NEW YORK CITY—With development parcels becoming scarce along the East River waterfront in Northwestern Queens, Astoria—the area known for Greek culture, ethnic cuisine and family-owned low-rises and rowhouses— may be going vertical, and soon. Given a steady uptick in renters as well as buyers in the neighborhood, investor and developer appetite is increasing steadily toward the area's eastern end near the Triboro Bridge.
The trend comes two years after the City Council approved a rezoning plan for a 238-block swath stretching from the East River roughly from 36th to 20th Avenue and as far east as the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and LaGuardia Airport. It aims to preserve the existing scale and character of the area, while paving the way for a "modest increase" in residential and commercial density.
Now following the rezoning, several have thrown their hats in the ring to develop the last remaining waterfront parcels. Lincoln Equities Group, based in Rutherford, NJ, plans to construct a $1-billion mixed-use development on a seven-acre tract in Hallets Point, with retail space and seven multifamily towers with some 2,200 units.
While all necessary local and state approvals for the project have not been secured yet, a bill has been introduced by the state legislature to allow the land at Hallets Point— formerly utilized as industrial space—to be transferred from state to city control. At the same time, the plan has received support from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and local officials such as Sen. Michael Gianaris.
With Lincoln going through the landuse process and expecting to break ground next year, the Manhattan office of Canadianbased brokerage Avison Young has been tapped to market a nearby site at 3-15 26th Ave. between Hallets Cove and Pots Cove. Arthur Mirante, tri-state president of AY, says that if Lincoln's project is approved, the development will be a "perfect set-up" for the build-out and rezoning for the rest of that peninsula to residential.
"Whether or not this master plan will get done, either way this is prime to go, and city planning wants it to go," he says. "It explains why we're getting a lot of interest from investors and developers in our offering."
Jon Epstein, an AY principal who is marketing the site along with Mirante, Vincent Carrega, Neil Helman and Charles Kingsley, tells Forum that the team is targeting a local/regional developer that understands the changing dynamics of the borough. The asking price is $100 per buildable foot. "Our site is ideal for people who work in Queens and are employees of the new Cornell-Technion University on Roosevelt Island," he says.
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