30-70 38th Street (left), 30-66 38th Street (Right) (GMaps)
Aug. 3, 2015 By Jackie Strawbridge
Developers have their eyes on a cluster of small homes on 38th Street, between 31st and 30th Avenues.
Plans were filed with the Department of Buildings last week for the demolition of three houses, two of which are next-door neighbors.
All plans were filed by George Elliot of Ellco Development Corp. Calls to Elliot went to voicemail at Bell Realty in Great Neck.
One of the homes, located at 30-70 38th Street, is a one-story house with an attic, which might look just as comfortable on a tree-lined suburban street as it does on 38th.
In 2012, the DOB issued a permit for the construction of a 5-story, 10-unit residence on this property, which was filed by Eric Belanich, also of Bell Realty.
Its neighbor, 30-66 38th Street, is a two-and-a-half-story frame house, according to property documents. It has a first story bay window and a garage that developers also intend to demolish.
Across the street, 30-49 38th Street is a two-story house with split coloring: yellow on the first story façade, and brown on the second.
A stop work order exists on this property, according to the DOB.
30-49 38th Street
Featured Events
21 Comments
Okay guys so “Old Homes’ are beautiful and were made to be beautiful and charming. Back then a lot of materials were used that were good quality wood and so on and details were carefully thought out. Most of them done by hand and top craftsmanship. They deserve more appreciation. Not everything costs an arm and a leg. A lot of this can be restored.. cheaper than building new, costs of permits, architect fees and so on. Btw in my opinion actually when hipsters buy homes or start businesses they usually restore old details, homes, storefronts etc. They actually like knowing the history of their neighborhood unlike immigrants who come into the area when none of that matters to them. Your have to look at the positive side. These developers are the ones ruining communities and quality of life. Also we the residents need to speak up, call and email the Councilman, Senator and Borough President. They need more complaints to start doing what’s right for our communities.
It’s so much better here with all these clueless transplants and white bread eaters. I’ll take my Mocha latte with soy milk please.
Everything was better when (insert author’s ethnic group) lived here. Now we have all these (insert your ethnic group here). I miss the old days.
I would love to see all these old homes fixed up but…….
A lot of the owners that have lived in their homes for 30 plus years have done a great job of ruining the character of the neighbor.
Let me list them, covering brick with vinyl siding, removing iron fencing and replacing it with chrome or PVC fencing. Installing gigantic casement windows that don’t work with the building instead of double hung, covering brick with stucco, never fixing anything, adding on illegal additions that look ridiculous… These house would cost over $100K at least to bring them back to glory. If that is to happen only a developer is going to buy and gut the house and then double the price so pick your poison. If you want these houses fixed up what is your plan for paying for it?
Most people are ignorant! Our neighborhoods are being stripped of character, history and style. Those old houses should be chersihed, they have the wrong materials on them because people in NY aren’t aware of what style or what the right materials these houses would have originally had in their glory days. Even with age or bad materials these”old houses”look better than the crap they are buildings that are big box with cheap materials, no greenery, fedder air conditioners and taking up parking spaces and overcrowding our quality of life! We need more interest in saving our communities, history and character. What about historic districts or historic cities that are able to keep their houses and buildings original and charming and plasing to the eye. It’s all ignorance, political, greed and laziness!
It would be great if the people that owned these houses all these years fixed them up correctly. A lot of them look like junk and it’s really too bad. Who else is going to supply the money though if not developers? It’s very expensive to fix up these houses.
