inside look Q&A BY LIAM LA GUERRE Modern Spaces CEO ERIC BENAIM explains real estate in LIC Eric Benaim founded real estate firm Modern Spaces in Long Island City in 2008, and within a handful of years led the explosion of residential interest in the neighborhood. Over the years, he expanded the company from LIC to Astoria, Manhattan and Brooklyn, and recently, Modern Spaces announced the launching of its commercial and investment property division, tapping into another side of the market. In a question-and-answer session with LIC Courier, Benaim explained the current status of real estate in Long Island City and the transformation of the neighborhood. Courier: How did you get inspired to start working in Long Island City? Benaim: I guess I was always a Queens boy, and I started focusing in LIC back in 2005. I was a broker focusing mostly in Manhattan and at the time there were pretty much no brokers in the neighborhood over here, so I figured I would try to make this my niche. Just walking around you see the views of Manhattan, you see there’s a lot of potential over here and I stuck with it, and obviously it paid off. The neighborhood has changed dramatically since 2005. Did you really think it the transformation of LIC would happen so quickly? Benaim: No. Literally, from my window I see cranes everywhere, and it’s just crazy to see my skyline changing every day. What is the real estate market in LIC like now? Benaim: There is a lot of development. There was not that many condos being developed over the last couple of years, but condos are about to come back strong. We are seeing a lot of condo projects that are going to be coming online probably by first and second quarter of next year. And in regards to rental projects, a lot developers are doing stuff now whereas before it was predominately TF Cornerstone and Rockrose. now you are seeing a lot of big developers coming into the neighborhood that were never here before. Why do you think there is a switch from rentals to condos? Benaim: Because land prices have gone up a lot and when land prices go up so much it just doesn’t make sense to do a rental because the return on your investment does not really pay out. So it just makes more sense financially to do a condo rather than a rental. Rental projects that are coming along, these are projects sites that were acquired probably a year or more ago when land prices were a little more affordable than they are now. Photo courtesy of Donna Dotan Photography Inc.
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