While developments from Downtown Brooklyn to Hudson Yards are transforming skylines and making headlines, smaller scale projects are also capable of altering neighborhood paradigms. Along Queens Boulevard, in the borderlands of Woodside and Sunnyside, this is now the case, and new buildings are changing a former no-mans-land into an increasingly popular neighborhood.
At 42-60 Crescent Street, the 10-story, 37-unit Factory House is inching closer to its 2016 completion. The one- to four-bedroom, 626 to 2,102 square-foot condominiums are available for anywhere between $670,000 and $1.35 million. Rising Developers Group serves as both the designer and the developer, while Douglas Elliman is handling sales and marketing.
Back in 2009, photographer Nathan Kensinger visited a neighborhood along the Brooklyn-Queens border that locals call “The Hole.” The small, neglected triangle between East New York, Howard Beach, and Lindenwood sits 30 feet below grade and only a few feet above the water table, and its abandoned development sites became reputed dumping grounds for Mafia hitmen. But new development is finally is finally coming to the area just south of The Hole. A new building application was filed to erect a four-story apartment building at 149-27 78th Street, on a large collection of vacant lots bordered by Loring Avenue, 78th (or Sapphire) Street, 79th Street and Stanley Avenue.
Wang Chun Hua, as Z & W of New York LLC, has filed permits for a new seven-story, 30-unit mixed-use building at 139-20 34th Avenue in Flushing. That’s between Leavitt Street and Union Street, about a 15-minute walk from the 7 train at Main St. The 69-foot-tall project would cover 27,611 square feet with residential square footage of 19,936. That means units averaging about 665 square feet. There would be five units each from the second to the seventh floor. The first floor would have 7,675 square feet of community facility space for a day care for ages two to six. There would also be parking for 20 cars and 15 bicycles. Cheng-Yang Lee is the applicant of record. Demolition permits were issued earlier this year for the two-story house occupying the site.
Permits have been filed to construct a new two-family home at 147-53A 231st Street in the Brookville section of Queens. The house would be 21-feet-tall with the two units spread across 2,726 square feet. That would mean an average unit size of 1,363 square feet. Each floor would have one unit and the first floor unit would also have access to the cellar. The Schedule A seems to indicate one parking space on the property. It is not near a subway line, but the Q111 and Q114 bus lines can be picked up less than a block away on 147th Avenue. Both Idlewild Park and Brookville Park are in close proximity. Sam Muratov is apparently the developer with Queens-based Russell L. Dance III the applicant of record. An existing 1.5-story home must be demolished.
