REAL ESTATE DESK
'Outer Borough' Finally Attracts The 'In' Crowd
By GAY JERVEY
Published:
November 14, 2004, Sunday
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IN
the final year of the HBO hit series ''Sex and the City,'' the character Carrie
Bradshaw and her Prada-touting friends experienced a
number of firsts: Charlotte converted to Judaism and settled into a happy
marriage with Harry; Samantha let a man into her heart; and Carrie finally saw
the Eiffel Tower and, it appears, snagged Mr. Big -- maybe for good. And as for
Miranda, she not only married Steve but also did something that at the time
seemed even more shocking. Lured by a house with a backyard, high ceilings and
a working fireplace, she moved (gasp) to Brooklyn.
When she broke
the news, a wide-eyed Carrie nearly tripped over her Manolo
Blahniks. Her response: ''That is information that I
can't handle.''
The
self-defined hipsters who have always considered Manhattan the center of the
universe have gradually incorporated Brooklyn into their map of the world. But
Queens?
Now, that would
be going too far.
What is it
about Queens, a borough that has been home for millions, that brings out the
real estate snob in so many upwardly mobile New Yorkers? First of all, there is
the very resilient ''All In The Family'' factor.
''Everybody
thinks of Queens as the home of Archie Bunker and not much else,'' said Michael
Carfagna, an independent real estate broker who lives
and works in Queens. ''For years we have had that stigma. We really have.''
Molly Sheridan,
a publishing consultant who has lived in Forest Hills for more than 30 years,
agreed. ''People think of it as being all working class, blue collar -- far
away and foreign -- kind of a no-man's land,'' she said.
Yet with real
estate in Brooklyn and Manhattan so breathtakingly expensive, that image may
crumble among the Manhattanites who couldn't find
their way to Astoria or Kew Gardens without Mapquest.com.
Like the
character Miranda of ''Sex in the City,'' Deborah Knudsen, 44, an advertising
executive, made a move in October that would have once been inconceivable to
her. With her husband, Eric, 35, a copy manager at Macy's, she exchanged a
charming but relatively small -- approximately 550 square feet -- West Village
apartment for a 1,150-square-foot, six-room apartment, complete with a dining
room and garden view, in the heart of the historic district in Jackson Heights,
Queens.
''People were
saying, 'I can't believe that you are moving to Queens,''' Ms. Knudsen said.
'''I simply can't believe it!' They were very surprised.''
James Hill, 33,
an architect who moved to Jackson Heights from Brooklyn in 2002 with his wife,
Sarah, a designer, knows exactly what Ms. Knudsen is talking about. ''When we
first moved from Williamsburg to Queens, our friends were saying: 'What! What
are you doing?!''' Mr. Hill said. ''They really couldn't believe it. They were
saying, 'Queens?!'''
Pamela Liebman, the president and chief executive of the Corcoran
Group, thinks many Manhattanites have an outdated
image of Queens. ''In the old days people thought of Queens as the place where
your grandmother, but not you, might live,'' she said. ''But no more.''
''It seems to
be the next big thing,'' she added. ''Queens has this gritty feel to it in
parts, which makes it feel cool. When I go to speaking engagements and people
ask what is the next big thing, a lot of speakers are starting to say, 'Queens,
Queens, Queens.'''
There are
several reasons. For one thing, many renters and buyers alike are finding
Manhattan and Brooklyn far too rich for their blood. Consider the following
data collected by Mr. Carfagna: the average price per
square foot for a co-op in Queens is $250 to $400, versus $500 to $700 in
Brooklyn. In Manhattan, according the most recent figures from the Douglas Elliman overview prepared by Miller Samuel Inc., the
average price per square foot of a Manhattan apartment is $820, with condos and
luxury apartments costing more.
And then there
is the sheer convenience, particularly to Midtown Manhattan. ''Queens is a
tremendous solution for many people,'' said Jeffrey Silverbush,
the owner and president of Century 21 Best in Elmhurst, Queens. ''They can have
affordable space in a nice, safe neighborhood, with good amenities. And you can
be in Manhattan so quickly.''
Popular Queens
neighborhoods like Astoria, Jackson Heights, Forest Hills and Kew Gardens are
easily accessible by several subway lines. ''I have gotten from my house in
Forest Hills to Midtown in less than a half hour,'' Ms. Sheridan said.
Ms. Knudsen,
whose office is at 42nd Street and Avenue of the Americas, said: ''I leave the
house at 8:15 to 8:20 a.m. and am in the office at about five minutes to 9.
Recently, I had an evening function to go to in the city. I left it at about
10:30 p.m., jumped on the train and was home in no time at all. There were lots
of people on the street near my apartment, and I felt completely safe.''
For residents
of Manhattan and Brooklyn who can't afford to buy in those boroughs anymore,
Queens offers a number of neighborhoods that have the restaurants and night
life that might appeal to them -- Astoria, Jackson Heights, Forest Hills and
increasingly, Long Island City.
''The
up-and-coming neighborhood clearly is Long Island City,'' said Andrew Heiberger, the founder and president of Citi
Habitats. ''There is definitely a major housing shortage in the New York City
area, and anything with close proximity to Manhattan via train or car is going
to be very desirable. Long Island City is literally a stone's throw away.''
For years,
people have been talking about Long Island City as the next big thing, but its
time may have finally come. According to Jon McMillan, the director of planning
for the Rockrose Development Corporation, recent rezoning laws that allow for
development of the Long Island City waterfront -- as well as the conversion of
Hunters Point warehouses and factories into residential space -- have
intensified interest in those areas.
