Spotlight On: Long Island City
Long Island City is showing serious signs of life after the COVID-19 pandemic froze the nation’s fastest growing neighborhood over a year ago. LIC has seen one of the most dramatic growth spurts over the last decade, with condominium properties appreciating by over 60% since some of the first condos launched back in 2006. This is especially compelling since as recently as 20 years ago the area was very much a ghost town.
With beautiful views of the city, LIC’s Gantry Plaza State Park is home to the famous Pepsi-Cola sign. In 1940, the sign was placed on top of a massive PepsiCo bottling plant that sat where the park is today. Along the way, take a moment to admire the rugged beauty of the park's centerpieces - restored gantries. These industrial monuments were once used to load and unload rail car floats and barges; today they are striking reminders of the waterfront's past. With the city skyline as a backdrop and the gantries as a stage, the park's plaza is a wonderful place to enjoy a spring or summer concert. Recreational facilities include basketball courts, playgrounds, handball courts, and a fishing pier with its own cleaning table. Continuing down the waterfront you have Hunter's Point South Park. This waterfront park was until recently an abandoned post-industrial area in Long Island City. Transformed into a space that offers fun and relaxation for everyone in the area, the new park includes a central green, playgrounds, adult fitness equipment a dog run, a bikeway, a waterside promenade, picnic terraces a basketball court, a 30-foot-tall cantilevered platform for viewing the skyline and waterfront.
In addition to its aesthetic value, Queens is known for being the most ethnically diverse urban area not only in NYC but the world, offering an array of amazing foods. From food carts, to food trucks to Michelin rated cuisines you can find any cuisine you are craving. Some of our personal favorites are Casa Enrique, Adda, M. Wells Steakhouse, Mu Ramen, King Souvlaki (food truck). Also there are some breweries as well LIC Beer Project, Fifth Hammer Brewing, Rockaway Brewing Company.
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
GALERIE LIC
Galerie (22-18 Jackson Ave.) is an 11 story condominium with 182 units
Architecture by ODA, interiors by Paris Forino
Adam America Real Estate (AARE) and Vanke US are the developers of the site, and it is AARE’s first residential condo project in LIC.
The building offers a variety of amenities and upscale features, including a full-size indoor pool, a landscaped courtyard, fitness center, a library with books selected from MoMA PS1, and event space. Other amenities include a children’s playroom, pet spa, and a rooftop terrace.
THE ZIPPER
Former Long Island City zipper factory that was abandoned for 15 years until developer Circle F took it over, retaining its exposed brick walls and timber wood ceilings
one of the last remaining warehouse conversions (like Arris lofts) likely in LIC
41 condo units, ranging from $871,000 for a 1BR to $1.945 million for a 3BR apt
RENTALS
TF CORNERSTONE
52-41 CENTER BOULEVARD
Leasing has launched for market-rate rentals at 52-41 Center Boulevard, TF Cornerstone’s latest high-rise addition to the Long Island City. Located along the East River waterfront, the 46-story tower is one of several residential properties within the Hunter’s Point South mega-development and introduces 394 rental apartments.
The two towers will eventually yield 1,194 apartments. This includes a mix of studios and one- and two-bedroom apartments.
SVEN
QUEENS PARK PLAZA
Sven, aka Queens Plaza Park, a 762-foot-tall skyscraper at 29-37 41st Avenue in Long Island City. Designed by Handel Architects for The Durst Organization, the 67-story project currently holds the title as the second-tallest structure in Queens and will yield a total of 978,000 square feet.
The entire complex will provide 958 rental units, 300 of which will be set aside as affordable housing, according to the Durst Organization. Residential amenities include an outdoor swimming pool, a 20,000-square-foot fitness center, a library, co-working areas, a children’s playroom, and a demonstration kitchen. The nearest transit options to the site are the E, M, and R trains at the Queens Plaza station and the 7, N, and W trains at the elevated Queensboro Plaza station.
THE DESTINATIONS THAT STARTED IT ALL
MOMA PS1
Long Island City’s transition has been a long time coming. In 1976, when Queens officials let curator Alanna Heiss take over an abandoned schoolhouse — “The roof was partially gone,” she remembers — to found the contemporary-art space PS1, “it never occurred to me that in a few years people would not be flocking to that place,” she says. Others saw a similar potential: The Noguchi Museum opened in 1985, and artist Mark di Suvero created the Socrates Sculpture Park a year later in an abandoned illegal dump on the waterfront. Recognized as a defining force in the alternative space movement, MoMA PS1 stands out from other major arts institutions through its distinctive approach to exhibitions and direct involvement of artists within a scholarly framework. Functioning as a living, active meeting place for the general public, MoMA PS1 is a catalyst for ideas, discourses, and new trends in contemporary art.
THE CLIFFS AT LIC
Featuring bouldering, toprope climbing, and lead climbing the Cliffs at LIC is one of the largest rock climbing gyms in the country, and the largest in NYC. It can accommodate over 700 climbers at once (pre-covid) and has 16’ top-out bouldering, mega 60' leads with up to 35' of overhang. Also includes a full fitness gym with cardio equipment and free weights. They aim to give you the best indoor climbing experience whether you are an adult or child.