Jackson Avenue is filling up fast. There are five, count 'em, five huge buildings going up on or right near Jackson. It's a big change. Vernon is the new Smith Street...what is Jackson? And where are the shop keepers? So far there is that odd fusion Asian place called BANY and there is the lovely wine shop Vine, and... well, we're waiting dear enterprising shopkeepers.

Posted by Amol at 09:48 PM | Link | Save to | | Email this

New stores -- a pharmacy (Duane Reade) and some kind of market (not Amish Market)?

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The Power House, which was once an extremely beautiful and iconic part of LIC, has become an absolutely disgusting monstrosity. Maybe it's better from the inside.

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Here is a big loft for rent in LIC -- in LICNYC's biased opinion, it's an amazing bargain and an unbelievable loft + terrace at any price. 1,000 sq ft loft, 1,000 sq ft terrace terrace with bbq and deck furniture included, washer/dryer, newly painted and tidy place, $2795.

Check out the craiglist listing

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You may be scratching your head -- national market is down, mortgages are hard to get, recession fears loom, the big NY banks are hurting and trimming jobs...though on the other hand, the development pace and quality in LIC is unprecedented, the bargains vs. Manhattan are huge, the NY market overall looks very stable, the job market and economy in NY seems OK, and that crazy Euro and crazier barrel of Saudi crude has kept money flowing into the NY economy.

Which way? Up or down?

Thanksfully, the folks marketing the Hunters Point Condos are offering some help: "We are holding an event for first time home buyers called INFO FEST 2008 on March 29, 2008 at LUCKY MOJO from 1pm to 4pm. Lunch, Drinks, Music and Guest Speakers will be served. Speakers will include architecture critic Carter B. Horsley, Professor Ciro Trotta of NYU and a guest speaker from the Long Island City Cultural Alliance. INFO FEST 2008 is a response to 1000s' of inquiries for Hunters Point Condos from purchasers who requested us to separate fact from fiction in the financial markets and to learn about LIC. " Email Patrick from their firm for details -- PSmith at bhsusa dot com. We're guessing he'll have 1,000 reasons per square foot to attend.

Posted by Amol at 09:58 PM | Link | Save to | | Email this

It's hard to know who to favor in this contest between the silly and ignoble "green" Casa Vizcaya condo project and the possibly more silly though artistically virtuous Kenny Greenberg and partner.

Kenny is a well-regarded neon artist and also part of the artistic community in LIC generally -- his studio is next to Art-O-Mat, which hosts lots of idiosyncratic hobbyist-type events and artworks. And he's the cantankerous proprietor of the very mid-1990s LICWeb, website. A site so firmly opposed to any change in LIC that it has become an irrelevant historical artifact -- check it out.

Apparently Kenny is also one of those "crazy old ladies" next door to some construction happening nearby. Read about it.

Why so mean to Kenny? LICNYC remembers all the sour emails we got when we were starting out this little site....

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The Times notes that people make homes in the unlikeliest places. The Power House high priced condos are going up in the LIRR's former power plant. Victim of clean air becomes New York boomtime beneficiary?

While we're at it, how about the victim of offshoring, former electric plant and even before that former printing plant -- the Arris Lofts. (By the way, remember this dude from Market Anomaly who hated on Arris about 18 months ago -- link -- apparently prices have increased 70% since his visit, while US prices have fallen.)

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Most folks haven't been around LIC long enough to have particularly strong political inclinations. But the congestion pricing stuff of recent discussion actually means a lot for LIC -- it means Long Islanders dodging the driving toll and parking even more daytime cars on our side of the bridges and tunnels.

Enter dealmaking, a plan to require residential parking permits for street parking here in LIC:
So for communities such as Forest Hills, downtown Flushing and Long Island City, this plan and its color-coded decals may give local residents a chance at getting that elusive parking spot, or at least making sure drivers from elsewhere in Queens or Nassau or Suffolk counties cannot take all the spaces in the neighborhood.

