Claremont Terrace apartment house has become a zombie

From the Queens Chronicle:

Councilman Danny Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) said Dr. John Ko promised him last February that long-delayed work at 1 Claremont Terrace in Elmhurst would be done in one year.

Thirteen months have passed, and the lawmaker says the unfinished, graffiti-covered apartment building abutting the Long Island Rail Road tracks is still in the same unsightly condition.

“It’s become a zombie apartment building. It’s just horrible,” Dromm told the Chronicle on Monday. “Our patience has come to an end.”

The property the building sits on is one of the more historic ones in Elmhurst, as Samuel Lord — the co-founder of Lord & Taylor, the oldest department store in America — purchased the site in 1840, eventually building homes for his four daughters there.

But 12 years ago, the final, decaying Lord home was demolished and construction began on the eight-story building.

But once the shell of it was completed, work seemingly came to a halt.

And in the years since, Dromm said, the site has become an on-again, off-again homeless encampment — “they had tents and everything” — and a magnet for graffiti vandals.

Remaining ugly in Auburndale

From the Queens Chronicle:

When a new owner planned to tear down and rebuild four derelict attached two-family homes in Auburndale, it opened up the possibility that the community would no longer have to look at the eyesore.

The plans have been scrapped, though.

Community Board 11 member Henry Euler discussed the situation at the advisory council’s meeting on Monday.

The homes, on 47th Avenue near 197th Street, were built in 2005 but never finished. Because they have never had a certificate of occupancy from the city — there is an issue with egress — no one has been able to legally live in them. The property has a construction fence at it.

Euler, who is a resident of Auburndale, said at the meeting that the new buyer had met with CB 11 members at a committee hearing about his plans at the end of 2016. But, he continued, the board didn’t hear from him after that.

Contractor defaults on Fresh Pond bridge replacement project

From QNS:

For residents of Ridgewood and Middle Village, the reconstruction of a railroad bridge in a high-traffic area has caused headaches for commuters after repeated delays to the project, and things just got worse.

On Friday, a Department of Transportation spokesperson confirmed to QNS that its contract with Mugrose Construction to rebuild the Metropolitan Avenue and Fresh Pond Road bridge over the Montauk line of the Long Island Rail Road has defaulted. The project that was once projected to have its first phase completed by January 2018 has now been completely stalled.

The DOT cited delays that were beyond its control, and is now working closely with the bonding company to get the project completed as quickly as possible, the spokesperson said.

Construction contracts typically involve a contract surety bond to protect the owner of the property (DOT, in this case) from the risks associated with construction projects. The bonding company assumes that burden, and in the event of a defaulted contract their options are to re-bid the job for completion, bring in a replacement contractor, provide financial or technical assistance to the existing contractor or pay the penal sum of the bond.

Therefore, a defaulted contract doesn’t necessarily mean the contractor has been ousted, but the DOT offered no further details.

Stalled condo project is major eyesore

"At 146-10 35th Ave in Flushing, there seems to be a permanent construction freeze. This apartment building project has remained in this incomplete state for, I believe, more than 5 years." - anonymous

DOB no longer updating stalled sites list

From The Real Deal:

Within the past month the DOB removed from its website links to hundreds of spreadsheets that formed a weekly accounting of properties that were identified as stalled sites. The spreadsheets debuted in July 2009 after the DOB formed the Stalled Sites Unit to track the growing number of distressed construction parcels as development ground to a halt during the recession.

That same year, the city launched the Stalled Sites Program, to help developers extend their permits and then restart their projects. The webpage for stalled construction sites was the repository for those spreadsheets, and became a resource for both communities to track derailed projects and for investors to looks for troubled developments.

That webpage remains in place, but the long list of the spreadsheets going back to July 21, 2009, has been removed and the agency has stopped providing public updates to it. The last list available, through August 17 shows more than 530 addresses on it.

That figure of more than 530 stalled sites is misleading, a review last month by The Real Deal found. Many of those buildings have changed hands or new plans have been filed or the projects have been recapitalized. They can remain on the list, however, until construction actually starts again and a DOB inspector visits the site to ascertain that it is active.

Brokers once scoured the weekly lists looking for potential deals, but as the economy improved, fewer and fewer of the properties remained distressed. So the list today is less valuable.

A spokesman for the agency said the city continues to maintain a stalled sites list internally, but officials did not see the need to continue to update the list publicly after the Stalled Sites program ended in mid-2013 during the economic recovery, which made stalled sites rarer.

Forest Avenue eyesore became parking lot

Back in July 2009, QC featured this stalled construction on Forest Avenue and called for a forced demo.

