LIC residents want park, not another tower

From LIC Post:

A local development company filed plans to build a new 18-story residential and commercial tower in Long Island City yesterday, but a community group is looking to fight the project.

Rockrose Development, a company with several projects in Long Island City, filed plans yesterday to build an 18-story, 123-unit residential tower, with retail space on the first floor at 43-12 Hunter Street. The site is known by residents as ‘The Lot.’

According to the plans filed with the Department of Buildings, the project would have an outdoor terrace and amenity room for residents on the tenth floor, and another terrace and lounge on the 18th floor, as well as an exercise room. There would also be a lobby, laundry room, and mailroom on the bottom floors.

The new building would be 228 feet tall and would have 4,054 square feet of retail space. It would also have 86,562 square feet of residential space, meaning each apartment would average just over 700 square feet.

The Court Square Civic Association is attempting to fight back against the development, as the site has long been used as a public gathering space, despite the fact that it is privately owned.

The group has launched an online petition today calling for elected officials to work with Rockrose to save the property as open space and to generally create more open space and public parks in the area.

Court Square "civic" forming

From DNA Info:

Court Square, a longtime hub for office workers that's grown increasingly residential over the last few years, is getting its own civic organization dedicated to shaping future development.

The Court Square Civic Association will hold its first public meeting Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. at MoMA PS1. It will feature a panel discussion with City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, Penny Lee of the Department of City Planning and Paul Januszewski of the local developer Rockrose.

You all always have developers at your civic meetings, right? Say no more. ROFLMFAO!!!

Developer making quite a mess in Court Square

"Hello Crapper.

The rockrose site at court square (just north of 44th drive and the Citibank building) has become something of a neighborhood safety and cleanliness disaster and no media outlets have covered it (why would they? no one wants to take on the all mighty Rockrose).

When the exterior panels of the building were installed, they were covered in temporary plastic wrap, which was then allowed to peel off and blow into the window and streets below.

There have been several 'falling debris' events at this building over the last 2-3 months. The fire department has shown up numerous times.

Just last week, I was told debris hit a car driving on 44th drive, resulting in a large emergency response (no injuries that I know of fortunately).

How long before some of this debris hits a bus? Many people wait on this street for the Q39 bus.

On Monday at 5:30, there was an accident of some sort where a construction worker was taken to the hospital - again, this drew a large fire department rescue response. I saw no mention of this incident in the news, and work continued at the site the next day as if nothing happened.

The street surrounding this Rockrose site is also a filthy mess. I've complained to 311 and Van Bramer, and of course nothing has happened. Department of Sanitation doesn't even regularly run a street sweeper past here.

I'm hoping if you post this maybe something will be done about this fiasco, since 311 and van do-nothing obviously do not care how many people get hurt so long as the campaign contributions keep rolling in.

-Anon.

Construction alienates public parkland in LIC

The following 2 shots were taken in September 2013, from Google Street View:

"Hello, next time you're in LIC, take a look at Rafferty Triangle park at Jackson Ave/44 Dr/ and Hunter St. About 2 months ago, the massive construction site next to it put up a construction fence around its site, 43-25 Hunter St, and extended the fence into a large part of Rafferty Triange including an area with several benches. My gripe: Why can this private company (Rockrose) take away a relatively brand new park and sitting area? I notified 311 and got nowhere. Thanks for the help!" - Dan

So, I took the bait and headed over there. This is what I found:

And then I looked through the construction fence:

This is all bad, but hopefully temporary. The saddest sight of all was the monument to Capt. Malcolm A. Rafferty, which has been vandalized.

It apparently has been left in this condition for a long time, as it is pictured this exact same way on Parks' website.

In Queens, nothing is sacred except the rights of developers. Not parkland. Not memorials to our dead soldiers.

Good luck with that

From DNA Info:

A new beer hall and a music venue might be on tap for Court Square — part of a plan to turn the booming neighborhood into a nightlife hub.

Rockrose Development Corp. is building thousands of luxury residential apartment units in the industrial Long Island City neighborhood, but retail amenities are still sparse.
The company's president, Justin Elghanayan wants to change that.

