By Connor Adams Sheets
River Park Place, a five-tower, mixed-use development project, has long been planned for the Flushing River waterfront, but Community Board 7 Vice Chairman Chuck Apelian has never heard of the project.
The plan by Manhattan’s LEV Development would bring more than 1 million square feet of residential and commercial space to 39-08 Janet Place, the neglected vacant area between Assi Plaza and Sky View Parc, according to LEV President and Chief Executive Officer Eddie Shapiro.
The company has finished designing the buildings — down to the interior of the space — but the project has been put on the back burner in light of the financial downturn, Shapiro said.
“It was going to be towers.” Shapiro said. “We’re still involved with it. It’s going to be 1 million square feet, but right now we can’t get financing for it …. we won’t be getting financing for it in the near future.”
The plan, as laid out on LEV’s website, is for 450 condominiums as well as hotel, office and retail space on the lot, also identified as 131-35 Roosevelt Ave.
Shapiro said “it went through all the approval processes,” referring further inquiries to LEV’s vice president and project manager Yoram Barel, who did not return a request for comment Tuesday.
But there are no current permits for construction at the site, and one that would have allowed for construction of a residential building there expired in March, according to city records.
Chuck Apelian, vice president of CB 7, said he had never heard mention of the project until last week and it had never come before the board in any form.
“It’s not a variance or a rezoning application. Every piece of land has the opportunity to build — that’s what as-of-right is — but it has not come before us,” he said.
But he added that the project, which he called “huge,” may face significant hurdles because the water table is high in that area right next to the Flushing River, meaning parking would most likely have to be built above ground there.
As such, it would probably be difficult to reach the parking requirement for the 160,825-square-foot site as it is zoned C4-2, which requires one parking space for every 300 square feet of floor space constructed. Also, the maximum commercial floor area ratio is 3.4 under that zoning, meaning the total floor area of commercial space is limited to 3.4 times the gross area of the plot on which it is constructed. That limits the amount of commercial space that can be built as-of-right to about 390,000 buildable square feet of residential space or about 550,000 of commercial space..
Thus LEV would have to go before CB 7, Borough President Helen Marshall and the City Planning Commission or city Board of Standards and Appeals in order to get a rezoning or variance if it plans to proceed with its goal of building more than 1 million square feet of space.
The city Economic Development Corporation did include the building in a list of projects expected to be built by 2017, indicating that it would contain 475 new residential units.
The city Department of Buildings has issued at least nine violations to LEV, Barel and related company LDG Builder — which lists the same address as LEV on city records — since December 2008, at least seven of which are still in violation. There is currently a stop-work order on the empty Flushing property.
A biography of Shapiro on the website for his Manhattan real estate brokerage Nest Seekers International says that at LEV “he serves as CEO and manager of over a million square feet under development. Signature projects like The Sage House Condominium [in Corona], The 505 on 47th and 10th Avenue and River Park Place in Flushing, Queens including 450 residential units a hotel, office and retail components have earned LEV a significant presence in the real estate development arena.”
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
