The development boom in Long Island City has gotten so hot that even small, relatively undesirable sites near Court Square are sprouting apartment buildings. Yesterday we spotted applications for a seven-story, mixed-use development at 21-59 44th Drive, on the corner of 23rd Street.
While 2014 was a banner year for new building filings in the five boroughs with 44,817 new units entering the DOB pipeline, 2015 saw a substantial decrease in activity. With 33,973 units filed in new developments over the course of last year, year-over-year filings decreased by almost 25%.
Property owner Larry Cerullo has filed applications for a six-story, three-unit mixed-use building at 40-19 27th Street, in the Queens Plaza section of Long Island City. The project will measure 8,291 square feet in total, with 2,000 square feet of manufacturing space planned on the ground and mezzanine levels, 1,275 square feet of commercial space on the first floor, followed by 4,018 square feet of residential space on the floors above. The units will average 1,339 square feet apiece, which means condos are probably in the works. Bluarch Architecture is designing. An existing two-story house must first be demolished.
Over the summer, foundation work began on Ekstein Development’s nine-story, 86-unit residential building at 25-19 43rd Avenue, in Long Island City’s Court Square neighborhood. Steel beams and rebar are now a floor above street level, according to The Court Square Blog. The 90,173 square-foot project will have 68,145 square feet of residential space and is being designed by GF55 Partners. Dubbed Dutch LIC, the residential units will be condominiums, ranging from studios to two-bedrooms. Completion is currently expected in January of 2017.
Back in April of 2014, YIMBY brought you news of Ciampa Organization’s planned 10-story residential building at 41-29 24th Street, in Long Island City’s Queens Plaza neighborhood. The building is dubbed Package Square West, and it appears to have been scaled down from its initial 150-foot-wide, 94,845 square-foot dimensions. The latest filings – which are also plagued with a slew of violations – call for 79 units (down from 126) spread across 67,059 square feet. That means units would average 849 square feet apiece. Foundation work began in late 2014, and today the project stands two stories above street level, The Court Square Blog reports. According to zoning diagrams, a 51-foot-wide piece of the site will be backfilled and made into a side yard. Fresh Meadows-based Fakler, Eliason & Porcelli is the architect of record.
