LIC clock tower gets dwarfed

LIC Court Square


The last time we stopped by 29-37 41st Avenue a/k/a 29-23 Queens Plaza North, we saw that pipe scaffolding was up at the LIC Clock Tower and construction on the new residential building had risen above the construction fence. When we stopped by last week we saw that construction is moving along quickly, and that the LIC Clock Tower is now dwarfed by construction, as seen in the photo below.

Here’s more information about the project from The Real Deal:

Queens Plaza Park, located at 29-37 41st Avenue near the landmarked Long Island City Clock Tower, will be a 978,000-square-foot mixed-use tower. It will have 958 residential units, 300 of which will be affordable. Handel Architects is designing the project — its latest renderings reveal a concave, glassy exterior — and Selldorf Architects is designing its interior, lobby and amenities.

Dwarfing the Clock Tower

From Curbed:

A new rendering has surfaced for the massive residential tower taking shape at 29-37 41st Avenue, adjacent Long Island City’s historic Clock Tower, revealing what the Handel Architects-designed rental, dubbed Queens Plaza Park, is bringing to the landscape.

Once the building tops out at 63 stories, it’ll hold the title for the tallest residential building in Queens, though it could quickly be dethroned by a project taking shape at 23-15 44th Drive that could reach a whopping 78 stories.

63-story skyscraper next to clock tower

From the Queens Gazette:

The Durst Organization has filed plans to develop a 63-story tower in a lot next door to the landmarked Clock Tower Building at Queens Plaza in Long Island City.

The new tower will feature 763 residential units and a public park, plans show. The Durst Organization acquired the parcel from Property Markets Group in December 2016 for $173.5 million., contingent on the renewal of the New York State 421-a tax program that offers tax breaks to developers in exchange for the creation of affordable housing.

State lawmakers approved a new version of the program in spring 2017. Under the program, developers will set aside at least 28 per cent of the Durst tower’s 763 apartments as affordable housing.

An item on the Real Deal website in December said developer Kevin Maloney, of Property Markets Group, indicated that an acquisition note on the clock tower project was coming due, so he felt it was time to sell the property.

The new, 63-story Super Tower will rise 710-feet from ground level and will feature 8,702-square-feet of retail space, according to the plans.

The Durst Organization is not planning any changes to the Clock Tower building, which was awarded landmark status by the city in 2015, a spokesperson for the Durst Organization said.

Majestic Ridgewood church seeks tower repair funds

The following is a request for donations being circulated on behalf of St. Aloysius Church in Ridgewood:

You may or may not be aware that the bell towers of the Church are in desperate need of repair and the bells and clocks have not been working for over 10 years. This fundraiser is for the
benefit of restoring the bells. Through your generous donations Saint Aloysius Church will repair the bells and also preserve an important asset to the Ridgewood community. Please note that the donation is a tax write off and you can request a tax receipt letter.

To make a donation to the tower fund, mail check to:

St. Aloysius R.C. Church
382 Onderdonk Avenue
Ridgewood, NY 11385

There's also a special fundraiser scheduled for later this year for alumni.

If the church had been landmarked, it could have qualified for special grants. Oh well.

Lawsuit over Clock Tower

From Curbed:

Last December, the development site behind Long Island City’s landmarked Clock Tower sold for $173.5 million to the Durst Organization. The beneficiaries of that sale were the previous owners of the site, Property Markets Group (PMG) and the Hakim Organization, who once intended for a massive skyscraper to rise at the site.

Now real estate developer Brad Zackson is suing PMG for not moving forward with a development plan on the site, alleging that he helped put the development parcels together, and would have eventually profited from its construction, The Real Deal reports.

Zackson reportedly introduced Hakim to the site in Long Island City, and Hakim in turn brought on PMG to purchase and develop the L-shaped parcel of properties around the Clock Tower into Queens’s tallest residential building.

Plans at one time called for a 77-story tower with 800 apartments, but by last summer, PMG and Hakim were looking to sell the one million square foot site. This, Zackson alleges, is because PMG did not do everything in its power to move the rental and condo project forward.

