Yesterday, MoMA PS1 announced that HWKN had won this year's Young Architecture program, the king-making pavilion series held at the Queens museum every summer. The firm has released some striking renderings of their pointy project, called Wendy. The pavilion is all high-tech, too, using "nanoparticles" that make it "pro-active," according to HWKN. Read More
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz has been stamping his feet for years over his desire to land the holy grail of retailers: an Apple Store. After all, the M.T.A. bent over backwards to bringing a glowing Temple of Jobs into Grand Central. But it looks like Marty can forget about it, as Apple may be opening its next outer borough outlet in Queens County, not Kings County. Read More
Readers know we love a good carousel around these part, which is why the news that the one in Forest Hills Park may soon start spinning again brings childish glee to The Observer's pink hearts. And it turns out the savior is an unusual sort: the same Italian amusement operator that has revived Coney Island in recent years. Read More
When one thinks of Queens rappers, one does not think of political redistricting, but all of that is about to change.
Himanshu “Heems” Suri, a member of the idiosyncratic rap group Das Racist, is releasing his hotly anticipated solo mixtape Nehru Jackets in conjunction with SEVA NY, a community organization that’s currently focused on raising awareness about the consequences the citywide redistricting scheduled for later this year will have in the Queens neighborhoods where he grew up. Mr. Suri’s mixtape will be accompanied on several songs by young SEVA members who rap and sing in Punjabi.
The Observer made our way out to Queens to watch Mr. Suri record at SEVA co-founder and executive director Gurpal Singh’s bedroom studio. Mr. Suri was accompanied by a pair of young SEVA rappers—Lovedeep Singh, 21, and Jaspreet Singh, 17 (none of the Singhs are related, it turns out). Lovedeep’s parents don’t know about his rap hobby—he simply told them he was at a SEVA event without mentioning the recording studio. Mr. Suri and Mr. Singh told him they would break the news to his parents before the mixtape’s release party.
“He’s got strict parents, but we’re going to have to tell them,” Mr. Singh said. “He’s going to be on stage in front of the whole community.” Read More
The real estate investor Ashok Mehra has purchased a 9,500 square foot retail building in Woodside, Queens for $2.22 million.
The deal offers Mr. Mehra the chance to expand his real estate holdings into areas beyond Manhattan, where he owns at least two office buildings, 121 West 27th Street and 19 West 21st Street, which are about 100,000 square feet apiece.
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The High Line has been such a staggering success, it has created impersonators across the country and the world. And who can blame them, when the project has generated an estimated $2 billion in economic activity on a public investment of only $150 million.
But what if instead of building a park, a subway or light rail line ran along the Far West Side?
It is not a ludicrous idea. Light rail has proven a boon in downtown Portland and elsewhere, and with the extension of the 7 train to Hudson Yards, the line could well have hooked up with the High Line and made a whole swath of under-developed Manhattan real estate more accessible.
A glittery park has achieved just as much, but this exact same debate is taking place in Queens, Read More
Most of the sights and sounds at this morning’s event in Long Island City were pretty standard fare for a groundbreaking: guys in shirts and ties, wearing hard hats and holding novelty shovels, a massive back hoe parked in the back of a lot prepped for excavation.
A less ordinary sight however, was the young woman in a dark skirtsuit pacing the edges of the earthen lot, chanting quietly and gently tossing grains of vodka-soaked rice while development executives looked on appreciatively.
As bizarre as the sight may sound, it is almost surely a sign of things to come on the home front.
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Moe’s Sneaker Spot, an Astoria-based shoe retailer, has added Glendale warehouse space as it expands its operations. The company took 8,083 square feet in a ten-year deal at the ATCO-owned Atlas Terminals, next to the Shops at Atlas Park at 80-28 Cooper Avenue.
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Have you ever seen one of those web videos where a person lays down at the edge of an airport runway and gets lifted off the ground by the force of the plane's engines?
Well, one Queens developer might just find out if that can work for an entire building...
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Last time The Observer swung by Willets Point, the news was Related and the Wilpons had teamed up on a bid for the first phase of the mega project, as we local firm TDC Development, which has projects throughout Flushing and the rest of Queens. Now, Silverstein Properties and AvalonBay are also eying the Iron Triangle, according to Crain's. Read More
When the Forbes 400 list of richy rich Americans came out last month, the richest New York developer was, as it's long been, Richard Lefrak, with a net worth in excess of $5 billion. That is as much oil and natural gas wealth as it is development wealth—it's all real estate, when you think about it—but perhaps Mr. LeFrak is feeling nostalgic, because he has decided to return to his home turf of Queens, according to The Journal. Read More
While some people are hoping—futilely, perhaps—for a high-tech college at Willets Point, the official RFP is also cranking along, with applications due at the end of September. Crain's now has word of a handful of the developers competing to redevelop the Iron Triangle, and one looks to be a hit, if it weren't already facing a few strikes.
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The Times has been surfing the wave of Rockaways revelry all summer, praising the food, the parties, the sun dresses, the food, and, sure, the surfing. But sometimes life's not all a beach. The Daily News has turned up at least one stretch of the Rockaways that is far from gentrified.
Things may be jumping over on Beach 96th Street, but Beach 116th Street goes wanting. The clams are still fried and the sun is shining, but an S.R.O. and other rundown properties—and the flotsam and jetsam that wash up with them—is ruining the fun. Read More
Yesterday, the City Council voted to suburbanize another piece of Queens. This time it was the neighborhoods of Sunnyside and Woodside getting rezoned. The plan helps preserve the neighborhoods' character by limiting new development to a few main thoroughfares, but as arguably two of the best neighborhoods in the city, limits newcomers. "The pace of development in Sunnyside and Woodside has increased in recent years for many reasons, including its attractive and well-kept streetscapes, bustling commercial corridors, and convenient mass transit to and from Manhattan," local Councilman Jimmy Van Bremmer said in a release, which you can read in full after the jump. "By taking this action today, we will prevent development that is out of character while protecting the low density nature of much of the area."
Better get in while the getting is good.
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It appears as if Anthony Weiner is going to make it through the prime-Friday-afternoon-bad-news-delivery period without the much awaited resignation announcement.
But that doesn’t mean he isn’t reaching out.
CNN gets their hands on this apology note from Weiner to his neighbors, offering his mea culpa for the press hordes who remain camped outside his apartment. Read More
