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16 THE QUEENS COURIER • MARCH 23, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM Breakfast forum focuses on Long Island City’s business and real estate boom BY ANGELA MATUA amatua@qns.com @AngelaMatua During the March 16 Long Island City Partnership Real Estate Breakfast, leaders in real estate discussed the exploding growth of the neighborhood and some challenges it needs to overcome. Hosted at Th e Learning Center on Vernon Boulevard, four panelists discussed their upcoming projects and the real estate market in the waterfront neighborhood. Th e panelists included Andrew Kurd, director at Savanna; Tom Powell, director of business development at Boyce Technologies; Olaf Schmidt, senior associate at Holl Architects; and Tara Sheikh, general manager at Aloft Long Island City Hotel. Screenshot via YouTube/Allen1628famm A M train arrives in the snow at the Flushing Avenue station. More bad news for M LIC Partnership hosted the 12th annual Long Island City Real Estate Breakfast. train weekend riders Th eir projects span from the Falchi and Citicorp buildings, the new library at Hunters Point, a manufacturing company that helped install Wi-Fi throughout the subway system and the 29th hotel BY ANTHONY GIUDICE to be constructed in the neighborhood. agiudice@qns.com/@A_GiudiceReport LIC Partnership released its annual LIC Real Estate Market Snapshot, which Th e train pain on the M line in Queens found that in 2016 there was a total of will continue on weekends next month. $2.13 billion in commercial and investment Th e recent storm that left Queens sales in the neighborhood. Th ere under a sheet of ice also froze scheduled are about 9,000 new units slated to be constructed in 2017, making it the most number of units in a single year in Long Island City’s history. Th e total number of residential units built in Long Island City since 2006 will total more than 20,000 by the end of this year. Elizabeth Lusskin, the president of LIC Partnership, said the demand in the neighborhood is expected to grow even more in the coming years. “Long Island City’s location, mixed-use character, cultural vibrancy and interdependence among the diverse businesses are this neighborhood’s greatest assets, which creates a perfect recipe for the district’s renaissance,” she said. “We anticipate even greater demand for space in LIC when Cornell Tech opens this year.” According to moderator David Brause, the president of Brause Realty, there are currently 29 hotels in the neighborhood with 35 more coming in the future. Sheikh added that the hotel supply in Photo by Angela Matua/QNS New York City has exceeded demand. “As far as the hotel supply is concerned, it’s offi cial that we have exceeded the demand,” she said. “But in the Long Island City market we do need more inventory. We need more to drive or direct more compression to our market.” Brause, whose company has owned properties in the neighborhood since 1980, said there is some concern about how many apartments is too many and added that the expiration of 421a has slowed down some of the real estate residential development. But he still thinks Long Island City will continue to be popular for businesses and residents. Powell said his company has had challenges with “blocked roads, sidewalks, parking, delivery vehicles and such on a regular basis.” He added that the snow was not adequately shoveled around the 7 train on the night of March 15 and that his company bought a Bobcat to clean the neighborhood. Kurd also discussed the lack of retail in the neighborhood, but said he’s hopeful that more will come. “Th ere’s defi nitely a lack of retail currently, and it’s going to happen and it has to happen,” said Kurd, who manages the Falchi and Citicorps buildings, “but I think there’s going to be a lot of retail development over the years so we hope to take advantage of that.” weekend repair operations on the M train line between Middle Village and Bushwick, causing the MTA to shut down the line for an additional two weekends. At the beginning of March the MTA announced that M train service would be halted between the Metropolitan Avenue stop in Middle Village and the Myrtle Avenue-Broadway station in Bushwick for 11 weekends between March 3 and June 26 for preliminary work replacing track panels before the full closure of the line starting on July 1. However, last week’s severe weather — along with the weather forecast for this upcoming weekend — has created an unsafe work environment on the elevated tracks, leading the MTA to cancel the scheduled work for March 18-20, and rescheduling it for the weekend of March 25-27. Th e MTA also added the weekend of April 1-3 to the docket of work. Th e updated list of closures is as follows: March 25-27, rescheduled from March 18-20; April 1-3, added due to weather impacts of March 14; April 8-10; April 22- 24; April 29-May 1; May 13-15; May 20-22; June 3-5; June 17-19; and June 24-26. Th e new schedule is still weather permitting and subject to last-minute changes. All weekend closures will be in eff ect from between the hours of 12:01 a.m. Saturdays until 5:00 a.m. Mondays. To get riders where they need to go, fare-free shuttle buses will be in service at these stations: Myrtle Avenue-Broadway, Central Avenue, Knickerbocker Avenue, Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenues, Seneca Avenue, Forest Avenue, Fresh Pond Road, and Middle Village-Metropolitan Avenue. During the weekend shut downs, M train service will continue to be in operation from Essex Street in Manhattan to Broadway Junction in Brooklyn. For up-to-date information on these closures, visit mta.info.


QC03232017
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