REAL ESTATE, REAL ESTATE, REAL ESTATE!

That’s what this town has come to: All real estate, all the time.  The LIC Partnership held its first ever LIC Summit yesterday, and despite a myriad of topics, the reality is it all boiled down to real estate.  In tandem with this week’s news, including a massive new 1600 apartment rental complex announced for Queens Plaza(or is it still Court Square), there’s little room for anything else.  Oh well, let’s just jump on the bandwagon and pile on with these quotes from the Summit, where we learned that there are 12,000 units in the works for LIC:

“People move to LIC for a transitional period, and end up loving it and wanting to stay longer.  This is gestating a lot of condo demand”  Justin Elghanayan of Rockrose

“We haven’t seen that many foreign buyers, but have gotten many from outer Queens, specifically Flushing”  Eric Benaim of Modern Spaces

Oh, and then one reminiscence by Thomas Finkelpearl, the NYC cultural affairs commissioner, who remembered prostitutes and other unsavory types on Jackson Avenue back when he worked here in the 80’s.  Unfortunately, while the arts panel that Tom headed came up with lots of fragments as to how to keep artists in the LIC community in light of the gentrification going on, there were no solid answers.

Ooh, and now a real estate rumor picked up at the Summit: Mt. Sinai Medical, The Chocolate Factory, and Sunnyside Community Services are all angling to be tenants in Hunters Point South Phase Two, with the latter one looking to build out a big preschool.

Finally, an observation about visiting the Museum of the Moving Image.  While technically still in Long Island City, you might as well be in another country(or maybe Astoria).  It really was a trip walking the five blocks from the subway stop, as I passed low-key Brazilian, Venezuelan, Indian, Bengladeshi, Chinese, and Greek cafes, and being World Cup season, they were all adorned with flags, and many pedestrians were sporting national soccer jerseys.  Now that’s something different.

Three Towers to Rise in LIC, Costing $875 Million – pencil your move in date for 2017

Mapping LIC’s Insane Number of New Apartments – dare we say too many?  We did actually, in our Real E-State of the Union last month

More Hotels Going Up in Queens – really?

Falchi Building Becoming “It” Spot – whodathunkit?

An Organic Cafe Coming to Queens Plaza South – gentrification times two: despite all the above, this is the canary in the coalmine development-wise

Matthew Barney: My Work Is Not For Everyone – probably because not everyone can afford it.  See pic of Matthew at his studio on the LIC waterfront – is he the last artist left here?  This too might be the end result of RE development.