22 The QUENS Courier • may 14, 2015 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com Whitestone library garden gets $25K from Malba women BY ALINA SURIEL [email protected]/@alinangelica From cash to container plants, the Women’s Club of Malba is spending some green to keep the Whitestone library green for a very long time. In their latest charity effort, the club gave the Queens Library Foundation $25,000 to maintain the outdoor garden outside the Whitestone branch at 151-10 14th Rd. “We are delighted that the Women’s Club of Malba is supporting the reading garden at the Whitestone Library,” said Vincent Arcuri Jr., president of the Queens Library Foundation board of directors. “Through its endowment, the club will ensure that the garden will provide hours of relaxation, literacy, and environmental learning and outdoor enjoyment for generations to come.” The women’s club is able to give to the community Photo courtesy of Dominick Totino Photography Board member Rosemarie Scarola (top, center) from the Woman’s Club of Malba presented Vincent Arcuri Jr., president of Queens Library Foundation board of directors (far right), and Bridget Quinn-Carey, interim president and CEO of Queens Library (bottom, left of center) presented the Queens Library Foundation with the endowment at Whitestone Library’s outdoor garden. They are surrounded by members of the Woman’s Club and representative from the Queens Library. Willets Point industrial property, not part of city’s mega development plans, hits the market BY LIAM LA GUERE [email protected] /@liamlaguerre And then there was one. The only property in Willets Point that was not owned by the city and will not be handed over to developers for the neighborhood’s massive revitalization plan, has been listed for sale. The property at 34-09 126th St., across from Citi Field between 34th and 35th avenues, comprises of a one-story warehouse on a 20,000-square-foot lot. An asking price was not disclosed, but offers are being accepted, according to Swain Weiner, president of Greiner-Maltz Investment Properties, which is marketing the site. The property has been popular with investors, because it has a maximum of 130,000 buildable square feet and it will be surrounded by housing and entertainment of the new Willets Point neighborhood when development plans are completed. “It’s the odd piece out. That’s the beauty of it,” Weiner said. “Just imagine when everything is built.” The remaining property for sale is in a special zoning district and a variety of projects could be built there, including a hotel or residential structure, Weiner said. In March, the Sunrise Cooperative, a group of auto shop owners that rented space in Willets Point for their businesses, agreed to move to the Bronx in exchange for $5.8 million. The Bloomberg administration tapped the Queens Development Group, a joint venture The Willets Point property at 34-09 126th St. offers 130,000 square feet of buildable space between real estate firms Related Companies and Sterling Equities, for the Willets Point mega project following a request for proposals in 2011. In the first phase of the plan, a shopping center with 200 stores and other attractions will be built to the west of the baseball stadium, where there is currently a parking lot. Then the area to the east, where all the auto shops are located on contaminated land known as the Iron Triangle, Photo courtesy Ana Jimenez/ PropertyShark will be remediated. After the cleanup developers will build a residential community of 2,500 housing units, 875 apartments or 35 percent of which will be affordable, and community facilities, a public school, more retail, a hotel and parking space. The city has touted it would create 12,000 construction jobs and another 7,100 permanent jobs once development is complete. more than ever since the sale of the its clubhouse in the fall of 2012, according to Rosemarie Scarola, who is currently serving as first vice president. The Center Drive clubhouse had been used by the club since its start in 1933, but financial difficulty from rising taxes and other expenses led to the sale, and the women do not plan to buy another headquarters. Instead, funds from the sale are being given to nonprofit foundations, with the library garden grant following a $100,000 endowment in 2013 to buy a new, state-of-the-art ambulance for the Whitestone Volunteer Ambulance Service. Scarola said that the organization always chooses local charities for their donations because they want to be sure that the funds will directly impact the community in a meaningful way. “You give to a big organization, the organization gets like 3 dollars, and you’re paying for the CEOs,” said Scarola, who served as president of the club from 1988 to 1990, “so we try to be a little more careful with that.”
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