I FEEL like we’re in a news gap as we wait for the election, all is quiet on the Covid front locally, public schools are finding their hybrid sea legs, and new retail business formations are on hold for the most part. And yet the real estate business in LIC pushes forward, commercially anyway.
Two very recent deals epitomize this. First came the news that Silverstein Properties purchased a vacant lot along Northern Boulevard which it plans to develop into a 310-unit residential building. According to the LIC Post they plan on breaking ground in 2021 with an expected completion date. in 2024 The lot is kind of in a no-man’s land with no neighborhood to speak of, zero nearby parks, a highly trafficked commercial road out front, and the subway five blocks away. A far inferior option to the large inventory of apartments available in Court Square/Queens Plaza. What gives? Possibly the ability to build it cheap given labor and subcontractor availability?
Similarly optimistic is a $300 million refinancing of The Factory building on 47th Ave. Sure it’s 1.1 million sq ft, recently renovated and seems to be fairly well leased up, but my back-of-the-envelope gasps at the absolute dollar amount a property like this in a location like this in a time like this commands. Oh wait, interest rates are sub 1%, that explains everything.
Silverstein Properties Buys Yet Another LIC Site, Plans To Develop 310-Unit Building – I’d say 44-01 Northern Blvd is LIC, not Astoria
The Factory Building In LIC Gets A Big Refi – and a big thank you goes out to Jerome Powell, did they even bother asking about the creditworthiness of the tenants?
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