According to New York Yimby.com:
New building applications have been filed to erect a seven-story, mixed-use building at 109-19 72nd Road, between Queens Boulevard and Austin Street. The development will replace four large houses, all of which had been altered so businesses could occupy the ground floors.The article ends with a really insightful comment about the Forest Hills area's current state of development—the struggle between development and those who want to maintain more of a "suburb-in-the-city" feel for Forest Hills. And it comes down on the side of development, pointing out that Forest Hills has so much untapped potential as a hyper-connected neighborhood when it comes to public transportation in this part of Queens....
The 70-foot-tall building will host 46 apartments divided across 44,889 square feet, for nicely sized average units measuring 975 square feet. The apartments will be stacked on top of 8,280 square feet of retail, replacing some of the commercial space that will be demolished. Each of the upper floors will have eight units, except for the top floor, where there will only be six units.
A subterranean garage will have parking for 26 cars, which is slightly more than the zoning code requires.
The rest of Forest Hills was downzoned twice during Mayor Bloomberg’s years in office, effectively preventing the construction of anything besides one- and two-family homes. The suburban-style zoning seems unfortunate because Forest Hills is attractive, safe, and still relatively affordable for condo and co-op buyers. The LIRR, as well E, F, M, and R trains, run through the neighborhood, making it one of the most accessible parts of central and eastern Queens.Unfortunate, indeed. While, as I've often written before, Forest Hills has improved by leaps and bounds when it comes to bars and restaurants since I first moved here like 15 years ago, there's still so much more room for improvement it, to coin a phrase from our most colorful presidential candidate, "can make your head spin."
We will always have the Gardens, Van Court and the area around Jewel Ave that evokes the 'burbs. At the same time, people like FH precisely because it isn't the 'burbs - it's walkable, has shopping and entertainment. That will naturally attract apt dwellers which increasingly includes families. Hopefully they will help attract business to all those empty storefronts on Austin Street and elsewhere in our neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteAny word on when this is starting? I live in the building right next door....
ReplyDeleteGeorgian Court? I used to live there. Or the one with La Boulangerie?
ReplyDeleteIt's the set of houses to the right of La Boulangerie.
ReplyDeletedid Rover open yet?
ReplyDeleteI live on this block, interesting... They've already taken down 109-09 72nd Road and there is a pretty large lot available there already. Since that was a single building, it sounds like the adjacent buildings are also coming down? The pet boarding/grooming place didn't seem to do a ton of business and closed up shop about a month ago. The Siscotek computer shop also closed about 3 months ago. The busiest business remaining is the Ace computer training place. I guess they'll be moving.
ReplyDeleteIn other news, Georgian Court is becoming a condo as of July 2016. Roughly half of the building has been emptied out over the past 2 years. Our non-renovated, 628 sq. ft. 1BR unit carries an "insider" price tag of $352,800. Non-tenants would carry a roughly 17.5% mark-up to $415,000.
No parking, no garbage chutes in the building. Garbage room is in the basement. Basement closes at 8. Good luck.