The last time YIMBY checked out the progress at Long Island City’s Hyatt Place hotel at the end of April, the building was approaching its final floor. Since then, the structure has both topped-out and been enclosed within its curtain wall. The future 108-room hotel, developed by Prakash Patel and designed by Michael Kang Architect, looks ready to receive its exterior cladding.
When YIMBY last reported on the residential building at 41-04 27th Street in northern Long Island City, at the end of June, it was noted that the nine-story project reached its topmost point. In the two months that have passed, the concrete frame has been sheathed in a curtain wall that looks ready to receive its panel cladding. The 32-unit property, developed by Great Stone Development and designed by Tan Architect, stands at the intersection of 27th Street and 41st Avenue. In conjunction with its equally-new neighbors, the building scale makes for an appropriate transition between the dense skyscraper district of Court Square to the south, and the traditional, rowhome-lined blocks of Dutch Kills to the north.
The eight-story residential building at 42-83 Hunter Street, located in the interior of Long Island City’s Court Square district, has risen above the ground level. The steel structure has been assembled for the first of the building’s eventual eight levels. The Lions Group NYC is developing the 15,948-square-foot, 15-unit project, designed by Jon Yung’s My Architect PC. Lions Group II, LLC is listed as the general contractor. The glass façade of the slender mid-rise would open upon a pocket park, which allows for sweeping vistas of the Long Island City skyline and Midtown Manhattan beyond.
YIMBY readers may be getting used to announcements of Long Island City superlatives, such as the tallest hotel in Queens nearing completion close to the borough’s tallest residence, which was recently surpassed by the city’s tallest apartment building outside of Manhattan. Even against these headlines, the complex rising at 28-10 Jackson Avenue, designed by SLCE Architects, takes scale to a new level. With over 1,900 units, 28-10 Jackson Avenue nearly doubles the offerings of the massive, 974-unit Hayden under development a few blocks west.
The title of the city’s construction hotspot of the summer may go to the Long Island City block bound by 44th Drive, Jackson and Thomson avenues, and Purves Street. As recently as four years ago, only warehouses, auto shops and a handful of rowhomes graced the 1.8-acre trapezoid. In 2014, the 14-story 26-14 Jackson Avenue rose as a herald of greater things to come. The 27-story Harrison at 27-21 44th Drive topped out in June of this year, and the 27-story Watermark Court Square at 27-19 44th Drive, next door, caught up almost exactly two months later. But as those two towers still sport their ceremonial topping-out flags, they are about to be overtaken by 44-26 Purves Street. The project, developed by Brause Realty and the Gotham Organization, is rapidly approaching its final, 33-story height. Once the FXFOWLE-designed, 270-unit luxury rental reaches its topmost point, it will stand just under the 400-foot mark, becoming the sixth-tallest building on the flourishing Court Square skyline.