LIC Clock Tower owners sell parcel next door

From the NY Times:

Things are getting choppy in New York’s once-rocketing residential real estate market.

Last week, the developers of what was planned as the city’s tallest tower outside of Manhattan gave up and sold their site next to the historic clock tower building in Queens Plaza to the Durst Organization for $173.5 million.

The developers, Kevin Maloney and Kamran Hakim, spent nearly three years buying land in Long Island City for the $750 million skyscraper. But, Mr. Maloney said in an interview this week, “we didn’t have the horsepower to get it done.”

The Dursts said they would erect a rental tower that may be just as tall as Mr. Maloney had planned, 914 feet.

The sale was the latest evidence that things are getting more difficult for developers: The market for high-end condominiums and rental apartments has slowed, costs have gone up and construction loans have been harder to get as dozens of new buildings open in neighborhoods throughout the city.

Developer looking to flip LIC Clock Tower site

From Curbed:

What was once supposed to be the site of the tallest tower outside of Manhattan will be no more, at least for now. Developers Property Markets Group and the Hakim Organization want to sell their 1 million square foot parcel of land behind the clocktower building in Long Island City, The Real Deal reports. Plans here called for a 77-story building standing 914-feet tall and with 800 apartments, making it the tallest building outside of Manhattan when it was announced. That record has since gone to the JDS’ in-development supertall in Downtown Brooklyn. In Queens, a planned 964-foot tower would also have overtaken PMG and Hakim’s building, but that project still seems to be in the planning stages.

Landmarks commission approves destruction of landmarked clock

Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

From NY1:

For 35 years, Marvin Schneider came here like clockwork to wind the rare mechanical clock atop this 19th century Tribeca office building.

"I would wind them and it would be good for a week," Schneider said.

But that stopped in March after the developers, who bought the landmarked building from the city, blocked Schneider and the public from coming in. The clock, now covered in scaffolding, has been stuck in time ever since.

"It stopped working at 10:25 or so," he said.

The El Ad Group and the Peebles Corporation plan to rip out the mechanical clock in order to convert the tower and the rest of the building into luxury condos. The developers declined comment.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the overhaul last year.

LIC clock tower is officially designated a landmark

From the Queens Courier:

The decision is finally in, and the beloved Clock Tower in Long Island City is not going anywhere.

On Tuesday the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to landmark the 11-story tower in Queens Plaza, formerly the Bank of the Manhattan Company building.

“For nearly a century, the Queens Clock Tower building has been one of Long Island City’s most recognizable structures, greeting hundreds of thousands of commuters as they enter the borough,” said Landmarks Preservation Commission Chair Meenakshi Srinivasan. “The commission is proud to recognize this iconic building, which represents a significant period of development in Long Island City.”

It's funny how all of the news reports about landmarking this building fail to mention the real reason why it was designated. AIR RIGHTS.

Hearing to help LIC developers get more air rights

From DNA Info:

The public will be able to weigh in on whether the Clock Tower building in Queens Plaza should be designated a landmark at a meeting on Tuesday.

After the Landmarks Preservation Commission agreed to consider the former Bank of Manhattan Building for landmarking last month, it's holding a hearing concerning the designation.

Local preservationists have been pushing to preserve the building at 29-27 Queens Plaza North, which they say is an iconic focal point in the rapidly-changing neighborhood.

"I think it's just so recognizable for that area," said Christian Emanuel, one of the organizers campaigning to see the building preserved, who's father currently works out of the Clock Tower building.

"This is a highly-decorated building that survived through a lot," he said, pointing to the rapid pace of development happening in Queens Plaza and Court Square, including thousands of new apartments.

"I think the old gets more beautiful when it sticks out more," Emanuel continued.

Nolan opposed to megatower

From LIC Post:

“The extreme height of this building would be out of character with the neighborhood and not supported by the present infrastructure,” she said in a statement.

“I am concerned that as the Long Island City community continues to grow, the demand for basic transportation needs, health facilities and classroom seats are not keeping up with demand. This proposed development will add another 925 units and possibly, by conservative estimates another 1500-2000 people.

