■REAL ESTATE Subway: The Bridge & Tunnel Lifeline In New York City, the subway is our lifeline, ferrying people/talent and money/consumers between neighborhoods and boroughs, and real estate prices, both rents and sale prices, are heavily affected by access to the subway. Such is its importance that I really can’t even imagine MTA completely shutting down the L train for up to 40 months starting in 2017. Williamsburg, parts of Greenpoint and Bushwick, three of the hottest neighborhoods in Brooklyn would get virtually cut off from Manhattan. Down there, prices of properties are literally weighted against “which stop on the L are you?” As much as the need to commute to office jobs daily, especially in technology, music and design (top employer by david dynak categories for folks living in North Brooklyn) has gone down with the rise of office share space, telecommuting and contract Make Coffee Great aGain noW oPen 42-77 Hunter Street, Long island City, nY 11101 Ettoespressobar.com • 718-786-4320 employment work, the appeal of areas like Williamsburg, and Astoria or LIC, is the proximity to Manhattan. Sure, an artist or web designer living in the borough can get all the beer and burgers near his apartment, and most of his shopping is probably now done online but that German tourist looking for Brooklyn Brewery experience, or Manhattanite venturing out to visit Museum of Moving Image needs the subway to keep coming back. Without the train, we’re really reduced to “bridge and tunnel” and even mighty Uber or handy Zipcar can only do so much. It’s the power of the subway connection that has brought investors at Related & Company, one of the nation’s largest developers, to Long Island City in the past several months. The firm is in various stages of negotiations on at least three redevelopment sites, two near the Midtown Tunnel/Hunters Point Avenue station, and one on Skillman Avenue near Queens Boulevard. Paying top dollar for multi-story industrial loft buildings with intention to pour tens of millions of dollars in renovations to convert them into full-fledged office buildings may seem a little risqué or even puzzling given the abundance of newly-sprouted and still largely vacant, overpriced office loft spaces in the area. Except they are not planning to look for small business tenants or to lease these properties piece by piece. Instead, they believe the extension of the 7 train into 34th St Hudson Yards on the west side has now connected Long Island City with a whole new office tenant base in Manhattan, some of whom they already have “lined up”. With new class-A office on the west side going for $100 per square foot and more, sending part or the entire back office department across Manhattan and over (well, under, to be precise) the East River into LIC makes sense. Which brings me back to an old dream of mine for the neighborhood. If the Nets are now fully in Brooklyn, including their training facilities and company offices, why are the Knicks still practicing and training in Westchester and not Long Island City? Mr. Dolan and Phil Jackson – we’re waiting for your call, please! I cannot yet fully disclose details, but a certain full city block site at Queens Boulevard in the low 30s, until now sharing the block with nothing exciting except Artist & Craftsman supply, YMCA and City View Racket Club, will finally go through extensive redevelopment and upgrades, with its ownership having decided it was time to bring it to the 21st century. I look forward to working with new companies/tenants to create another exciting pocket with a mix of retail, office and commercial activity you already see happening at Queens Plaza, Court Square and near LaGuardia College. Yes, the library on Center Boulevard is finally going up, and rumor has it Pizza Hut has signed a lease on Vernon Blvd. Also, another new doggy daycare with overnight services is slated to open this year west of PS 1 museum, and the Army & Navy surplus store that was never open to the public in the first place is finally out. Even the “tot lot” with sand box and baby slide on the corner of 5th Street and 48th Avenue, mysteriously closed for the past 8 years is supposedly getting a facelift and will reopen as part of the necessary renovations to the basketball and handball courts adjacent to it. We’re filling in nicely, albeit slowly, and believe it or not, many of the new construction condo buildings built prior to 2010 are now up for major exterior repairs as mandated by Department of Buildings. Yes, the neighborhood is maturing and already in need of repairs. As long as the 7, the N and the G trains keep running, we’re going to be okay. David Dynak is a real estate broker at First Pioneer Properties and an LIC resident. He’s lived in Western Queens since 1993.
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