38real estate L’Inizio of a new business year After a September and October of balmy California weather and no typical fall season at all, winter seems to be coming on schedule, just as businesses are looking forward to 2014. By middle of November all the budgets, marketing plans and fi nancial planning for the upcoming year should be done for most businesses. Add to it all the nervous anticipation of the local government elections in New York City and New Jersey, and there are even more reasons to stop paying attention to what seems like an era gone by. The recession, housing market decline, presidential election, hurricane Sandy and cancelled 2012 NYC Marathon, all now seem like distant memories, even though they were all hot topics this time last year. Another cycle is already well in progress NOVEMBER and 2013 is more BY DAVID DYNAK about lessons learned than about how many days to go before the ball drops in Time Square. For real estate owners, normally this is the time to make sure roofs and heating systems are ready for winter, but with the new city government regime coming, many things could change. Uncertainty about property taxes, abatements, rezoning and other development related incentives, as well as housing and government spending policies, all infl uence neighborhoods old and new, and could play roles in shaping the fate of New York’s real estate assets. In western Queens there are still no signs of slowing down for the residential market or any signifi cant commercial property game changing moves at this time. Relatively low rents and incredibly attractive buildings, as well as plenty free rent credits to build out interiors, etc. are doing the trick. Multiple offers from famous chefs, hip fashion and art tenants, cool coffee shops and wine stores are pouring in. Where are these visionary commercial developers in Long Island City, Astoria or Sunnyside? ARTS EVENTS Calendar Courtesy of Plaxall Long Island City Plaxall.com LICProperties.com 2013 MoMA PS1 Noguchi Museum 22-25 Jackson Ave., LIC, NY 11101 718.784.2084 • MoMAPS1.org 9-01 33rd Rd. (at Vernon Boulevard) Long Island City, NY 11106 718.204.7088 • www.noguchi.org Museum of the Moving Image 35 Ave. at 37 St., Astoria, NY 11106 718.777.6800 www.movingimage.us Mike Kelley On View Until February 2, 2014 MoMA PS1 presents Mike Kelley, the largest exhibition of the artist’s work todate and the first comprehensive survey since 1993. Regarded as one of the most influential artists of our time, Mike Kelley (1954–2012) produced a body of deeply innovative work mining American popular culture and both modernist and alternative traditions—which he set in relation to relentless self- and social examinations, both dark and delirious. Bringing together over 200 works, from early pieces made during the 1970s through 2012, the exhibition occupies the entire museum. This exhibition marks the biggest exhibition MoMA PS1 has ever organized since its inceptual Rooms exhibition in 1976. Isamu Noguchi and Qi Baishi: Beijing 1930 On View Until Sunday, January 26, 2014 While en route to Japan for his first time since childhood, Isamu Noguchi paid an unexpected visit to Beijing (then called Peking) from July 1930 to January 1931. A fateful encounter with a Japanese businessman and art collector, Sotokichi Katsuizumi (1889-1985), exposed the young artist to Katsuizumi’s small collection of scrolls by the poet, seal carver, and traditional ink painting master Qi Biashi (1864-1957). Noguchi was entranced by what he saw, and asked to be introduced to Qi Baishi whom he observed and studied with. Space, Choreographed: Noguchi and Ruth Page On Sunday, January 26, 2014 Space, Choreographed: Noguchi and Ruth Page was developed in a collaboration between The Noguchi Museum and The Ruth Page Foundation, building on a group of drawings Noguchi made of the great American avant-garde dancer and choreographer Ruth Page posing in a sack dress he designed in 1933 to transform her into a dynamic embodiment of his sculpture Miss Expanding Universe (1932). EXHIBITION The Booth: The Last Days of Film Projection On View Until February 2, 2014 “For most of us who love going to the movies, the projection booth and what goes on in there is a bit of a mystery, if we even think about it at all. I, for one, am glad that Joe Holmes not only thinks about it, but has taken the time to document it in his unique way… Each image offers a glimpse into a private world that is all but gone…” Actor/director Steve Buscemi 38 NOVEMBER 2013 I LIC COURIER I www.queenscourier.com Nowhere – at least not yet. Overpriced rents of $60 to $80 per square feet on narrow, low-ceiling stores with little basements don’t bode well for attracting great new businesses, who could fi nd alternatives in Manhattan with 20 times the foot traffi c. Yet, despite the challenge of lack of quality space at good price, 2014 will welcome new additions to make you smile: a new café at 5-33 51st Avenue is under way, and a new artisanal pizza shop called L’Inizio at 47th Avenue and Vernon Boulevard by long-time LIC resident and real estate broker Tom Blaze. Amy’s Bread, on 48th Avenue and 34th Street, offers all of its products to the public at its outlet right in the lobby of the bakery building, and yours truly has been harassing Amy to open up a more proper retail store near LaGuardia Community College soon. Once you sample that breadth of bread, you’ll forget the Atkins Diet ever existed. I am told Rockaway Brewery has found a way to stay near its current location and will expand to have a tap room and increase production in Hunters Point. And at the same time, a certain world-famous artist will leave the same part of town to seek a long-term lease at warehouse rates because their rent, as a result of residential development and their own upgrades to the space in excess of $2 million will creep close to $30 per square foot, doubling in just seven years in LIC. Such is the price of renting short term in a hot, developing neighborhood. Independently of all the external events, I plan to ready myself for unchartered waters of the new business year using the only tools that can never be replaced with the next wave of technology – hard work, cautious optimism, and thick skin. So, as I do every year, wishing everyone a happy new business year! 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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