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52 The QUENS Courier • REAL ESTATE • december 11, 2014 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com ▶ real estate Photo courtesy of Modern Spaces Sunnyside movie theater closing for residential development BY LIAM LA GUERE lguerre@queenscourier.com @LiamLaGuerre And that’s a wrap for Sunnyside Center Cinemas. The longtime neighborhood movie theater at 45-25 Queens Boulevard will be closing on Jan. 4, according to a published report, after its lease was not renewed because the owner wants to make way for a residential development. The property was bought in 2012 for $6.65 million from Dime Savings Bank by John Ciafone, husband of Gina Argento, who is the president of film production firm Broadway Stages. The new owner hopes to lease the ground floor, which has 52,000 square feet of air rights, for $750,000 a year to a developer looking to build a residential structure above, Sunnyside Post first reported. “I’d like to bring much-needed affordable housing to the Sunnyside community, and I’m currently in the process of looking for a development partner with extensive affordable housing experience,” Ciafone said. The property is currently being marketed by real estate firm Modern Spaces. The bar next door, PJ Horgan’s, which is also a tenant on the property, will remain open. And although the cinema is closing, Ciafone said that there might be a chance for it to return. “Once the project is complete, I’d be more than happy to sit down with the owner of Center Cinemas to discuss lease opportunities,” Ciafone said. 14-story hotel and residential mixed-use building planned for Flushing BY LIAM LA GUERE lguerre@queenscourier.com/@LiamLaGuerre Permits were filed to build a new 14-story residential, community and commercial mixed-use building in Flushing on Thursday. The site, which is located at 134-03 35th Ave., is owned by brothers Christopher and George Xu, according to published reports. The brothers initially asked for a residential zoning change for the property in 2010, New York YIMBY reported, and are now looking to develop on the land. Flushing-based My Architect, led by Jon K. Yung, is designing the building. The new development will be a 206,968-square-foot building, roughly half of which will be for residential use. There will be 134 apartments in the structure, along with a 210-room hotel, according to YIMBY. The entire development will have 223 parking spaces in an underground facility, and an additional 18,000-square-foot space for a community facility. Bramson ORT College expanding main Forest Hills campus BY LIAM LA GUERE lguerre@queenscourier.com/@LiamLaGuerre A small two-year college in Forest Hills has signed a lease for more space nearby to expand its facilities as part of a plan to become a larger institution. Bramson ORT College, which currently enrolls 610 students, is renting 8,000 square feet of additional space at 68-80 Austin St. — a block away from the school’s main building at 69-30 Austin St. The school hopes to build a new library, a student lounge, a bookstore, faculty offices and some new classrooms in the new space, which is under construction and will be completed by early 2015, according to school President Dr. David Kanani. Kanani said the expansion is part of a full reconstruction of the school to hopefully become a full four-year institution. “We are restructuring the school, we are restructuring our staff, we are restructuring our facilities, we are adding new programs. We are really intent to make this one of the best twoyear, career-oriented, post-secondary junior colleges in Queens, if not the state,” Kanani said. “And then after that, once we put that in good working order, then we will hopefully go for a four-year college.” Recently, Congresswoman Grace Meng helped Bramson ORT from losing federal funds, which caused a difficult financial situation for the small school. The U.S. Department of Education was delaying financial aid for the school, and Meng intervened to bring both sides together and hasten the delivery of the funds to the institution. Bramson ORT College, which has a campus in Brooklyn, has a history that stretches back to 1942. The school was originally established to serve refugees and immigrants during World War II. Today it provides students with degrees in accounting, business management, computer technology, electronics, graphics and web design, paralegal, pharmacy technician and programming, among other subjects. Kanani hopes the expansion and reconstruction of the school will attract better students as well. “I believe that when you improve the quality of the school as a whole, automatically you attract better students,” Kanani said. “Better students for us means students that want to learn.” Bramson ORT College 69-30 Austin St. THE COURIER/Photo by Liam La Guerre


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