Under the program, residents with a permit displayed on their vehicle would be able to park in a residential parking permit-designated space all day. Cars without a permit for a particular zone would not be able to park in RPP spaces during a set 90-minute time period, which is up to the communities to establish. Visitors coming to neighborhoods to shop, use services or conduct business would be restricted from the RPP spaces during the 90-minute period, but could park there at other times of the day.

More

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More of the occasional "it's the next big thing!!!" stuff on LIC, for your friends who insisted on paying $1,100 per square foot in Brooklyn Heights

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This week our neighborly journos have been reporting that personalities as diverse as Clay Aiken, Placido Domingo, and DJ Danny Tenaglia (er, who?) have bought in the Arris. Of course the significance of all these folks to progressive culture pales in comparison to Bjork and Matthew Barney a few blocks away (LICNYC, Curbed, but so what.

Meanwhile, the Silvercup project looks like it's not quite on track. But what project ever is? The bloggers have to blog about something don't they? Might as well ask provocative questions about soil quality...one, another.

Though of course one musn't forget that Silvercup is busier than ever (even than when Sex and the City and Sopranos filmed there), what with hits like 30 Rock and Gossip Girls filming away.

Posted by Amol at 06:55 PM | Link | Save to | | Email this

They used to make car parts at the Standard Motor Parts company in LIC on Northern Blvd. No longer -- but you can buy them at the Major car dealerships further down that street.

The factory is heading to Mexico. The building has been sold for....$40 million. Which, for the 300,000 square feet, makes approximately $133 per square foot. That's just about what bulidings are going for around LIC these days.

Of course, residential stuff is going for $700 or more. So you see the opportunity for developers.

More from the Daily News

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Big views are a big part of LIC, and so are the great outdoors. Lots of the projects have focused on making good use of their roofs to provide terrace space. Interestingly, there were a few near the waterfront like 5SL or Gantry that seemed to pitch cabanas and so forth.

The Hunters View Condos on Jackson Ave have rooftop cabanas too -- except much higher up. Check out these pics they sent to LICNYC.

Posted by Amol at 07:40 PM | Link | Save to | | Email this

The LIC mommies group -- Little in the City ("LIC", get it?) is now nearly 50 members. That compares pretty well to the 175 member Upper West Side moms support group. Verdict? We increasingly in a hybrid industrial/artist-new family terrain.

Watch out for those speeding Bugaboos!

PS, to join go to Little in the City meetup

Posted by Amol at 07:26 PM | Link | Save to | | Email this

One of NYCs great struggles is hotel accomodations, especially as the holidays roll around. Call up in midtown and you will find $400 and $700 per night rates. Lately, there is a more value-oriented hotel boom in LIC. For example, this place:

The Comfort Inn near Queens Plaza. It ain't great. But it's fine. We had a chance to talk to someone who stayed there recently and they weren't thrilled. The TV didn't have cable, the room was pretty noisy with street noise, and well...it was a bargain at least! Only $120 or so per night. And just steps from the subway. A link

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Two of the biggest buildings going up on Jackson Ave at the moment are part of a concept called the Hunters Point Condos. As they topped out this past week, they had a little shindig at PS1 to celebrate and had their various buyers along. Apparently they are nearing 1/2 sold out after 6 weeks on sale. Pretty good sign for LIC projects, if you want LICNYC's opinion.

(The party was at PS1's cafe this past Friday, and they announced some contributions to the museum.)

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Forgotten NY is unhappy about Corcoran's (a wacky lady, by any measure - check out the 'do) latest advice to Queensites - pave away

Of course, when you walk down an unpaved street with little runty yards...infested with unpleasant creatures...one gets the motivation.

And of course Forgotten NY chooses to focus on the Fedders-architecture developments with no grass. Yes, they are horrible. But of course, none of Brownstone Brooklyn has grassy front yards. And that stuff looks mighty fine. For example, we have our own stretch or two of it around 21st Street.

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LICNYC hears from the brokers that they are soon topping off the first of the three mongo HPC projects going -- near the Pulaski and the corner of 50th and Vernon.

They have just been racing up this fall. Soon we'll get to see their cladding.