Whether or not this was "forced" I'm not sure. But the eyesore is no more. The demo happened in 2010. There's still outstanding fines due, however.

Unfinished Jamaica Estates castle is an eyesore

From the NY Post:

This man’s home is his castle — and a pain in the neck to everyone else.

The half-built remains of what looks like a medieval castle sit abandoned alongside the Grand Central Parkway in Queens, a testament to grand ambitions gone horribly wrong.

Joseph Jimenez and his wife Josette Said set out to build a dream home on a vacant plot of land in leafy Jamaica Estates, a neighborhood full of gracious tudors and colonials.

“We thought it was a good idea because the land was being used by vagrants,” said Martha Taylor, a member of the local community board and president of the Jamaica Estates Association.

Said, who bought the property in 2001, first applied for a permit with the city Department of Buildings in 2003, and began work in 2005.

The outline of a manor that would have made King Arthur feel at home, complete with turret-like accents, sprouted on the site, but then construction stalled.

Locals began catapulting complaints about the eyesore to the DOB and to local officials, who could do little other than scratch their heads.

“Unfortunately, the city does not have a mechanism to force people to finish building,” said Marie Adam-Ovide, the district manager of Community Board 8.

Big pile of crap on Flushing River is stalled

From the Queens Chronicle:

One of the former owner-developers of the RKO Keith’s Theatre in downtown Flushing has been sitting on a 3.75-acre waterfront site for two years with no immediate plans to build.

Shaya Boymelgreen’s Olympia Heights Management Team of Brooklyn bought the property at 39-08 Janet Place, off Roosevelt Avenue, in 2012 for $33 million and plans to turn it into retail and residential space.

The proposal is as of right, meaning the owner does not need zoning variances to proceed. The area is zoned C4-2, which allows for both residential and commercial space. And thus far, the developers have been tight-lipped about when they might build.

Nick Roberts, project manager of the Flushing, Willets Point, Corona Local Development Corp., said he calls Olympia Heights every month for updated information, but most recently spoke to someone there last fall.

Claire Shulman, who heads the LDC, said the whole area needs to be rezoned “to make the area harmonious and to open up the waterfront.” Shulman and Roberts believe financing may be holding up the project.

The waterfront property has had several owners. They include the Lev Development Group, the Vintage Organization and Abs Flushing Development.

CB11 votes no to restarting construction

From the Queens Chronicle:

Community Board 11 voted Monday to recommend that the city Board of Standards and Appeals disapprove the plan of a new owner to finish developing four attached brick houses on 47th Avenue off 198th Street in Auburndale, despite a longstanding effort to resolve what residents and board members have regarded for years as a potentially dangerous eyesore.

The site has access on 47th Avenue but uses a 198th Street address due to the configuration of the houses.

Elizabeth Bennett, a lawyer representing the owner, argued that the project should be allowed to proceed based on the building code standards that were in place in 2005, when a previous owner completed a substantial amount of the project, not new standards that were passed in 2008.

Bennett said the legal principle behind the request was the common law doctrine known as vested rights.

But during the board’s discussion period, some members who voted against the request said they were unconvinced that the owner was entitled to vested rights and wanted to see the site held to the newer building code standards.

And even some board members who believed the owner was entitled to be grandfathered in said the project does not provide enough space for fire truck egress.

Bennett argued that no Fire Department objections have been raised so far and that even if they were at a later date, the BSA has approved projects with even less egress.

The board voted 34-4 with 2 abstentions. Its action is only advisory. The application now goes to the Borough President’s office and then to the BSA.

And we all know what will happen at Borough Hall and 22 Reade Street.

See previously.

A better site for a school than Kiel Brothers?

From the Times Ledger:

Members of Auburndale community groups are puzzled by a vacant lot on Northern Boulevard that appears to be under construction but has remained unchanged for more than four years.

The boarded-up site, at the corner of Northern Boulevard and 196th Street, has some nearby residents wondering what, if anything, will take its place. The property formerly housed a gas station that was demolished in 1998 and the city Department of Buildings began issuing new building permits in 2002.

Since then, 32 permits have been issued for various types of work, including new buildings, alterations and sign construction, but no work applications have been filed since 2009.

Henry Euler, first vice president of the Auburndale Improvement Association, said the lot has been vacant for years and has been the subject of some complaints filed by various groups.

“My civic association had registered complaints because there were a lot of old things stored on the site, like garden nursery-type materials at one point,” he said. “The construction fence had been in disrepair and no permits were posted.”

