Hotel proposed for Forest Hills

Known to many community residents as &#8220Mr. Forest Hills,” Heskel Elias and his development group have put together plans to bring an $80 million world-class, five-star hotel, spa and mixed-use center to Austin Street.
Elias' development group, The Heskel Group, Inc., met with the planning and zoning committee of Community Board 6 last month about plans for a 15-story, 150-room hotel that would also include restaurants, shops and even additional parking for residents along 70th Avenue and Austin Street.
&#8220People have to dream, [like when] Robert Moses wanted to build a bridge…This is my dream for Forest Hills, my dream for the community I love,” Elias said.
Elias said that he wanted to meet with the community board and gauge its reception to the proposal as well as find out issues that concern them before applying for the zoning changes necessary to build the hotel.
&#8220I made it very clear to the community board that if they reject me at stage one, I'll pack my bags and won't do it,” Elias said.
&#8220The realization is he wants to do the best for the community, and therefore they [the community board] are responsive to what he is proposing,” said Frank Gulluscio, district manager for Community Board 6.
Elias and his development group have already met with Queens Director of City Planning, John Young, about the possibility of rezoning the area the project is slated for from a C8-2 district to a C6 zoning, which allows for commercial and residential development.
Both Borough President Helen Marshall and City Councilmember Melinda Katz said they are waiting to issue any public comments until the zoning change issues are resolved. However, sources say both politicians will support the project.
Although the development site is in a busy area, and the Community Board 6 committee voiced concerns that parking and flow of traffic in the area were two of its concerns, Elias said that parking would not be an issue.
&#8220You will see lack of parking is a poor excuse for bad business and bad business decisions,” Elias said. He maintained that because there are many municipal parking lots in the area, and the hotel will have its own parking as well as provide more than 100 spaces for community-use at the same rate as the municipal lots, it would not be an issue.
Elias said that he plans to make the center first class with the five-star hotel as well as top-of-the-line restaurants and stores. He mentioned Abercrombie and Fitch, J. Crew, Morton's Steakhouse and the Cheesecake Factory as possible suitors for the space.
In addition to the stores, Elias said the additional guests the hotel would attract to the area would benefit other community businesses as well as create nearly 1,000 permanent jobs.
Gulluscio said the community board is looking forward to Elias and his development group returning to the board and providing more specific information about the project.
If the zoning changes are approved and the project is given the green light, construction on the project would take about 18 month, and the hotel could be completed by the end of 2008 or sometime in 2009, according to Elias.