Rumblings of demolition are picking up.

In the last few weeks, the news that the smokestacks over LIC would be either knocked down or just transformed into a glass box penthouse by developers (net-net: the power plant to become housing). All last year, the ground clearing next to the Queens West buildings.

And now, a reader writes: "Tennis bubble next to con ed demolished. what is happening at site?"

LICNYC answers: two condo buildings to rise soon.

From the NYT article last May:

Kathleen Voorhees, a spokeswoman for Vernon Realty, said the project at the tennis club site is the first in New York City for the group, which has developed 4,500 residences in southern New Jersey. Andrew J. Gerringer, a managing director at the Douglas Elliman brokerage, the project's sales agent, said that ''it is clear with areas like Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that people will go to new areas as established ones become less affordable.''

Mr. Gerringer said prices have not been set, but if sold today the apartments in the towers would cost in the $600-a-square-foot range, or about $720,000 for an average 1,200-square-foot two-bedroom. That is two-thirds the cost of a similar-size Manhattan apartment, he said.

Jay Valgora, a principal of V Studio, the project architect, said it has been designed with ''contemporary architecture that evokes New York's classic apartment buildings,'' yet blends with the city and the nearby neighborhood.

Of the six buildings, which will flank a road to be carved through the site, the two towers will be nearest the water and reflective of those across the river in Manhattan. The four other structures will be eight stories each, to fit with the low-rise scale of Long Island City.

Those buildings will contain 14 town houses with stoops and private gardens, topped by apartments. They will also have ground-floor stores, Mr. Valgora said, creating a street scene. There will also be more than two acres of open space, including a one-acre roof garden.

The planned rental buildings at Queens West will join the two residential buildings that have been built there since 1997. One is a 521-apartment co-operative, the other a 372-unit rental.

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