When people talk about the most impressive homes in the “best” neighborhoods in Queens, Douglas Manor, Malba, Forest Hills Gardens and Jamaica Estates regularly dominate the conversation.
So they’re usually shocked to discover that some of the biggest, most expensive homes in the borough are to be found in Little Neck Hills, an almost unknown section of the city’s northeastern “frontier.”
The aptly-named area occupies the high ground between Little Neck and Marathon Parkways to the east and west, Northern Boulevard and the Long Island Expressway to the north and south.
Prospective buyers searching the area can’t help but notice that you can see Manhattan from the high ground along Van Zandt Avenue – fans of seclusion find you can’t see either end of the block on the meandering roads.
During the hottest of the hot real estate market, home prices in this extensively- wooded section came to resemble telephone numbers
The roads, lined with stately homes and with names like Morenci Lane and Brattle Avenue, wind around the terrain under towering trees, to come to an end at oddly-configured intersections.
In fact, the only road that crosses the neighborhood without interruption is Browvale Lane, a particularly serpentine route that motorists along Northern Boulevard might mistake for a communal driveway.
For all the impressive street names, the biggest, most expensive home in the area – with a price that once resembled a toll-free number – has a rather prosaic address: 53-27 254th Street.
It’s a 9,000 square-foot Mediterranean palazzo, with five bedrooms and more than five bathrooms. It has a two-car garage, three fireplaces, a pool, gym and a host of other amenities.
It was custom built for a baseball player whose former team, incidentally, just moved into their own rather pricey new home in Queens.
He never actually got to move in before moving on and the manse, with its own batting/golf driving cage, is “a steal” at $4.3 million for the “particular buyer,” according to real estate agent Andrew Abrams.
“Someone else had it at around $8 million during the height of the market,” he explained from his Manhattan office. “A house like this isn’t for everybody.”
Local real estate agent Suzanna Cid of Little Neck Realty pointed out that there are homes available in Little Neck Hills with less astonishing prices.
She noted that not long ago, “I sold a small ranch on Browvale Lane” – not far from the Long Island Expressway – for $663,000.
“I have one [near 249th Street and 51st Avenue] for $1.65 million; there’s a home on Morenci Lane for $1.99 million and a new construction on Annadale Lane for $2.999 million,” she said.
