It looks like a skyscraper could still rise on the development site behind Long Island City’s landmark Clock Tower. The Real Deal reports that the Durst Organization purchased the property from original developers Property Markets Group and the Hakim Organization, and will turn the site into a huge rental building spanning more than 1 million square feet.
The New York Times has a bit more on how the deal came to be: PMG and Hakim had spent several years assembling parcels of land to create an L-shaped mega-tower that would wrap around the LIC clock tower, which became a NYC landmark in 2015. But back in July, facing financial issues, the development site became available because, according to PMG’s Kevin Maloney, “we didn’t have the horsepower to get it done.” (But the developers are still working on a 44-story tower close to Silvercup Studios.)
The Dursts snapped up the property for $173.5 million, according to the Times, and are still considering building a more than 900-foot tower on the site. When the project was first revealed in 2015, that would’ve made the building the tallest one outside of Manhattan, but times change: JDS’s Brooklyn supertall has since eclipsed that title.
As the Times points out, this is yet another sign of what has been known for some time: the demand for high-end residential buildings isn’t exactly outpacing supply, and developers are jettisoning or holding off on building pricey properties. But Maloney sees one upside in this turbulence: “The good news is that land prices should start coming down.” (Well, it’s good news for developers, anyway.)
