HARLEM—After a bit of backlash at new 123rd Street condo development The Dwyer, we knew it was only a matter of time until we heard from a customer again, especially after word came through that appliances had been delivered. Folks, we love a happy ending: "Last week I got the opportunity to walk through my finished apartment at the Dwyer. Must admit I was a little worried the quality would not be there since they had taken what seemed like forever to finish. Luckily my fears were totally unwarranted. Like any new construction there where a few small issues but nothing to lose sleep over. I've attached some pics of the finished product. It's been a long and winding road but it looks like I'll finally be calling 123rd and St. Nicholas home." [CurbedWire Inbox]
LONG ISLAND CITY—Over on the Queens West waterfront, the Jesuscondo known to mere mortals as The View is enjoying a "friends and family" opening, according to a tipster: "I was walking along Center Boulevard in LIC where the new Rockrose Building, The View, is being built. I look to my left a little and I see a glorious sales office open and ready to go. It's located in their rental building at 4720 Center Boulevard which is right on the water. The sales office is glass on all three sides and it faces the actual building that they are selling. Kind of sick. Plus the back conference room has glass that has, of course, beautiful views of Manhattan."
Long Island City's "Mystery Building," a condo sitting at the foot of the Pulaski Bridge and sort of functioning as the neighborhoods greeter for people driving over from Brooklyn has been outed. The neighborhood blog LIQCity identifies it today as "The L Haus," named after its shape and, you know, "house" in German. (It's the big, green boxy thing in the photo.) Other relevant details/rumors: the offering plan is "about to hit the street" and Elliman will be bringing it to market at prices in the $600-$700 per square foot range. Right now the L Haus is more like the Grün Haus, because the exterior is a neon green. Per LIQCity: "Folks who buy in The L Haus will certainly enjoy traversing the treacherous trail across the Pulaski Bridge entrance on the south side of Jackson Ave to get to the 7-train & Vernon." The steel frame toward the bottom of the photo is a new rental building with 38 units.
· 'The L Haus' condos deliver some spring green to the Pulaski Bridge [LIQCity]
The city has posted a few renderings of its big plan for Hunters Point South in Long Island City. It would include up to 6,650 units of housing, with the definition of "affordable" in the plan being the subject of dispute. There's a huge Environmental Impact Statement out (available on the New York Economic Development Corp.'s website) and a large number of meetings coming about the plan, that have just started.
· Hunters Point South [NYCEDC]
· LIC Holds First Hearing on Hunter's Point South [Queens Chronicle]
Those unfamiliar with Long Island City might think it's an industrial wasteland, given NYU's denouncement of the neighborhood as unworthy of a hostile university takeover. But how could an area not "developed enough residentially" give us such a sweet hangout? The above photos are of the huge landscaped deck at Rockrose's 4705 Center Boulevard (aka EastCoast 2) built on top of the luxury rental building's parking garage on the Queens West waterfront. When we last checked in, work was beginning on the communal lounge area/summer BBQ spot just off the indoor pool, and we must say it came out pretty nifty. But maybe that's just because we have a thing for orbs.
· EastCoast [Official Site]
· Curbed Inside: Long Island City's EastCoast 2 [Curbed]
Up until now, most of the headlines that have come out of NYU's fifth open house presentation last week have dealt with the controversial plan to replace the Provincetown Playhouse on MacDougal Street. The Villager, however, focuses on the proposals for the two NYU-owned superblocks that contain Washington Square Village and I.M. Pei's potential landmarks, the Silver Towers. We've dabbled in the various Washington Square Village ideas before, but now we see for the first time one of NYU's suggestions for the Silver Towers site: a proposed fourth tower that kind of reminds us of Renzo Piano's New York Times headquarters.
The development rights would come from the nearby Morton Williams supermarket at the corner of LaGuardia Place and Bleecker Street, which would be demolished and replaced by public open space. The new high-rise idea was of course met with various levels of outrage from the assembled leaders and neighbors, and apparently the city's Economic Development Corporation has an idea:
In addition, the city’s Economic Development Corporation had been “pushing” N.Y.U. to look at expanding in Long Island City, according to Alicia Hurley, N.Y.U. associate vice president for government and community relations. However, she said, the university doesn’t feel Long Island City is developed enough residentially as of now to be a fitting expansion area for N.Y.U.
Prolific architect Karl Fischer's reworking of/addition to the old Pennsylvania Railroad Power Station designed by McKim, Mead & White in 1909 near the Long Island City waterfront has always been a sensitive topic, but blogger Restless is not tiptoeing around the issue:
I hated the Powerhouse the second I noticed the sun bouncing off its plastic Coppertone top, long before I knew it was one of Karl's. In fact I thought it might be a Donald Trump enterprise, because of the tacky casino faux-class of its round castle towers and metallic color. As I said in the comments," If I worked at the U.N., right across the river, I would sue for degradation of view."
Anyone that doesn't know where the heck Dutch Kills is, might recognize it when passing through Long Island City by the unusual amount of work there on hotels. Over the weekend, the Times offered another look at the weird Dutch Kills Dilemma: an announced intention to rezone the neighborhood that has led to one of the city's weirdest hotel booms beyond the confines of Gowanus. There are hotel plans on at least 14 sites within an eight-block area. The Dutch Kills Hotel Boom came about because of a 2005 City Planning proposal to rezone the neighborhood and clamp down on commercial construction. The trouble is that the review process for the rezoning hasn't even started and, in the meantime, developers have been playing Beat the Rezone and a lot of people think the hotels will be converted to condos or apartments down the road. The city says it's working really, really fast. Residents aren't seeing the speed, except of construction. Says one: "With all the delays, by the time we get our zoning, we most probably will have lost our neighborhood." Us, we can't wait to see the marketing pitches for hotels in Dutch Kills.
