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Eric Benaim from Nest Seekers International is a new LICNYC sponsor. They are opening an office on Vernon Boulevard shortly, in the old Eclaire storefront next to Bella Via, and generally getting higher profile in the neighborhood. Say hi to Eric when you see him around.
You can call Eric at 917 463 9583 or visit his listings site.
The NYC Comptroller -- William Thompson -- came to LIC this past week to suggest all kinds of "improvements" that strike LICNYC as unpleasant: more affordable housing and more power plants. Sounds exciting. Seems fashionable these days to ask for cheap housing to be built in LIC...when all the rest of Queens is already full of it. More.
The affordable housing is already in the works. Bloomberg announced a plan with the Port Authority to build 5,000 units on this site, which was once part of the Olympic bid plan's Olympic Village.
Click "continue" for a map of the 2nd street site.
This past week the architect of the fabulous Pompidou Center in Paris -- Richard Rodgers -- won the highest award in architecture, the Pritzker prize. Read about it in the Times.
But did you know he has a project coming soon to our very own LIC -- the Silvercup Studios project on the waterfront.
LICNYC can hardly wait for all the cinema and boardwalks and action and all that. We're just wondering where they will fit it next to that heap of dirt and weird power station stuff near the QBB. No, we're actually just wondering when all this will happen as talk of Silvercup's project has been around for a long time. Well, check this out for more.
The dailies are noticing. East of the East River is changing fast.
The prices at 5SL in particular have been rising quite a bit since they began offering. The average price was closer to $700 per square foot a month or two back, and now it's closer to $750 or $760. Take a look at the data.
Big line up outside the 10-50 Jackson office on opening day.
The building projects around Long Island City seem to be moving fast. Here is an eyewitness report from day one of 10-50 Jackson's marketing:
"Hey no 10-50 is not my project, i did 2 deals there the first day it opened, i got there at 6:30am and was the third person online, the first day there were more then 90 people dying to get a unit, it was nuts, the way there doing it, is that they are not selling any units during the week, but only on Sundays from 1-4 and they are not taking any appointments, so technically yesterday was the third day, even though it opened three weeks ago, yesterday there were a bunch more people there, the first one arriving at 6:30am Saturday morning, by 11pm Saturday night, there were already 8 people online, camping out. By 730am they were up to 18 people. Im not sure what the current sales stats are but as of Saturday they were 50% Sold, they only release about 16 units each day, they probably are at least 75% sold..."
"Ive been in real estate for 5 years now, 2005 with the absolute best year ever, but even then in Manhattan i never saw people lining up 31 hours before in the cold and snow just to buy an apartment... I have a picture from the first day it opened if you want..."
Results
10-50 Jackson Seems to be selling out about 50% of what they make available
The Galaxy Sold out
The GantryApparently nearly sold out
5SL 75% sold out
Echelon 80%+ is sold out.
Badge Building Only a couple of units left
Fusion LIC Apparenlty also 50%+ sold
Purves Street Sold
Arris Nearly sold out
Apparently, there is lots of appetite for projects here in the hood. And the prices...well, they keep climbing.
TAKENOBU
http://www.takenobumusic.com/
"Nick Ogawa is a genuine talent...While the songwriter can clearly hold his own solo, like a modern day Robert Johnson, his heart lies in the complex, orchestral arrangements that Sufjan Stevens is so fond of. .... The impressive performances and fidelity suggest the new project will be nothing short of astounding" -JEZEBEL MUSIC
THE MUSICAL PROVERBIAL KNEE-HIGHS
http://www.myspace.com/themusicalproverbialkneehighs
"Craig Chesler is an upbeat performer with a love for Brian Wilson-esque chord modulations" -JEZEBEL MUSIC
KELLI RAE POWELL
http://www.kelliraepowell.com
"From the moment she stepped onstage with that red & white polka dotted dress and her ukulele until the final curtsy (loved that), the heat was on." -JEZEBEL MUSIC
@ THE CREEK AND THE CAVE
http://www.creekandthecave.com
10-93 Jackson Avenue, Hunters Point, Long Island City, Queens, NYC G to 21 St (Van Alst)
7 to Vernon-Jackson
E-V to 23 St/Ely Ave
B-61 bus to the Queens end of the Pulaski Bridge
9 PM sharp! $5! New BZ-DIY colored lighting scheme! Hawt bartender Zoe plays all your indie-rawk faves in the bar downstairs! Erotic Photo Hunt! Billiards! Mexicanesque grub! Booze!
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*Vote on your favorite slogan!*
1) One stop from Brooklyn. One stop from Manhattan. Zero stops from awesome.
2) Queens is the new awesome!
*Yes, the word "awesome" is mandatory!*
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One monster project planned for Pearson Street, near Court Square, seems stalled. Apparently the builders have been shopping their site and approved plans. If someone takes them up on it -- they don't have the funding to do the deal themselves? -- there will be a 20+ story project with swimming pool, gym, movie theater. Sounds impossible but hey, people say anything these days.
