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Q&A
Council Member Schulman questions developer on Queens Boulevard project details
0:11:48
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3 min
Council Member Lynn Schulman engages in a detailed Q&A session with Eric Palatnik, representing QBM Properties LLC, about the proposed development at 102-51 Queens Boulevard. The discussion covers various aspects of the project, including commercial space, parking, design aesthetics, labor engagement, and potential for supportive housing.
- The developer plans for 2-3 commercial spaces in the new building, with existing tenants given the option to return.
- Parking is primarily intended for residents, acknowledging car ownership trends in the area.
- The applicant commits to prevailing wages and engagement with labor union SEIU 32BJ for building service workers.
- While supportive housing is not feasible for this project, both parties express interest in exploring such options in future developments.
Lynn Schulman
0:11:48
I have a question about the commercial space.
0:11:50
Have you had conversations with the existing commercial?
0:11:52
Is there just the one tenant there?
Eric Palatnik
0:11:53
No.
0:11:54
There's a couple of different tenants.
0:11:55
There's an urgent care there and there's the restaurant there.
0:11:57
The restaurant will be coming back.
0:11:58
The restaurant is owner occupied.
0:12:00
The the the applicant is actually the operator of the restaurant.
0:12:03
And all the other tenants who've seen have been given the chance to come back.
0:12:06
Nobody has decided yet.
0:12:08
It's still a couple years away from going into the ground.
0:12:10
So, but everybody's been given the chance.
Lynn Schulman
0:12:12
How many commercial spaces do you anticipate in the new development?
0:12:15
Just a couple,
Eric Palatnik
0:12:16
like Three.
0:12:17
Two or three or four.
0:12:17
It's it's about 17,000 square feet.
0:12:20
So
Lynn Schulman
0:12:21
Is the proposed amount of parking primarily for resident use or accessory to the commercial space?
Eric Palatnik
0:12:25
Residents.
0:12:26
One thing we're we we are learning from talking to the owners in 9881 is that although and you know it better than I do.
0:12:32
Although you are part of Suburban New York City and although you are incredibly well accessed with mass transit, people in your community have cars and they use them and they like it and it's not just a luxury, it's it's a requirement for them.
Lynn Schulman
0:12:47
Are you able to make design changes toward the community board recommendations to improve the the aesthetics of the rear facade?
Eric Palatnik
0:12:54
The community board, we tried to explain to them and we showed you on the renderings that the building is set back quite a bit.
0:13:00
I don't know if it's mentioned in front of me, nearly, I think, 30 or 40 feet from the residence to the rear.
0:13:05
Those are the six story apartment buildings we were speaking about.
0:13:08
This building has been designed incredibly well, and it's the design that we portrayed to you is on all four sides of the buildings.
0:13:15
Some buildings will just do a nice design on the front.
0:13:17
Right.
0:13:17
You know, like a a fence between yards.
0:13:19
Somebody gets the the crummy side.
0:13:20
Here, everybody is getting the nice side of the building.
0:13:23
So we we did try to convince them of that.
0:13:26
I don't know if they were agreeable to it, but we believe that should address their concerns.
Lynn Schulman
0:13:29
Okay.
0:13:29
Do you have MWBE hiring and contracting targets for the project aligned with the borough president's recommendation?
0:13:36
K.
0:13:36
Another question I have about the jobs that this project will create is whether the applicant plans on engaging with labor unions to meet the wage requirements of the state's four eighty five x tax exemption.
Eric Palatnik
0:13:47
We plan on having prevailing wages in compliance with the 45 tax abatement program.
0:13:53
We've also already engaged conversations with local thirty two BJ who is here today for building services that will give their people or people who are working employed at the building to be constructed the right to unionize should they desire and join thirty two p j, and I'll speak further to that.
Lynn Schulman
0:14:13
Have you given any thought to providing supportive housing as suggested by community board six?
UNKNOWN
0:14:17
And you can tell us, I know that we had
Lynn Schulman
0:14:19
a conversation about this, about how the apartments are designed for people with disabilities too.
0:14:24
You can mention that.
Eric Palatnik
0:14:25
Yes.
0:14:25
Thank you for refreshing my memory.
0:14:26
Of course, apartments are required to be built with certain percentage with all of them actually with ADA accessibility requirements.
0:14:33
So that's not the issue.
0:14:35
The bigger issue that they asked for is to have supportive housing units within the building, and that's not possible.
0:14:40
There's no program in place that would allow for that to occur.
0:14:44
As you know, we worked very closely in in your district in Parkway Hospital Yeah.
0:14:49
Which is being constructed right now.
0:14:50
And we're seven years I I think we're eight years later to try to create
Lynn Schulman
0:14:55
It's not
Eric Palatnik
0:14:55
you, PD.
0:14:56
Senior housing.
0:14:57
So it is and that was a building that was existing already.
0:15:01
So it's it's a difficult process and you really have to have the opportunity to support it financially.
0:15:07
Parkway Hospital, as you know, had had an income producing component to it, with a market rate building next to it.
0:15:14
So it allowed for the offset.
0:15:17
This doesn't have that setup.
Lynn Schulman
0:15:18
Maybe we can have that conversation moving forward with, in that district, because I know it's difficult, because there's no city land there, and all of that.
0:15:27
But maybe there's a
Eric Palatnik
0:15:28
Well, I like that model.
0:15:28
We're working on that in a few districts right now.
0:15:30
So, it's
Lynn Schulman
0:15:31
believe So, we can have that conversation.
0:15:33
That's great.