June 9, 2015 By Jackie Strawbridge
Developers are about to start construction on a seven-story, 54-unit luxury rental building, located blocks from Athens Square Park.
The building, which is going up at 30-92 29th St., was formerly a doctor’s office that was adjacent to 31st Avenue. The new building will include a gym, laundry room and an outdoor roof terrace, according to property documents.
The development will include 30 parking spaces, although owner Michael Starcic called this number “a moving target” yet to be finalized.
Construction permits were approved by the Department of Buildings on June 2.
HTO Architect, which is also behind the Wolkoff development slated to sit on the former 5Pointz site, is designing the building.
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“Luxury Apartments” lol… as opposed to a “housing project” or “affordable housing”. They are building 50 new apartments because more people want to live here than there are apartments (or would you rather rents simply double again?)
What’s “luxury” about them? they each gonna come with a butler and gold plated bathrooms.
it’s pathetic that someone can complain about the people moving into the apartments.
maybe these people who make a reasonable wage are moving here because they too love the neighborhood and would prefer to live in a new building, and not a run down rent stabilized building with neighbors who have lived there for 30+ years and pay next to no rent.
also, if the property owners weren’t selling property to the developers to begin with this wouldn’t be an issue at all.
Whether or not you want to believe it, this is progress. these buildings attract stable couples, families and others who want a real neighborhood without all the hassle of overpaying and being in a too densely populated area like much of Manhattan.
it’s nice to see new buildings as opposed to much of the run down properties in the area that haven’t seen any type of improvement for 20 years.
for all of you mentioning the 80’s and 90’s…..get over it. it’s not the 90’s, it’s 2015
we are fortunate to live in an area so spread out with zoning that doesn’t allow skyscrapers in the middle of a block. you barely see these new buildings once they are up. 6-7 stories at most.
As someone else mentioned, get involved in your community if you dislike all the development. Get a committee together to oversee new projects and work on fitting them into the neighborhood without being such an eyesore.
..and maybe you are a Rainbow Flag waving creep.
I live next door to the construction (the white five-story building in the pic) and I’m not too thrilled about this. I liked having the medical building there and was sad to see it (and a classic brick building from around 1900) demolished. I’ve seen “luxury” apartments in Brooklyn and they are anything but that: greedy developers cut corners everywhere and demand high rent to get the most $ from suckers. And of course the noise until Fall 2016 will suck, but that’s NYC.
Ruggish, that is NYC. It’s an aging city that need to be redeveloped. If it is that unpleasant to you you can always move.
if we took your attitude, the streets of NY would still look like this
https://discardstudies.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/children-and-dead-horse-street-in-new-york-c-1895.jpg?w=620
I love to see the changes also, but worry about the crumbling infrastructure like our electric grid, traffic and public transportation systems that are already at their limits. This is a small building compared to the 1000+ unit buildings in LIC, but it is still a lot for the 30th avenue area.
I grew up in Astoria I saw the change from mainly white European to the influx of Indian and Pakistani to Hispanic and middle eastern. The neighborhood has been changing for years. I have since moved from Astoria first to Whitestone and now all the way to Suffolk county. Astoria is a place that welcomes people from both foreign countries and other states with open arms to be upset that people love to move here is sad. I miss living in Astoria I visit Astoria frequently and love to see the changes.
Spiro it’s the WHITE people from the midwest that ruin the area not anyone else. The WHITE BREADS.
what the hell are you even talking about? You sound like a fool Raymond.
He’s talking about YOU and YOUR KIND. The Rainbow Flag creeps.
Overcrowded because astoria is now high intensity traffic area. They come from all over tri state, stay few days and leave with more money. We are a red light district now.
True it was not like LI I can attest to that. Wrong comparison. Astoria is so over crowded now. Have you taken the train on a Saturday morning lately? It’s like rush hour! I remember taking the train on a Saturday morning in the 90’s and there would be 3 or 4 people per subway car.
People used to be caught up with the idea that if you wanted to live a “city life” you needed to be in Manhattan, those that knew better realized gems like this one. As prices went up, others realized this too and it got crowded and more expensive here. That’s life the “City” grew to accommodate more people and more demand. Further parts of queens have become the new Astoria and the island has become the new outer borough.
This is gentrification at it’s best, tons of apartments, tons of people, tons of cars, Astoria used to be our escape from Manhattan, we would get on the train and feel like we were going out to the Island, it was a wonderful place and now it is so overcrowded and depressing, all of Brooklyn is trying to move in here. These builders have no cooth and the real estate offices really have destroyed Craigs, do yourself a favor and never buy a house here.
Babs, I lived in Astoria from the 70’s thru the mid 90’s when I moved to Long Island. Astoria was NEVER like Long Island. It was always highly populated and people always lived in close quarters to each other. While I do agree there are even more people living here now. To said it was like Long Island is just not true
That’s right if it was like Long island it would be full of chain restaurants and a lot of 50 year old women dressing like they are 30 with bleach blonde hair. That’s Long Island.
if you want to feel like you are going out to the island, at least you can still.. go out to the island.
Luxury this luxury that, but never apartments for the working man/woman.
Are you saying the owner of a luxury property doesn’t work?
The people that live paycheck to paycheck to be precise smarty pants!
maybe those who live paycheck to paycheck should find another neighborhood to live in that is not minutes from manhattan. There are many other affordable areas of Queens for them. Living this close to Manahattan come at a higher price!
Maybe you should go back to Chelsea.
Dear “I hate transplants”, I was born in Astoria and have lived here for almost 50 years now. my parents lived here as did my grandparents when they came from Italy. I am most certainly not a transplant. Astoria was always more money than places without such great access to Manahattan. Perhaps it is you who should move to Chelsea or maybe even Staten Island. I think things will be more affordable for you in the forgotten borough!
we are all transplants. my great grandfather settled here in astoria over 100 years ago and i am a transplant. you live in New York City. Manhattan has grown in size and cost to accommodate more people, deal with it. make believe they have redrawn the Manhattan boundaries to encompass a bigger area.
I can’t wait for my rent to rise because of this!
These people have destroyed the neighborhood.
Oh please… Do you not think when your people moved into the neighborhood the previous people thought the same thing?? Smarten up. It’s New York.
Molb “My people’? How would you know who ‘My people’ are?
You’re a MORON making MORONIC statements and what in the world does it mean when you say “IT’S NEW YORK”??
What do you even know about New York?
Nothing that is what….
You MORON.
Close to Manhattan so dirt bags like you move into this neighborhood and disrespect it and the people in it…. you just care to live here because it’s 15 minutes to your cubicle job in Manhattan…. You only care about your white bread ways and you’ve spoken like the true CORPORATE RODENT that you are.
You sound a bit angry. You are the one that used the blanket word “people” to describe those destroying the neighborhood and your working referred to them as someone other than yourself. Also by saying it’s New York I mean that New York neighborhoods constantly change. It always has historically.
I don’t care to live here only because of its close proximity to my workplace (which is not a cubicle – cubicles are no longer the norm in workspaces, by the way) but also because of Astoria’s diversity and it’s family friendliness. It’s ashame that someone with a point of view like yours coupled with anger lives in an area that boasts such diversity. My recommendation to you would be to relax, welcome the changes and any changes that you’re not happy with, proactively be involved in the community in ways that reinforce your vision of how the neighborhood should be.
Go back to Nebraska.
Yes MOLLB it’s New York, a place you have no understanding at all… please go HOME.