A person’s home is there own to do as they please. To fix us and change an appearance to suit you is wrong. Gentrification and turning Astoria and LIC into a hipster land is wrong. Allowing more people to move into Astoria and LIC is a crime. We are overcrowded. We cannot drive without bikes riding all around us and towards us. This is insane You Mark are wrong you say “fixed them up correctly. A lot of them look like junk ” you are junk, you have a lot of nerve telling people what to do with their homes, Yes it is very expensive to hire repair people and contractors, the prices are astronomical, do you know what real estate taxes are these days? city telling owners that their homes have quadrupled in value on paper so they can hike real estate taxes all the way up, you want to move the middle class out of their homes into some place out of new york so hipsters can some in and party hearty all the time and make the neighborhood be to their trendy liking and then move on after the trend goes but in the meantime, Astoria and LIC are the target and it’s insane. All these artisan restaurants and speakeasy s and the return of the cocktail and so much alcoholism and people of younger ages disrespecting the seniors and the baby boomer, this happened in South Beach Florida where the seniors were driven out so that the hipsters could make their scene in south beach, shame on all of you with no respect for people who were here before you. Mark, you give me the money to fix up my house and you move someplace else and why don’t you take your artisan hipster butt to another town and leave all of us alone? we don’t want developers making us lose the horizon with all these tall buildings, there are young punks walking up and down my street with drinks in hand and cigarettes and whatever they are smoking at all ours of the night and day just eyeing my house like a hungry snake ready to pounce and get inside. go away hipster, go back to williamsburg, go back to the L train, go away hipster, leave Astoria LIC and Queens to the people who built it, it was ok years ago when people made fun of those of us living in Queens as we were not the popular types and our taxes were lower and our repair expenses were lower and then people like you from williamsburg and manhattan and oregon and cool towns decided you would invade our neighborhood and make it impossible to live here, can you pay my taxes? can you pay my bills? you just want to pay one rent and go get drunk and hang out while all the original residents suffer, you are trying to kill us all
Most ppl are ignorant! Our neig
They are eyesores. Typical old Astoria houses with shoddy, mis-matched, tacky exterior work that need constant repairs. Glad to see them gone.
hey James, go back to where you came from, obviously you are not from around Astoria and LIC, you should leave, you are a tacky eyesore, leave us all alone, we don’t need your nasty comments, this is our home, you are trying to throw us out, shame on you, what goes around comes around
I guess Save Astoria doesn`t have to worry about parking. Well I happen to live on this block. And it`s terrible what`s happening to the entire neighborhood. It makes me sick. Peoples homes are getting destroyed because of inadequate under pinning and poor construction. Then these contractors change their company name and then the homeowner with the damaged home has to start a very long lawsuit. If you don`t have a good lawyer you could be in court for years. My next door neighbor`s insurance company had to cough up 37,000 because the contractor damaged the home next to it .Then the contractor folded his corporation and moved to Florida. For all we know he could of came back and opened up another company so that he could damage someone else`s home. More than half of the tenants on this block wind up moving out within 6 months to approx a 1 1/2 yr. Therefore I don`t even get know my neighbors. I get it everyone wants to make Astoria the next Manhattan. And yes Astoria will be cheaper then Manhattan but the people that are coming into Astoria still can`t afford the rents. Even with 3-5 tenants per apartment. The law states that if you build an apartment building with more then 10 apartments you have to provide parking for half of the tenants only. So what happens. The parking is approx 250-280 dollars a month. Guess what .No one takes the parking spot. The merchants on Steinway wind up taking the parking spots. And that apartment with the 3-5 tenants in it probably have at least two cars because not everyone likes mass transit so parking on 38 th street becomes horrendous. I`m sure it`s not just 38th street.
Hope they got good money out of it. I’m all for these new apartment buildings. The old homes were like 100 years old anyways. These new apartments will have to do with all the demand and peopel moving to Astoria. I just hope they have built in parking garage. Street parking is getting worse!
Astoria doesn’t need more people, it was way better before everyone and there mother started to move here.
It’s not the people moving in that’s the problem, it’s that the old people aren’t dying fast enough.
How can you make your name “SaveAstoria” and have a comment like this? What’s wrong with old houses? I live in a well made 1920s house in Astoria and I’m fed up with watching Astoria turn into an apartment complex. Shame on you. Move to Williamsburg or Manhattan if you want a high rise. Goodbye!
My children are the fifth generation to be raised in Astoria. As a matter of fact, they are being raised in the same apartment my great grandmother raised her children in. Bathed in the same tub she bathed her kids in in a building built in the 1920s. I remember when 30 th avenue only housed one cafe (Galaxy) and it was mostly older European men chain smoking and drinking espresso out on the sidewalk cafe. Astoria has most definitely changed in the last decade. There are still some beautiful buildings that need to stay. It’s nice to see the old mix with new. It’s what gives astoria it’s neighborhood feel. While some of the older buildings and houses certainly need to be taken down, my hope is that the ones that are still in good shape remain.
It started a long time ago. I remember a beautiful mansion on 36th street between 21st and 20th road. Demolished to put up 5 adjoined apartments. The developers and builders don’t live in the area so they don’t care.
I gather that they sold for the right price
This is just one of the many reason the neighborhood is being destroyed. Greed.
Yeah, I blame all those stores that want money for their products instead of giving it away for free.
Who is being greedy? The person selling?
It’s not really a good practice to sell your property for less than what you can get for it. Who’s to say the person that bought it from you isn’t going to turn around and sell it for more 6 months later.