Our community cannot take another big development without dramatic improvements to the current infrastructure in transportation, health facilities and schools. I am calling on the MTA to rethink this deal because the quality of life for our community and Queens Transit riders will be seriously diminished.”

UPDATE: However, with the MTA deal, the 70 story building conforms with New York City zoning regulations and the developer is able to build it as-of-right. The MTA claims that the matter Nolan is concerned about deals with zoning.

Hmmm, do you think that maybe...just maybe...these pols are starting to wake the F up? Lately they seem to be talking about things like strain on infrastructure after years of sitting back and waiting to smile at the cameras with shovels in their hands. Let's make sure this continues.

What 77 stories in Queens Plaza would look like

From Nick Normal:

The clocktower, resting here since 1927 and historically famed as “the tallest building in Queens” for 63 years until the Citigroup tower (located .4+ miles away) surpassed it in 1990, is only 14 or 15 stories tall, depending on how you measure the ground floor. So when I saw those dirt outlines I thought, “OK, but what would a 77 story building actually look like?”

I’m sure whatever they propose will be full of lots of steel and glass and absolute lack of creativity or character, but I also thought I’d assist the conversation a bit by showing what the clocktower would look like if it were 77 stories tall, in context with the surrounding neighborhood structures:

Now that just seems silly!

Of course, even these satellite images are not current. There’s been so much construction in recent months that the plot about 1″ to the left of the clocktower at this scale is a future hotel being built currently – what you see here that is just foundation is now some 20+ stories tall (seen in background in video below). So the neighborhood is already scaling up, but 77 stories just seems excessive, even gluttonous.

MTA sells air rights to clock tower developers

From DNA Info:

The MTA board voted to sell unused development rights from one of its Queens properties for nearly $56 million to a developer planning to build the borough's tallest building.

Through the deal made on Wednesday, the developer of a proposed 70-story apartment tower will be able to build up to 77 stories instead of the 38 the current zoning at the site allows, and up to 490 additional apartments, according to the MTA board documents.

Once the sale is finalized, the MTA will transfer 478,000 square feet from an MTA-owned lot at Northern Boulevard and 40th Road to the development group Queens Plaza Park Development LLC, which includes Property Markets Group and The Hakim Organization.

The sale is expected to go through in the next month or two, an MTA spokesman said.

LIC Clock Tower to be calendared

From Brownstoner:

Awesome news for preservationists in Queens! This Tuesday the Landmarks Preservation Commission will calendar the LIC Clock Tower — officially known as The Bank of the Manhattan Company Long Island City Branch Building — to be considered for landmark status. Located at 29-27 Queens Plaza North, preservationists have rallied around this neo-Gothic structure, built in 1927, which is not protected from demolition. And recently, news came out that the owners of the clock tower, Property Markets Group, planned to develop 830,000 square feet on the surrounding land.

Sounds like someone wants those air rights for the adjacent property.

Massive development going up next to LIC Clock Tower

From The Real Deal:

Kevin Maloney’s Property Markets Group is planning to build a 70-story mixed-use tower at the edge of Queensboro Plaza in Long Island City, according to an application filed with the city’s Department of Buildings today.

The 772-foot-tall building at 29-37 41st Avenue will span nearly 830,000 square feet and hold 930 apartments. There will also be nearly 15,000 square feet of commercial space.

The company purchased the development site for $46.3 million last year from Queens-based developer Steven Cheung, who had paid just $8 million three years earlier.

Maloney’s company also recently purchased the Long Island City clock tower building next door, a point of contention with preservationists in the area who want to see the building landmarked.

From Crains:

A Manhattan developer plans to erect a 70-story apartment tower in Long Island City, Queens, that is four times bigger than what the site was zoned for, according to public documents reviewed by Crain’s.

Property Markets Group has proposed to build a 930-unit residential building along 41st Avenue, near the corner of Bridge Plaza North, that will clock in at 830,000 square feet, The Real Deal reported Wednesday.

But according to city records, the site at 29-37 41st Ave. was zoned for something closer to a 200,000-square-foot building.

Property Markets Group declined to comment.

Property Markets Group already owns an adjacent site, which is home to the Clock Tower building. But even if that property were combined with the site of the proposed tower, there would still not be enough square footage to build 70 stories tall.

