A pair of industrial buildings in Long Island City, the sites of which were supposed to be part of the polarizing $2 billion redevelopment plan for Astoria known as Innovation QNS, have been sold to new owners, records show.
Midtown-based developer the Hakimian Organization, in partnership with Cheskie Weisz’s firm CW Realty, acquired 35-17 42nd St. and 42-08 35th Ave. in the Queens neighborhood for $15.8 million from Woodside-based company Queensboro Farm Products, according to a deed that appeared in the city register Monday. It’s unclear when or for how much Queensboro Farm Products bought the properties, but records indicate they may have been in its name since 1975.
The two sites — both 1-story auto repair shops — are part of a swath of properties across five blocks that make up the proposed Innovation QNS development site, spanning Northern Boulevard to 37th Street and from 35th to 36th avenues. They were previously leased by Silverstein Properties, one of the three major real estate firms behind the massive rezoning plan approved by the City Council in 2022. It promised to bring nearly 3,000 units of housing across 12 new buildings to the border of Astoria and Long Island City.
Three years later, however, the proposed project that roiled Queens politicians and residents for months throughout its contentious public review process has yet to get off the ground, and its future remains uncertain — not least because of the sale of the adjacent buildings off Northern Boulevard.
Tracey Appelbaum, a co-founder at BedRock Real Estate Partners — one of the other two firms behind Innovation QNS — told Crain’s in 2023 that the expiration of the 421-a tax break, meant to inspire developers to create market-rate and affordable units, could make it more difficult to complete the project.
“The deal does not work without 421-a,” Appelbaum said at the time. The replacement program, 485-x, finalized last year in the state budget, has been much maligned by developers.
Silverstein Properties, led by Larry Silverstein, in May terminated its 2018 agreement with Queensboro Farm Products to lease the two sites, city records show. Representatives from the firm declined to comment.
Weisz of CW Realty, one of the new owners of the buildings, declined to comment on his plans with the Hakimian Organization for the site. BedRock Real Estate Partners did not return a request for comment by press time.
