[NYguy]

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...icle-1.1714665

$225 million development coming to downtown Jamaica
The 26-story commercial and residential tower is the largest private investment in the neighborhood





By Clare Trapasso
March 7, 2014

The skyline in downtown Jamaica, a discount shopping hub that has struggled to stage a comeback, is about to change.

A $225 million tower, with retail below and about 400 apartments above, is slated to break ground in early 2015 near the AirTrain to Kennedy Airport.

The tower is to clock in at about 26 stories. The next tallest structure in the neighborhood of 99 cent stores and takeout restaurants, is a 12-story federal building.

“We see it as a site that will attract new development,” said Carlisle Towery, president of Greater Jamaica Development Corp. “It’s the largest private investment [in the neighborhood.]”

Greater Jamaica spent about a decade acquiring six parcels of land for the site and helping to secure financing and developer BRP Companies for the project.

BRP plans to set aside at least a quarter of the units for affordable housing. But the number of apartments — and how many are affordable — may change, officials said.

The project will also include underground parking and about 80,000-square-feet of retail that will include a Duane Reade.

“We’re going to bring sexy to downtown Jamaica,” said BRP Managing Partner Meredith Marshall.

The tower is the latest shot in the arm for the up-and-coming neighborhood, which devolved into empty storefronts and crime in the 1970s. A 210-room hotel for business travellers is slated to go up this year nearby.

Local leaders have long touted the neighborhood as ripe for potential as the average family income within a mile of the downtown is $62,000, according to the Jamaica Center Business Improvement District.

Somehow, I knew the Duane Reade would be back.



http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...er-in-jamaica#

Carlisle Towery, president of the nonprofit, said that the group spent the past seven years and $8 million putting together the roughly 50,000-square-foot site that BRP Companies is now buying in the deal. Greater Jamaica Development originally began marketing the site two years ago, but couldn’t find any takers. Mr. Towery said that BRP Companies became interested in the parcel when it lost out on a nearby site on Sutphin Boulevard and 94th Avenue. There another development firm, Able Management, won the bid to build a 24-story hotel land that is jointly owned by Greater Jamaica Development and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

“BRP first was negotiating for the hotel site but then they indicated an interest in this larger parcel and that’s how the deal came together,” Mr. Towery said. “The development climate has changed, more developers are interested in the boroughs and Jamaica is benefiting from that.”

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/0...apartments.php

Jamaica AirTrain's New Neighbor? Hundreds Of Apartments

Friday, March 7, 2014