Queens Neighborhoods: New Developments are Being Planned in the Borough’s Hot Nabes

We’ve been hearing for years that the next hot neighborhoods for NYC rental apartments will be in Queens, particularly in the communities of Long Island City and Hunters Point, right across the East River from Midtown Manhattan.

And while there has been a significant number of new developments in the area, particularly along Long Island City’s waterfront, as well as a number of of new restaurants, galleries, and nightlife options, the supply of places to live hasn’t quite matched up to the hype. Until now, it seems.

Recently there were numerous announcements about big new Queens rental apartment projects in that borough’s increasingly desirable neighborhoods of Long Island City, Hunters Point, and, just a subway stop or two away, Queens Plaza. These Queens neighborhoods are about to get a whole lot hotter.

In Long Island City’s centrally located Court Square, for example, Rockrose Development Corporation has broken ground on Linc LIC, a towering, 42-story rental building–which instantly makes it one of the tallest buildings in the borough!–that will feature more than 700 rental apartments when it’s completed in 2013, ranging from 450-square-foot studios to 1,400-square-foot three-bedrooms.

Rockrose promises that Linc LIC will be flush with amenities, including an 8,000-square-foot courtyard, with lawns, on the third floor; and another with grills, bars and tables, on the 31st. And to further entice young families, creative types and professionals to come on over to Queens, the price of these Long Island City rental apartments will likely be at least 25% less than their Manhattan counterparts.

And Linc LIC is just the beginning! Rockrose plans to add three more Long Island City rental apartment buildings to their Court Square complex in the coming years. Expect the immediate neighborhood to get a whole lot more lively.

Meanwhile over by the East River, Long Island City’s most ambitious rental apartment development, the stunning, seven-building, $1 billion residential complex known as the East Coast Project, pictured at top, last week officially became “just past half-done” according to the Wall Street Journal.

The East Coast project is the dream-apparently-come-true of the development firm TF Cornerstone, which has spent two decades designing, planning, and, now, building their Long Island City rental apartment haven, which is likely to offer up some 3,500 units of market-rate housing.

And over in Queens Plaza, that area around and under the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge (nee the famed 59th Street Bridge) which city officials once hoped would blossom into a kind of “Queens Times Square”, is instead becoming one of the borough’s busiest in terms of rental apartment development.

Several thousand new Queens rental apartments should be on the market in the coming years in Queens Plaza alone, say local realtors, and all priced about $1000 less than comparable spaces a 15-minute subway ride away in Manhattan. Stay tuned on this one.

Urban Edge No Fee Apartments
NYC Metro Area (including NJ)
Rent Directly from Owners & Property Managers
Thousands of No Fee Apartments