To do so, Property Markets Group could have acquired unused development rights from an adjacent site controlled by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

That parcel of land borders Property Markets Group's parcel to the northeast, and is being used in conjunction with the MTA's East Side Access project. The plot likely holds more than 1 million square feet of unused development rights, according to a Crain’s estimate, and could be the source of the project's extra height.

The MTA declined to comment.

Eviction notices "for demolition" issued at the LIC clock tower

From WPIX:

The building has been along Queens Plaza North since 1927.

The subway grew around it. Now buildings rise around it, more tall everyday.

Tenants are receiving eviction notices.

No formal plans have been filed with the NYC Department of Buildings. Last year, neighbors requested the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission consider the location.

It is under active review. It needs to be “calendared” before any protection is put in place.

The development company listed as the owner did not respond to questions about plans for the building and the lot.

Goodbye, Queens Plaza Clock Tower?

From the Queens Courier:

Those looking to preserve the Long Island City Clock Tower may be running out of time.

Queens Plaza Park Development LLC bought the tower, which was the former Bank of Manhattan building, and an adjoining vacant site for a combined $77 million, according to property records filed with the city on Saturday.

Community members are hoping to landmark the building on 29-27 Queens Plaza North to avoid its development, according to recently published reports, after LIC Clock Tower LLC bought the tower in May for $15 million, city records show.

In just a few months, the price of the tower doubled and sold for $30.9 million. The buyer also purchased the vacant land at 29-37 41st Ave. for $46.3 million.

The vacant site has more than 205,000 buildable square feet. Queens-based developer Steve Cheung purchased the vacant site for $8 million in 2011, city records show, and last year he filed with the Department of Buildings for a 30-story residential tower with 242 units at the vacant site.

Plans for the Clock Tower site have yet to be filed with the Buildings Department.

Pair seek to landmark Queens Plaza clock tower

From DNA Info:

Residents who live near the former Bank of Manhattan building in Queens Plaza — known for its clock tower — are pushing to see the structure landmarked.

Matthew Chrislip and Michael Hall recently came before Queens Community Board 1 seeking support for their efforts.

"We both fell in love with the Clock Tower building — we both pass it everyday. Its presence on Queens Plaza sort of can't be denied," said Hall, who has a background in historical and sustainable architecture.

Hall said they were inspired to start their campaign after witnessing the rapid development taking place in the neighborhood.

"It seemed like every block around Queens Plaza has construction projects going," he said.

They sent a request to the Landmarks Preservation Commission this spring asking the agency to evaluate the site. The LPC is reviewing the building, according to a spokeswoman.

U-Haul clock to get fixed

From the Queens Gazette:

A four-sided clock tower with a timepiece that has been frozen in place for decades is about to be rejuvenated.

The U-Haul building, situated on the Flushing River along College Point Boulevard in Flushing, was visited recently by New York City clock masters Marvin Schneider and Forrest Merkowitz who have both worked on clocks around the city, including the weekly winding of the timepiece atop the New York City Municipal Offices on Broadway and Leonard Street in Manhattan.

For years the hands of the clock have been stuck at about the 11 o’clock position.

Schneider and Merkowitz were pleased to find during a visit last December that all the original parts remained inside the clock tower.

The building, and its timepiece made by the Seth Thomas Clock Company in Connecticut, dates back to 1925. It was constructed by W & J Sloane Furniture Co. for their subsidiary, the Company of Master Craftsmen. Serval Zipper Company purchased the building in 1942. In 1979 it was taken over by U-Haul, which continues to operate a storage center in the space to this day.

LIC Clock Tower going condo

From Curbed:

The sale of Long Island City's Clock Tower building hit public records on Friday, revealing the Criterion Group as the buyer. The developer paid $15 million for the site, which recently housed the Holocenter arts group in its ground floor gallery space. A rep from Criterion told Curbed that they currently have no plans for the building, however, given that Criterion is a residential developer, the Clock Tower will most likely become apartments.

It's funny how Queens Plaza went from an area of business and industry - an economic engine for the borough - to just a bunch of overpriced condos.