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LIC042015

by david dynak WAVE OF CHANGE David Dynak is a real estate broker at First Pioneer Properties and an LIC resident. He’s lived in Western Queens since 1993. Neuroradiology Nuclear Medicine / PET Musculoskeletal Magnetic Resonance Imaging Mammography / Women’s Imaging Interventional Radiology Cross Sectional / Body Imaging Proud to be the Of cial Radiologist of The New York Cosmos of the 2015 HomeReporter.com Spring is here, at last! Between all the egg hunts, farmer markets and parades, New Yorkers are pouring outdoors after a rough winter. I was recently reminded how unsafe it used to be outside, especially after dark in parks around Sunnyside, Astoria and Long Island City, and you only had the option to cross the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge to enter ground zero for inner city parks – the McCarren Park. Now things are much different, thankfully. While gentrification and development are as much by-products as they are causes of positive change, there is no denying that the most proven and long-term route to elevating a neighborhood is attracting landlords and residents who have an economic and social stake in the area. With that come faster-than-average increases in rents and property prices. When a one-bedroom condo on 48th Street off Queens Boulevard goes for close to $500,000 and co-op prices are 40 percent higher in two years – it is official, the rapid pace of price increases is not limited to new construction towers on the LIC waterfront or Astoria retail pockets. In some cases, like with houses on best blocks, the pace at which prices go up in the next few months may actually lead to appreciation that exceeds that of the seeming “hotter” neighborhoods. There have now been deals made on Queens Boulevard in the 40s, along Steinway Street and on Vernon Boulevard, of over $100 per-square-foot (psf) annually, putting retail rents in western Queens not too far behind Williamsburg and even parts of Manhattan. Office rents over $30 per-square-foot and on small offices over $40 per-square-foot are shocking to companies hoping to save big by relocating from the city, causing many of them to back away and seek space downtown in the Financial District, where rents around $30 per-squarefoot can still be found. Yet, the sticker shock is not limited to prospective tenants. Some local landlords, who see an opportunity to double their rents on industrial space or triple the price by converting lofts into office and warehouses into retail, find it difficult to accept the cost of required improvements. Such improvements include construction, changes in certificates of occupancy and concessions or long-term (10 years or more) lease commitments that these higher quality companies are accustomed to. If we want to compete, we have to think and act like the “big guys” across the pond! A new season always brings the “what’s next?” thoughts. Will the 5,000 rental apartments in Hunters Point and 11,000 affordable housing units planned in Sunnyside overwhelm the 7 train? Can we work to make the streets of Long Island City cleaner now that it is no longer just an industrial neighborhood? How about reserving a portion of street parking to residents of the immediate neighborhood, so that commuters from Long Island who drive in and take the 7 train do not take up most of the parking spots Monday through Friday? The strongest gains often come after failures: a failed Olympics bid, nasty recession, plunge in real estate prices that made us all question this business, and even a hurricane that brought flood to our doorsteps and deprived us of a marathon. With a tough winter behind us, we look ahead to a new season no longer as “the next big thing” but a “sure thing” looking for best ways to ride the wave of change. ■REAL ESTATE


LIC042015
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