillside Avenue, small developments are growing, too. On Friday, plans were filed to expand a two-story office building at 168-30 89th Avenue into four stories of apartments.
Filings for new construction in Jamaica, Queens, have dropped off since the 421-a tax exemption expired in January. But one optimistic developer has taken the plunge and filed plans for a mixed-use building at 177-14 Wexford Terrace, on the southern edge of Jamaica Estates.
TCX Development is planning a 15-story, 72-key hotel at 92-18 150th Street, located at the corner of Archer Avenue in downtown Jamaica, strategically located two blocks from the Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer Station on the E/J/Z trains and five blocks from the Jamaica hub station on the Long Island Rail Road. The project, which does not currently have new building applications with the city’s Department of Buildings, should measure 35,000 square feet, with hotel rooms averaging 250 square feet apiece, Commercial Observer reports. It will feature a 2,000-square-foot rooftop bar and a 1,500-square-foot restaurant. ARC Architecture + Design Studio is responsible for the design. The developer has already demolished the site’s single-story predecessor. TCX acquired the site for $1.7 million in August of 2015.
Queens-based Mar and Mostak Inc. has filed applications for two two-story, two-family houses at 107-46 – 107-48 Union Hall Street, in Jamaica, located five blocks from the Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer Station in the E/J/Z trains. Each will measure 4,441 square feet, and, across both structures, the full-floor residential units should average 1,480 square feet apiece. The apartments will likely be geared towards families, and each unit will come with an off-street parking space. Akeeb B. Shekoni’s Jamaica-based Askon Architects is the architect of record. The 66-foot-wide lot is currently occupied by a two-story house. Demolition permits were filed in March to remove it.
Back in 2013, the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation (GJDC) and Blumenfeld Development Group signed an agreement to build a 160,000-square-foot retail complex accompanied by a 550-space parking garage across two vacant lots in downtown Jamaica, specifically at 90-01 168th Street and 90-02 168th Street. Then early last year, the developers said they would build an additional 105,000 square feet of retail space and an affordable residential building. DNAinfo now reports the 2013 deal has terminated, effectively halting any plans for the sites. At this point, the GJDC plans to release a new and updated Request for Proposals (RFP), that will more than likely include affordable housing, for both properties later this spring. Both lots are currently being used for surface parking.
