Category: Fire

From The Wall Street Journal: By Kavita Mokha

One of the first garden communities in the U.S. could be the site of a new six-story, mixed-use building whose current design, if approved by the city Landmarks Preservation Commission, won’t include any green space at all.

Phoenix Manor, the proposed apartment building, is planned as a Georgian-style structure with 45 units and street-level retail property. The project’s planned site is at the corner of 37th Avenue and 84th Street in the Jackson Heights Historic District in Queens.

Approval by the landmarks commission is needed because the project falls within the historic district, which covers roughly 38 blocks from Northern Boulevard to Roosevelt Avenue and from 76th to 88th streets.

Locals have been circulating petitions opposing the building proposal for several months. Daniel Dromm, a Jackson Heights councilman who opposes the project in its current form, described the design as an “architectural blight” at a landmarks commission hearing this month. Noting it doesn’t include “an inch of green space,” he said it was out of character for the area.

The project’s attorney, Howard Weiss, said that much of the opposition was originating from the proposed building’s immediate neighbors who were used to having a one-story structure next door.

“It’s a fact of life in an urban environment,” said Mr. Weiss. “When development occurs, sometimes people lose their views.”

He added that the design was in compliance with the historic district guidelines, and said he expected the landmarks commission to vote for it. No date has been set for the vote.

The site of the proposed building is currently a vacant lot that formerly housed eight mom-and-pop stores destroyed in a fire earlier this year. Some of the businesses that lost nearly everything in the fire have since found new homes in the area.

Colony Wine and Liquor store, a fixture in the community for decades under different owners, reopened just down the block four months ago, while the former Willo Barber Shop now stands as Marcos Barber Shop.

Others have been less fortunate. Eighty-three-year-old Thomas Kourakos, whose shoe-repair shop on the stretch dated to 1956, is among those who haven’t returned.

Still others are struggling to regain some semblance of stability. Maria Solano, owner of Lalita’s party-favors store, now operates out of a Laundromat on 37th Avenue where she has selling space set up at the front. New businesses also have opened up on 37th Avenue in the past few months, including Slim’s II Bagels and La Gran Uruguaya Bakery.

A steady influx of professionals and young families has boosted the area’s commercial real estate as well as its residential prices in recent years.

The neighborhood is a quick hop (15 minutes) to Manhattan and is one of the best-connected sections in Queens, with the Roosevelt Avenue subway stop linking the 7, E, F, G, M and R lines.

For foodies, there are mainstays like El Chivito D’Oro, an Uruguayan steakhouse on 82nd Street, and Jackson Diner, an Indian restaurant in “Little India” on 74th Street that also just opened an outpost in Greenwich Village. Numerous Colombian bakeries and Mexican food carts have been around for years, along with growing numbers of Nepalese-Tibetan restaurants.

But rising commercial rents are making the area unsustainable for some retailers, especially in light of recent economic woes. Fashion Heights, a clothing store, is slated to close this month, while Primos Discount, just a couple of doors down, hasn’t been able to negotiate new lease terms.

“This is the worst business has been since I opened 36 years ago,” said Sue Lee, owner of the Ho flower shop on the same block as Fashion Heights and Primos. “When times are tough, you don’t need flowers, but you still need to eat.”

Michele Beaudoin, a broker with Beaudoin Realty Group who is a Jackson Heights native, thinks the ownership of the area’s retail spaces makes a difference.

“Unlike the individually owned stores you find in Astoria or Forest Hills,” she said, “many 37th Avenue stores are owned by large building owners, corporations and huge landlords, which makes them less affordable.“

Local business owners, meanwhile, have mixed feelings about the Phoenix Manor proposal and the prospects of having a new apartment building in their midst.

“It’s bittersweet for me because on the one hand there will be more people who need our services,” said Alex Chin, owner of Kelly Cleaners, which stands next to the proposed building on 37th Avenue. “But by the time the new building goes up, my lease will expire and I probably won’t be able to afford the rent anymore.”