Rockrose has plans to draw retail tenants to the neighborhood — with hopes for a beer hall, music venue and high-end restaurants — with the anticipation that Court Square will be one of the city's next nightlife and cultural destinations.

700-unit building planned for Court Square

From The Real Deal:

Midtown-based Rockrose Development plans to develop an approximately 700-unit rental building at the former Eagle Electric building in Long Island City. It is the firm’s third major rental project launched in the neighborhood’s Court Square section since 2007. Combined, the three buildings will have nearly 2,400 units when completed.

The development firm paid an affiliate of the Brooklyn-based Kraupner Group $48 million for 43-22 Queens Street, a 320,000-square-foot industrial building that was one of at least a half dozen large properties once owned by the Eagle Electric Manufacturing company, city records show. The Real Deal reported the sale last week but at the time the identity of the buyer was shielded behind a limited liability company. The deal went into contract in September and closed on Dec. 14, the documents show.

Rockrose plans to demolish a portion of the six-story building, located between Queens and Dutch Kills streets, and the Sunnyside rail yards. On the existing building’s current footprint, Rockrose also plans to construct a modern tower of up to 30 stories using the 200,000 square feet of additional air rights.

For tax reasons, more than 50 percent of the project, which has development rights of 520,000 square feet, needs to be new construction, Justin Elghanayan, Rockrose’s president, said. “There are a lot of interesting architectural possibilities of combining the old with the new, which is very much in the spirit of Long Island City,” Elghanayan said. He added, “It is very rare to have a rental loft building,” because most are converted to condominiums.

Developer thinks water-filled dumpsters improve LIC

From the NY Times:

ON a recent afternoon the view across Court Square, in eastern Long Island City, Queens, took in an auto body shop and parking lots, and aging factories beyond. The Citicorp Building and other office towers cast shadows across streets. Places to shop were nonexistent.

That view is about to change. The Rockrose Development Corporation has started construction on a 42-story rental tower with 709 apartments that is expected to be among the largest residential developments in the area — and one of the tallest buildings in the borough — when completed in 2013.

The apartments in the tower, which will be called Linc LIC, at 43-10 Crescent Street, will range from 450-square-foot studios to 1,400-square-foot three-bedrooms. They will have parquet floors and “Rockrose standard” flecked granite counters, and in many cases, washers and dryers, said Justin Elghanayan, a principal of Rockrose, which is led by his father, Henry.

The rents will be about 25 percent below those for comparable apartments in Manhattan, brokers say. They average $1,750 a month, for studios, and $4,150 a month for three-bedrooms, or about $38 per square foot.

“I think it’s about to pop,” Justin Elghanayan said of the Court Square area, as he gave a tour of the work site. Indeed, a bustling after-work social scene will be critical to attracting the younger renters whom Rockrose covets, said Mr. Elghanayan, who for similar reasons staged a sort of multiweekend pool party on a lot near his new building last summer. Called the Palms, the party featured three Dumpsters filled with water to splash around in, alongside beach chairs, and beer. “That’s the kind of energy neighborhoods need,” he said.

Mental note: LIC needs more noise and dumbasses serving liquor without a valid license...

Rockrose split was not an unpleasant one

From the NY Times:

The Elghanayans, like many of New York’s old real estate families, took a conservative approach to financing. They often bought land for cash and kept leverage low. “We never had mezzanine loans,” Tom said. “We financed 75 percent of value, not 95 percent.”

Over time, the brothers developed a clear division of labor: Fred, an engineer, handled construction. Tom, a graduate of Yale and Harvard Business School, did development and acquisitions. Henry, a lawyer, handled financing and, later, commercial buildings. Their youngest brother, Jeffrey, who left the partnership in 1989, is an architect. Every Wednesday, they met over lunch.

Compared with property breakups of some other New York real estate families — often long, messy affairs replete with blood feuds, lawsuits and ugly recriminations — the Elghanayan brothers’ split has been relatively swift, smooth and secretive. The Milstein family fought for a decade over control of a $5 billion fortune that included hotels, apartment buildings and a bank. The wrestling match over the billion-dollar estate of the land speculator Sol Goldman lasted seven years. And who can forget the squabbling over Harry B. Helmsley’s $8 billion empire, part of which eventually went to his wife’s poodle?

