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Long Island City

By Jotham Sederstrom 2/07 9:00am

the sit-down

Thomas Elghanayan

Elghanayanville

With three dozen projects underway in Long Island City, the brothers behind Rockrose Development—two of whom split to form TF Cornerstone in 2009—are poised to compete against one another for prize renters and retailers in what is rapidly becoming Queens’s answer to Williamsburg and Dumbo. TF Cornerstone chairman Thomas Elghanayan spoke to The Commercial Observer about the EastCoast, his firm’s waterfront rental complex, the infamous Rockrose Development coin toss, and his tense relationship with brother Henry Elghanayan, chief executive of Rockrose Development.
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By Jotham Sederstrom 1/10 11:58am

the sit-down

Justin Elghanayan. (Photo by Kiki Conway)

Justin Elghanayan: Rockrose Development’s Next Generation

In 2009, the brothers behind the Rockrose Development Corporation—Henry, Thomas and Frederick Elghanayan—divided their four-decade business partnership in half, with Frederick and Thomas spinning off to form TF Cornerstone, and Henry staying put at Rockrose with his son, Justin Elghanayan, 33. Since that relatively amicable split, in which the company’s $3 billion empire was divided in half, Henry Elghanayan has rebuilt the portfolio and elevated his son, who has taken the reins as the project manager of Linc LIC, a development in Long Island City, Queens, scheduled to include two residential towers and a retail complex that, when finished in 2013, could breathe new life into the long-simmering neighborhood. Last week, Justin Elghanayan spoke to The Commercial Observer about his family’s recent split, the future of Rockrose and his Long Island City project, which includes what could be the tallest building in Queens.
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8 By Nate Freeman 8/23/11 7:53pm

Dining

Diner off the tracks!

The Wee Hours: The Last Days of M. Wells Diner

The general manager of M. Wells, perhaps one of the best-reviewed new restaurants of the year, didn’t want to talk about the sexual harassment scandal. “The only people that know what transpired would be the server’s butt and the hand,” said Deven DeMarco.

The Observer sweated out the 7 train to Long Island Read More
By Jotham Sederstrom 4/12/10 5:41pm

Flying High

The Commercial Observer:

Congrats on the JetBlue deal. How did you first get involved?

Mr. Brause: Back in 2001 we net-leased the entire building, the Brewster building—400,000 square feet—to MetLife Insurance Company. Two years later, they exercised an option for us to build out another 300,000 square feet in the rear parcel that we'd owned Read More

By Molly Fischer 8/10/09 9:04pm

Your Open House: LIC (the ‘C’ Stands for Convenience)

Both the Foundry and L Haus, two Long Island City condo developments marketed by Prudential Douglas Elliman, seemed to be presenting themselves as urban oases—nooks of green in Queens. They offered outdoor space aplenty, plant-oriented décor in their sales offices, enormous bathtubs, green literature and logos, and, in the case of L Haus, a lime Read More

By Leigh Kamping-Carder 10/31/08 11:25am

Buy Now? No, Buy Later

Welcome to the buyer's market: Supply is up, demand is down, and prices are teetering. Brokers say buy now – after all, there are deals to be had! But what if you waited?

Here’s four areas (and one borough) where buyers would be fools to rush in now.

1. MANHATTAN In Manhattan, Read More

By Lysandra Ohrstrom 7/21/08 9:12pm

The Local: Work Life In Long Island City

It’s not every day that you hear New Yorkers complaining about the absence of a Starbucks or a Duane Reade, but the chains that are so often maligned in Manhattan lately are just the type of convenience that people working in Long Island City miss the most.

When Deborah, a Citigroup employee, learned that Read More

By Chris Shott 4/01/08 7:59pm

Long Island Rock City!

Robert Prichard hopes to illuminate Long Island City with some emphatic Times Square-style signage.

“I’d like it to be visible from the 59th Street Bridge,” he said. “First, it flashes ‘Queens,’ then ‘Bridge,’ then ‘Theater,’ and then ‘Queensbridge Theater.’ And then maybe an arrow that lights up and points down to our loading dock.” Read More

By Chris Shott 4/16/07 12:00am

Hell’s Kitchen Is Too Pretty For Reality TV

Hollywood screenwriter Bobby Moresco spoke in Dickensian terms about growing up Irish in Hell’s Kitchen back in the mob-ruled pre-condo era. “For me, it was the greatest life on the face of the earth,” he told The Observer. “It turned into the worst life on the face of the earth.” Mr. Moresco’s wonderfully tragic young Read More