Euler said the community has talked about several options for what could be built where the lot now stands empty but has no confirmation about what is really happening. One possibility mentioned by some nearby residents was to turn the lot into a school, which Euler said the community is in need of, according to the city School Construction Authority.

He said the SCA had contacted Community Board 11 about the need for a new elementary school in the Bayside-Auburndale area, and last month the City Council approved a plan to build an elementary school at 48th Avenue and 211th Street in Bayside. Residents who live near the site, now occupied by Keil Brothers Garden Center, still are strongly opposed to having the school so close the backyards of 31 homes, but the SCA is believed to be moving ahead with its plan.

Euler said he believes the lot on Northern Boulevard is large enough for a school and would satisfy those who are looking for another one in the area.

Another possibility for the property, he said, is to turn it into some type of community space.

BSA grants variance to out-of-compliance site

Josh Zegen of Madison Realty Capital
and the unfinished Queens rental

From The Real Deal:

A 28-unit unit rental building in Astoria delayed by a neighborhood rezoning will finally be completed, now that the developer has received a construction loan from Madison Realty Capital, principals of the commercial real estate investment firm told The Real Deal.

The seven-story, 25,000-square-foot building at 28-18 Astoria Boulevard will be comprised of only one-bedroom units and will have 2,289 square feet of retail space and a 1,189-square-foot community facility. It is being developed by local Queens developer Charalabos Bakalis.

Balakis purchased the site for $2.86 million in 2007, public records show, and filed plans for the new building shortly after. He started the project in 2008 but construction stalled when a 2010 rezoning of 238 blocks in Astoria rendered the project unlawful.

The developer needed approvals from the Board of Standards & Appeals to continue with the project as it was originally conceived. The BSA only recently signed off on the approvals, according to Bryan Rubin, a vice president at Madison.

The new building already has a foundation and a steal frame in place. Completion of the project is expected within the next 12 to 18 months, Rubin said.

Only one-bedroom units, eh? Ok. Meet, mate and move.

The Pink Elephant of Melrose Street

Came across this monstrosity at 390 Melrose Street one fine afternoon. There has been a permit for this unfinished building on file since 1999. Why it's taking so long to finish, I'm not sure. To me it looks more like a gaudy catering hall than a church.

Permits renewed for stalled Astoria site

Remember this and this?

Well the folks at Brownstoner Queens have discovered that permits are in the process of being renewed for the Steinway Street eyesore. So, the good news is that there won't be a stalled site at that corner for much longer. The bad news is that there will be lots more people moving into an already overcrowded, overburdened neighborhood. I'll take a corner apartment with a view of the sewage plant, please!

Wondering about status of "another crap too narrow"

"Hey Crappie,

I was wondering if you can answer a question that myself and my neighbors have.  On the stairs in Maspeth between 65th and 64th Streets, there is a 2-family home that began construction over 10 years ago; as of today the property is no longer under construction for at least 5 years and has never been completed and by the looks of it there are no plans to complete it. It is now just a hangout for people to drink and do drugs and is a blight to the neighborhood. Are there any stipulations that a developer has a certain amount of time to complete a project once started? Thanks for all your help on this and past problems." - anonymous

Nope! And not only that, if you leave your construction site an eyesore for several years, the City rewards you by including you in the "Stalled Sites Program" where they invite you to renew your expired permits free of charge. It must be nice to be a developer in this city, where the government bends over backward to help you make neighborhoods look like hell.

Briarwood site's been stalled for 3 years

From the Queens Chronicle:

An inactive construction site that has been stalled for years is frustrating the residents of Briarwood.

The lot located at 84-03 Lander St. was supposed to be developed into a six-story apartment house. But years later, the building remains unfinished, with metal columns that have since rusted over and a plywood fence that has become weather-worn and covered in graffiti.

“My suspicions are that they stopped working because they ran out of money,” Seymour Schwartz, president of the Briarwood Community Association, said. “They have a decrepit plywood fence that’s falling over and is very ugly in appearance, and it’s just a real eyesore.”

According to the Department of Buildings, a stop-work order was issued on March 26, 2010 for failing to protect the adjacent property — an active construction site for a similar apartment building next door. The builder was issued a second stop-work order in December 2011 for a collapsed and missing fence.

“Since August 2012, inspectors from the Department of Buildings have visited the site four times and issued four Environmental Control Board violations,” DOB spokeswoman Kelly Magee said. “The most recent round of violations was issued on April 10, for expired permits and failure to maintain a construction fence. DOB inspectors continue to monitor this as a stalled construction site.”

Though more than $24,000 in violation fees have been issued, Schwartz said he is pessimistic that anything would come out of the ticketing.