· For a Raft of New Hotels, the Sound of Grumbling [NYT]
With the weather getting beyond nice, an email lands in the Ask Curbed Inbox that cuts to the heart of grilling season:
I live in a new apartment complex in Long Island City. It's owned by the same company who have 3 other building there, one of them being built right now. We currently pay an "amenity fee" of fifty dollars per tenant per month for the use of the the facilities, which includes a swimming pool, screening room, billiard room, and outdoor space, known as the sun deck...
LOWER EAST SIDE—Earlier, we pointed you to a Sunarticle about the planned recreation of a Keith Haring mural that the New York icon painted on a wall at the northwest corner of Houston Street and the Bowery in 1982. Lordy, the artists enlisted to paint the sucker sure are acting quick! Above, the wall as seen earlier this afternoon. [CurbedWire Inbox]
WILLIAMSBURG & LONG ISLAND CITY—Those unpredictable Toll Brothers are offering up another one of their ridiculously short-term sales. It's much like an old one, but this time around, purchase a condo at Northside Piers, North8 or Fifth Street Lofts by Friday, April 25, and you'll save $20,000 on closing costs. [CurbedWire Inbox]
SEAPORT—What will spring up on 80 South Street now that Santiago Calatrava's Tower o' Penthouses have passed on? Yet to be determined, and first the land must be sold. A press release fresh into the inbox states that Newmark Knight Frank Capital Group has been retained as the broker for the site, and offers are due by May 8. The 8,128sqft parcel is expected to fetch around $115 million. [CurbedWire Inbox]
It's probably a good thing that Prudential Douglas Elliman waited a while to release its first-quarter market report for Queens and Long Island. Given the controversy and reaction to the brokerage's Manhattan report, poor little Queens would have been completely ignored! But now, we can focus on Prince Akeem's favorite borough. So, is the news good and bad, like big brother Manhattan? Sort of. In Queens, the median sales price in Q1 was $498,500, up 1.1% from the first quarter of 2007. The average sales price was $535,308, up from the prior-year quarter average of $490,637. Looking specifically at condos, Queens saw a jump from $246,350 to $342,367 in average sales price over the last year, something that can be described as the "Long Island City effect." The "luxury submarket" average (the top 10% of sales) was $1,068,474, up from $903,805 last year (again, thanks LIC). And now, the less encouraging news: inventory increased a whopping 20.9%, to 11,206 units, which should set off some sort of air-raid siren for fans of the glut theory. And apartments are spending an average of 101 days on the market, up from 93 last year. We can only imagine what will happen to these numbers once the Jesuscondo hits the market, but for now, who cares to analyze?
· Market Reports [Elliman; Q1 Queens/LI to be uploaded soon]
· First Quarter Market Reports: Prices Up, Sales Down [Curbed]
If anyone can handle more debate about another planned New York City megaproject, the huge (and, yes, very controversial) Hunters Point South (aka Queens West South) development has taken a small step forward. Broker/blogger Andrew Fine has gotten hold of a new "scoping" document for the project, which would rise on a Long Island City wasteland, and finds that it has gained more than an extra acre of parkland but has also gone from 6,500 to 6,650 units of housing (the definition of "affordable" in the plan has been the subject of bitter dispute). A school has also grown significantly. Fine writes that "it seems as if none" of the concerns raised by residents and others have been taken into consideration and that the plan "has simply gone from bad to even worse" by adding another building's worth of housing and expanding the school.
· Hunters Point South Plan Grows Denser, Yet Finds An Extra Acre Of Park [A Fine Blog]
· More Hating on Hunters Point South [Curbed]
· Hunters Point South Plan Called 'Archie Bunker Vision' [Curbed]
Now that the Long Island City waterfront is charging Manhattan prices (albeit not the fancy parts), the Post looks beyond the tony enclave of Hunters Point and focuses on the boom in the landlocked areas—over by Queens Plaza and Court Square. Old Curbed favorites like Arris Lofts, Crescent Club and the terrifying Kimaya Lofts get shout-outs, but the puff piece is a little soft on compliments. In fact, some of them could be described as, dare we say, backhanded? For example: "Apart from the sprouting condos, there's not much these areas have to offer." What, strip clubs don't count as an amenity? But the best is saved for last, when Arris buyer Irma Zandi—chased off the Lower East Side because of its newfound hellishness—describes what drew her to LIC: "I got off the subway, I saw the [Arris Lofts] building, I saw the vast emptiness around it. I don't know, it really spoke to me." Let's just say we don't think Arris will be using "Enjoy our vast emptiness" as a marketing tagline anytime soon.
· Long Shot [NYP]
· Long Island City is Having an Identity Crisis [Curbed]
With the weather getting beyond nice, an email lands in the Ask Curbed Inbox that cuts to the heart of grilling season:
It's probably a good thing that Prudential Douglas Elliman waited a while to release its first-quarter market report for Queens and Long Island. Given the 