The Elghanayan brothers didn’t slap one another with lawsuits. And there were no vicious industry rumors, or anonymous mudslinging in the gossip columns, about the fate of this very private family that ran the Rockrose Development Corporation, one of the city’s largest developers of residential buildings.

“A lot of the families have had very unpleasant break-ups,” said Daniel Brodsky, a developer and a close friend of Tom Elghanayan. “They managed to do it in a very civilized way."

Civilized, yes. But that doesn’t mean it’s been free of tension. For one thing, Henry’s decision to initiate it, as well as the assets he selected, surprised his brothers. There would be much horse trading before the breakup was legally completed on Sept. 29, and the brothers acknowledge some bumps along the way.

Rockrose split finalized

From the NY Times:

The three brothers — known as the Elghanayan brothers — who are among the city’s most prolific residential builders over the past 40 years, completed their long-awaited break-up Tuesday with the division of a multibillion dollar empire of apartments and office buildings.

The oldest brother, H. Henry Elghanayan, retained the company name, Rockrose Development, as well as 2,634 apartments in buildings ranging from the Archive building on Greenwich Street in Manhattan to the “East Coast,” a massive high rise on the waterfront in Queens. Mr. Elghanayan, the only brother with a son, Justin, in the family business, initiated the split. He and his son, he said, wanted to go out on their own to develop some land that they had acquired over the years.

Mr. Elghanayan also held onto a large development site across 11th Avenue from the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on Manhattan’s West Side and three development sites at Court Square in Long Island City.

His younger brothers, Thomas and Frederick Elghanayan, will operate as TF Cornerstone, with 3,200 apartments and seven office towers, including the family’s most well known, Carnegie Hall Tower on West 57th Street. They control two of the three towers the brothers built at Queens West, as well as three development sites there.

The brothers will share ownership of four other office buildings, and two residential buildings, including 99 John St.

Rockrose split

From Crain's:

Rockrose Development Corp., one of the city’s most respected residential and commercial developers, is being split into two firms by the three Elghanayan brothers who own it.

The precise reasons for the separation and details on how the properties will be divided are yet unclear, according to real estate sources familiar with the situation.

Rockrose is currently developing a 22-acre parcel on the Long Island City, Queens, waterfront near the Pepsi-Cola Sign, as well as several condo projects in Manhattan.

The siblings are well-known in industry circles, and their split surprised many. The company is named after the Queens street where they grew up, although two of the brothers, Henry and Thomas, were actually born in Iran.

Henry, the eldest, will retain the Rockrose name but will move to a new office at 666 Fifth Ave. Sources say he has a different vision for the company than his brothers, Thomas and Fredrick, who will continue to work together. Their company is expected to be called TF Cornerstone and will continue to operate out of the company’s headquarters at 290 Park Ave. South, according to a source.

Big brother is watching at Rockrose

From the NY Times:

Rockrose Development Corporation markets itself as something of a cruise director, fostering a sense of fun and neighborhood spirit in its luxury rental buildings fitted with pools, barbecue grills and party rooms.

But one former tenant, David Griffiths, now thinks of the real estate developer as more akin to Big Brother.

Mr. Griffiths, an information technology consultant, and his wife, Katy — who is pregnant — had to move in November when Rockrose declined to renew their lease at its EastCoast waterfront development in Long Island City, Queens.

A Rockrose employee, he said, told him it was because he had posted critical comments about the building on the Internet.

“It’s very ‘1984,’ ” said Mr. Griffiths, 38, a Briton who seems mystified to find himself part of the turbulent annals of New York landlord-tenant relations.

“I feel like I’m in the early chapters of a George Orwell novel,” said one tenant who also posted complaints on the forum and fears he is “next on the hit list.”

“If this is supposed to be like living on a cruise ship, call me seasick,” said the tenant, who asked that his name not be published, for fear of inflaming relations with Rockrose.