The Bushwick residential boom is quickly spreading north into Ridgewood, and today YIMBY has a look at a small project under construction just over the border between Brooklyn and Queens, at 1728 Himrod Street.
The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) has launched a Request for Proposals (RFP) for two city-owned development sites adjacent to each other, which total 4.5 acres, at 5-40 44th Drive and 4-99 44th Drive. Politico New York reports that the city is looking for developers to build “at least 300,000 square feet of commercial office or light manufacturing space, up to 1,000 apartments, a school, and a small park.” The site is currently located in a manufacturing district but would be rezoned for a mixed-use project. It currently consists of a single-story Department of Transportation facility, a surface parking lot, and a restaurant (which has a lease that expires in 2017). Proposals are due by May 26, 2016.
Congregation Yeshiva Tiferet Torah, headed by Nerya Aminov, has filed applications for a new three-story, 10,379-square-foot educational facility at 147-22 73rd Avenue, in Kew Gardens Hills, located midway between Flushing and Jamaica in Queens. The new school will feature a gym in the sub-cellar, a library and lecture offices in the cellar, classrooms and teachers’ offices on the ground and second floors, and a study hall on the third floor. The project would be built on an 80-foot-wide vacant lot, once home to a two-story house that was demolished in 2003. Joe Lieberman’s Queens-based Abris Design Studio Corp. is the architect of record.
In July of 2014, YIMBY reported on applications for an eight-story, 12-unit mixed-use building at 42-44 Crescent Street, in Long Island City’s Queens Plaza section. Now, The Court Square Blog reports schematics have been posted of the project on site. Maspeth-based Angelo Ng + Anthony Ng Architects Studio is designing, although no official renderings have been released yet. The new building will encompass 15,338 square feet and will include 2,060 square feet of commercial space on the ground-floor for a restaurant. Residential units will begin on the second floor and should average 951 square feet apiece, which means either rentals or condos could be in the works. Flushing-based Andy Ho is the property owner and doing business under an anonymous LLC. The site’s old two-story building was demolished late last year and excavation appears imminent. Completion is expected in 2017.
As we have reported, the Landmarks Preservation Commission is in the process of dealing with the backlog of 95 items that have been on its calendar since before 2010, some for decades. That process took a big step forward Tuesday, with 30 sites remaining on the calendar as priorities for designation vote by the end of 2016. Five sites were removed from the calendar for lack of merit.
