LONG ISLAND CITY REAL ESTATE BLOG

The Amish Market that is… The Amish Market will be setting up shop in the newest East Coast Building, originally it was supposed to be Jubilee, but now the word is in that the Amish Market is coming, they will be accompanying Duane Reade, Starbucks, The Recently opened Blue Streak Wine, in addition to a Japanese Fusion Restaurant, is Center Blvd the next Vernon Blvd? will just have to wait and see…

Well I was walking around Queens West today, when i noticed a new Crane.  Normally that wouldnt be to weird considering this is Long Island City, and there is construction every which way you look… But this one was at the Queens West Site, for the 5000 middle income housing… Are they starting to work on this? as i walked up to take a picture something else happend… Cement trucks started showing up. Looks like they are getting an early start, plans call for 5000 new apartments, with anywhere from 30-40 being at market rate and the rest middle income…. we will keep our eyes on this…

Well it’s move in day at Two Court Square, the new Citibank building in LIC, actually move in day was yesterday, but all the same. Citi employees will be moving into a new floor, every week for the next 2 months or so, and then on January construction starts on Phase 2, bringing the tower up to 38 stories….

After reading the curbed article on The Powerhouse, i decided to take a walk down there and see what was going on, to my surprise, they have just started installing the Windows, and i must say its looking pretty sexy… I think this is going to be an attractive building, the way Karl Fisher blended the old with the new is very nice.  I just cannot get enough of conversions, there each unique and very rarely have cookie cutter apartments… The masterplan for the project calls for another 250 units or so, spread in three different phases. This rendering was first brought to light on Queenswest.com, and shows a pretty attractive building, and the only other condo building offering a pool aside from The Arris.

 And as for that tennis park in front, the owner is the city and parks department i highly doubt they will ever sell it, just look at whats been going on the past few years, more parks have been revitalized and created then ever before in NYC history, thanks to Bloombergs goal for making parkland within a 10 minute walk from everyone.

About five weeks ago, the New York Times reported a story about the Bum of Long Island City, John Harte “The Unofficial Attendant of an Ad Hoc Parking Lot” Who had his 15 minutes of fame when this picture came out with his story in the Sunday Times

He would basically just save parking spots for people and in return would get food, clothes and money…Soon after that story came out a construction crew had come one day and just fenced him out.  He lives in this beatup car, at the lot next door, there putting up Condo’s, the very site where he said he was born on September 2nd 1935 and where he has made LIC his home for the past 72 years, around the corner his kids were born. A fence is blocking out the spaces where people used to park the cars that John used to look after, a banner advertising the new project going up right on it is a sign of change the neighborhood is going through… Now John has nothing… if you see him, buy him lunch or a cup of coffee, he has some great stories to share about his time spent in Long Island City…

So im back from my three week Hiatus, was out of town and then sick for a bit, but do i have some stuff to make up for it, in the next week i have alot of news to report about LIC, some good, some sad and some very upsetting, all in all its gonnah be a crazy week of reporting….