Stalled sites on the rise

From The Real Deal:

The number of stalled construction sites in Gotham has risen 17 percent since February—effectively eliminating progress made in getting construction going again in the last year, a new report from the New York Building Congress shows.

The Department of Buildings began tracking the number of stalled sites in the five boroughs in July 2009, following the collapse of Lehman Brothers the previous September, which resulted in widespread construction delays. This month, 691 sites were identified as stalled, up from 592 in February of this year. The November total marks the seventh highest number of stalled projects since the report’s inception, and the highest since January 2011.

Of the sites deemed stalled, 45 percent have been on the DOB’s list since it began, and 26 percent were added this year. The New York City Department of Finance estimates that stalled sites, including vacant land, have an aggregate market value of $883 million, the report said.

Tommy Huang appeals Mia Drive BSA decision

Well folks, here we go.

It's not Tommy's fault that someone at the Queens Topographic Bureau "mistakenly" stated that his Mia Drive property was a through lot when it really wasn't. Therefore, BSA should allow him to build.

Rumor has it that Queens Borough President Helen Marshall will support his appeal, although CB11 is not expected to when it votes later this month.

Mia Drive Variance Application
Mia Drive site plan

Here are previous stories about the property:

BSA helps Huang

Board decides Huang created his own hardship

Huang stalls out in Bayside

Bayside's had enough of Huang

College Point developer applies for 2nd variance

From the Times Ledger:

Plans to convert a dilapidated College Point factory into a 134-unit waterfront condo complex resurfaced this month after spending years off the community’s radar.

On Aug. 14, the city Board of Standards and Appeals received a request to extend a set of permits to allow construction at the old Chilton Paint Co. factory, at 110th Street and 15th Avenue.

The permit, called a variance, allows the developer to circumvent zoning laws and build housing in a manufacturing district.

The permit was initially issued in 2005 but was only valid for three years.

When it first expired in 2009, the developer had still not put a shovel in the ground and went back to the board.

According to documents filed with BSA, construction was delayed because the ownership of the property changed hands and the economic downturn caused funding to dry up.

The BSA granted the extension for another three years “on condition that substantial construction shall be completed by July 19, 2012.”

Yet substantial construction has not been completed. In fact, no work appears to have been done on the property as the developer is again approaching the city for another extension.

Lake Vernon still in limbo

From the Queens Chronicle:

Nestled between a Department of Education office and a Con Edison building on Vernon Boulevard, hidden behind graffitied plywood fencing, is an enormous abandoned lot with a water-filled hole which Community Board 2 says people have dubbed “Lake Vernon.”

The lake has a million-dollar view — or in this case, multi-million-dollar view — that was originally intended for the residents of a massive development project called “River East.” The project, at 44-02 Vernon Blvd., was to have included two 29-story towers and smaller properties accommodating nearly a thousand apartments, according to published reports.

But the project has long since stalled and its developers are mired in foreclosure litigation, according to a spokesman for Durst Fetner Residential, which owns a $32 million note on the project. CB 2 would like the city to take over.

In its Fiscal Year 2013 request to the Borough President’s Office, the board wrote that the site is “a serious threat to the safety and quality of life to all those who live and work in close proximity.”

CB 2 would like the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to seize control of the site, with the ultimate goal of transforming it into affordable housing.

Yes, we need more affordable housing paid for with taxpayer-funded corporate welfare.

Work resumes on more stalled sites

From Crains:

As more projects were quietly restarted across the city last month, the number of stalled construction sites fell 8% from year-earlier levels to an average of 638, according to a recent New York Building Congress analysis released Wednesday. The group noted that the number of dormant sites in the five boroughs have now either decreased or remained steady for 11 consecutive months, a sign that the market is stabilizing.

The bad news is that the number of such sites is still 40% above the level recorded two years ago.

The total stalled sites, which include vacant lots where buildings were supposed to rise but no work was started, have an aggregate value of $1.3 billion, according to estimates from the city's Department of Finance. Nearly two-thirds of the stalled sites, 62% of them, are residential projects, according to the Building Congress.

The situation is at its worst in Brooklyn, which alone has 299 stalled sites, nearly half the citywide total. There, the number has fallen only a slightly below-average 6% from year-earlier levels. Queens appears to be faring best. There, the number of stalled sites dropped 14% to 131, in a performance nearly equaled by Staten Island, where the total fell 13% to 52. Bringing up the rear were Manhattan, where the number of stalled sites slipped 3% to 126, and the Bronx, where the number was unchanged at 30.