Regional journalists have been writing up the hood as exotic Tahiti-like destination on the shores of Manhattan.
Boston Globe piece. "Home to 250,000 residents, Astoria and neighboring Long Island City are thriving urban communities with a small-town feel, where the sidewalks are walkable and there is plenty to walk to." The piece is sort of Astoria focused, as the destinations mentioned are limited to Museum of Moving Image and nearby restaurants.
Times Ledger on a second museum move. "The Museum of African Art will follow the Museum of Modern Art's lead as it prepares to move out of its Long Island City site to relocate along Manhattan's Museum Mile at Fifth Avenue and 110th Street after nearly five years in Queens."
Landmark status for the former piano factory near Socrates. It's going condo, by the way.
Plus, more hotels. "From Long Island City to Forest Hills, Flushing to Maspeth and Jamaica, hotels are popping up across the borough.
The area around Kennedy Airport has seen five new hotels open - a sixth is under construction - in the last several years, according to the Hotel Association of New York City."
Our friendly local family practitioner managed to get a big write-up about LIC real estate hunting in the Times.
The Early Bird Catches the Condo - New York Times
THE more information, the better. That was Dr. Moitri Chowdhury Savard’s motto when it came to hunting for an apartment for her family.
She happily spent hours online, looking for just the right place — space for a little boy plus visiting grandparents in a cohesive urban neighborhood with a good public school. She scrutinized buildings on StreetEasy.com, compared prices on MillerSamuel.com, and investigated schools on InsideSchools.org.
Her husband, Dr. Peter Savard, barely thought about the hunt, though he had faint notions of a bucolic suburb — with fishing holes and playing fields — as a good place for their young son. “It is sort of an obsessive hobby for her — looking for places to live — and certainly not an obsession of mine,” he said. “I think I am typical of a lot of men and don’t make decisions until they are forced upon me.”
Decision time, however, was approaching. The Savards had to vacate their hospital housing by June 30 of last year, when he finished his residency in anesthesiology at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell.
Dr. Moitri Savard, 35, grew up in Yonkers. Dr. Peter Savard, 36, is from Barrington, R.I. After Harvard and Union Colleges, respectively, they met in medical school at State University at Stony Brook. Later, they spent three years in Albuquerque, doing their residencies at the University of New Mexico Hospital.
After returning to New York in 2003, they paid $1,600 for a two-bedroom at York Avenue and 70th Street, the “best subsidized rental housing on the planet,” she said. There was a day care center in the building for Milan, now nearly 3. They even had a parking space for the car they had bought in New Mexico.
Because Dr. Moitri Savard is an early bird and a planner, she began the hunt with nearly a year to go and a budget of around $750,000.
When they saw a two-bedroom co-op on upper Fifth Avenue, they realized having one bathroom was a deal breaker. “I wasn’t going to do one bathroom with guests,” he said. “I find that so uncomfortable, waiting when you have to go to work.”
Manhattan co-ops seemed small. Besides, with so much debt from school loans, it seemed unlikely they would gain board approval. Condominiums were unaffordable.
So she drew a circle on a map with a three-mile radius from the hospital. Intriguingly, it included Long Island City, Queens. She started gathering information. “There wasn’t much there,” she said. “I vaguely remember signing up for some new development.”
You can sign up for fresh produce from a nearby farm (on the Long Island North Fork) and organic to boot. Sign up for a "share" at their site.
LIC's bull market continues. A recent visit to the rather modest sales office for the impressive-looking 5SL confirms. Asking in the 750s per sq ft on many of the units (and the ceilings are only 9 ft high!).
You thought 2006 was busy. Wait till you see 2007.
It will be a very different place in the near future. Prostitutes, strip clubs and Riker's releasees...say hello to View59's condo crowd.
Done. Now let's see if all those Citi and UNFCU bodies will start drawing fancy lunch places.
This garage is coming down soon. And up will go a million square feet right at the edge of Jackson and the Queensboro bridge outlet.
LICNYC doesn't love that there is a discount crapola store on Jackson, next to Vine.
But we do like the convenient ultra cheap helium balloons and basic party favors. Sort of.
Coming next week at AMMI is a series on fashion in film. These series are great -- so expansive and full of terrific commentary. Starts March 17th. Pick your favorite! Check out the details.
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FASHION IN FILM FESTIVAL
March 17 - 25, 2007
This eclectic series of feature films, documentaries, video art, experimental film, newsreels, and silent cinema investigates how the moving image represents and interprets fashion as a concept, an industry, and a cultural form.
Socrates Sculpture Park was the big Armory Art Show last weekend.
As the weather warms up, you should check out the park. Lots of good stuff there.
You'll have to walk 4 blocks to the E!