Posted by Amol at 09:52 AM | Link | Save to | | Email this

Down goes the the old LIC bank at Queens Plaza. To make way for a hotel. There is a hotel building boom in LIC -- 3 new economy hotels around Queens Plaza and East, plus a couple that have been talked about over the last year closer to the waterfront. Background from LICNYC.

Have you had a walk around there lately?

Man!

There is View59 and Crescent Club LIC and QueensPlaza...and of course the big MetLife building that anchored the whole "North LIC" movement.

And south of the boulevard, there is Fusion LIC and katty-corner is the old Times-Ledger (?) building that is becoming a condo makeover itself.

One or two more blocks and there is the big parking garage on Jackson that is slowing shutting down and making way for a big office project. And not too far again to Court Square/Purves Street/Arris/Citibank/etc etc.

Watch out for the east end of LIC.

Posted by Amol at 09:47 AM | Link | Save to | | Email this

There are lots of places to...park!

Surely some City zoning official was bribed to allow those East Coast starchitects to put up these eye-level horrors.

Posted by Amol at 10:59 PM | Link | Save to | | Email this

A whole row of shops seems to be shut permanently. Japanese hotel chain coming to Court Square...?

Meanwhile, a big old building was just demolished next to Arris. Another monster condo likely to come to Purves, and surround Sculpture Center further.

Posted by Amol at 10:34 PM | Link | Save to | | Email this

The Hunters Point Condo trio got tagged in a Post writeup about how strong the market is. Selling fast must mean the stock market is up. (It is.)

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The enduring, idiotic myth that there is "no supermarket in LIC" seems to be a creation of real estate agents. There is no supermarket within 4 blocks of the big Queens West towers. That is true. But right in the center of LIC on 21st Street is a perfectly good and improving C-Town.

How many Manhattan apartment buildings have a grocery store in the basement? Few! How many grocery stores are there within 4 blocks of...say, Park Avenue and 40th Street? None!

Yet, the NYT seems to think it's fit enough to print...

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Posted by Amol at 02:41 PM | Link | Save to | | Email this

Apparently the first day of the Hunters Point Condos sales sold out all 40 units. They have about 160 left. Get 'em while they're hot. See the pictures of the sites below -- some good locations!

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The skinny on LIC.... -- statistically speaking

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As we head into Autumn, looks like the Hunters Point guys are going to make opening day Sep 29th. A few condo-watchers passed on the news. Strangely -- invitation only! Apparently you'll have to sign up in advance at their website. (Check out the models looking serious at the art gallery while you are there. They definitely made an effort to go beyond the stock pictures of Tournesol to tell the story... :)

Meanwhile, the Crescent Club building on Queens Plaza, in the somewhat more "edgy" North LIC is coming due soon as well. Keep a look out.

Post in the forums if you have visited them.

Posted by Amol at 10:39 AM | Link | Save to | | Email this

Residents of Long Island City, Queens, can also have the Manhattan skyline as a backdrop, but most of the high-rises on the water are rentals. Citylights, a 10-year-old building at 4-74 48th Avenue, has a two-bedroom, two-bath co-op on the 38th floor on the market for $560,000. The living room looks out on the United Nations.

Less familiar but perhaps even more breathtaking are the views from the bedrooms and the terrace, stretching east onto Long Island, north toward the Bronx and south into Brooklyn.

More

Posted by Amol at 09:48 PM | Link | Save to | | Email this

The Purves buyers' forum is having a get-together: "If possible, can you post that the Purves Street condo buyers are getting together tomorrow evening, 7pm at Dominie's Hoek, 48-17 Vernon Blvd., between 48th and 49th Aves."

Posted by Amol at 01:51 PM | Link | Save to | | Email this

There's a new forum for the Fusion building near Queens Plaza.

Say hello to your neighbors if you are moving in there

Posted by Amol at 01:50 PM | Link | Save to | | Email this

Kind of an interesting multi-location condo project with one "brand", one marketer, and so on. See the multiple locations for the Hunters View and One Hunters Point projects.

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Posted by Amol at 11:46 AM | Link