Next spring,
Rockrose will break ground on seven buildings that will eventually house 3,200
units. ''The city has finally gone in there and fixed the zoning in a very,
very careful, block-by-block way, so that this neighborhood can start to
blossom as a residential neighborhood, and buildings can be converted,'' Mr.
McMillan explained. ''Residential housing will gradually replace taxi repair
shops.''
The changes in
neighborhoods outside of Manhattan, he said, have happened in a geographically
logical way, and it makes sense for Long Island City to be next.
''There is an
evolution of the gentrification of the waterfront areas, moving up from
Brooklyn,'' Mr. McMillan continued. ''If you imagine that things started in
Brooklyn Heights, moved to Dumbo and then up the
river to Williamsburg and Greenpoint, the next stop
heading north is Long Island City, which is one stop away from Grand Central on
the No. 7 train.''
Long Island
City has also benefited from the fact that the Museum of Modern Art temporarily
relocated there while its Manhattan headquarters were being renovated. ''That
brought a lot of people out to Queens,'' said Ms. Liebman
of the Corcoran Group. ''It drew a lot of attention to the area, and a lot of
that buzz has stayed.''
In addition,
thanks to the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, and the
nearby Socrates Sculpture Park, ''there is sort of constellation, almost a
critical mass, of visual art in Long Island City,'' Mr. McMillan said.
''You get the
artists and sculptors hanging around, opening up studios and living in that
area,'' he said. ''That is exactly the kind of thing you want for the
development and creation of a new neighborhood.''
Furthermore,
Mr. McMillan said, Long Island City ''offers spectacular views of Midtown
Manhattan -- the United Nations, the Chrysler Building.''
''When you are
in Long Island City, you can almost feel as if you can reach out and touch the
buildings,'' he said. ''You have this psychological connection to Manhattan,
and that is important.''
Ms. Liebman predicted that ''two years from now people are
going to say, 'Wow, I wish I had bought in Long Island City.'''
''And I don't
know that they are going to call it Queens any more,'' she added. ''I think
they will probably end up breaking up the neighborhoods. They will say 'Oh, I'm
in Astoria,' or 'I'm in Jackson Heights,' or 'I'm in Long Island City.' Just
like people started to talk about Brooklyn. The idea of 'Hey, I went to Dumbo' or 'Hey, I went to Williamsburg.' And each of those
Queens neighborhoods will develop their own personality and persona, much like
what has happened in Brooklyn. There is no doubt about it, Queens has become
hip.''
Finally.
''Rodney
Dangerfield grew up in Queens,'' noted Herb De Cordova, a broker with
Prudential Douglas Elliman. ''Since he recently
passed away, I think it would be appropriate to say that Queens is finally
getting the respect that it deserves.''
Brokers are
getting a wider range of inquiries about apartments for sale. Recently, Megan
Hoffman, a broker with the Corcoran Group, listed a 1,200-square-foot, three-bedroom
apartment in a prewar building in the Jackson Heights garden district for
$400,000.
''I was
inundated with calls, many from Manhattan,'' Ms. Hoffman said. ''People are
starting to be drawn to Queens and, in this instance, to Jackson Heights because
of not only the affordable space, but also the fact that it is such a thriving,
diverse community. If you are walking down the street, you can hear four
different languages all at once. You will see somebody carrying a Hermès bag, and somebody who is an average Joe. And I think
that is great. That is one reason why people live in New York -- so that they
can be surrounded by all different kinds of people.''
The
neighborhood's diversity was a plus to the Hills, who landed in Jackson Heights
after exhaustive searches elsewhere. Several years ago, after they both
graduated from the Parsons School of Design, they moved to Williamsburg. They
hoped eventually to buy a loft in a factory that was being renovated. But by
the time the building was ready for occupancy in 2001, the loft's price had
doubled, and they could no longer afford it.
So the Hills
began to hunt in other parts of Brooklyn. ''We started out looking in the
better areas, like Park Slope,'' Mr. Hill said. Because those neighborhoods
were too expensive, they searched in Prospect Heights, Crown Heights and
Bedford Stuyvesant. ''After six or seven months, we still couldn't find a place
that we could afford that suited our needs,'' he said.
On a Sunday
morning in the late summer of 2001, Ms. Hill noticed an advertisement for a
two-bedroom apartment in the Jackson Heights historic district. ''It had a
working fireplace, a dining room and eat-in kitchen, and I thought something
must be wrong with it,'' she said. ''It must not have a roof! We walked into
this apartment and I said: 'You mean we can afford this! Oh, my God. I can't
believe it.''' Several months later, the couple bought the apartment for
$173,000.
They have never
looked back. And now the same friends who were so shocked that they would leave
the hip confines of Brooklyn love to visit them. ''They come out here and say,
'Wow!''' Ms. Hill said. ''They want to go to restaurants out here. This is a
very vibrant neighborhood that you wouldn't necessarily know about.''
For their part,
the Knudsens were all set to leave Greenwich Village
and buy an 1,100-square-foot apartment in Inwood in
Upper Manhattan for $444,000. ''We had put a bid in, and then my husband said,
'Why don't we check the neighborhood out at night?''' Ms. Knudsen said. ''So we
went up there for dinner on a Friday night, and it was pretty desolate. We
realized that we would not be particularly comfortable walking home from the
subway late at night. Inwood is beautiful, right on
the Hudson. But there is just not that much going on up there, and that is not
why you live in Manhattan.''
Several of
their colleagues had suggested that they check out Jackson Heights. What they
found, Ms. Knudsen said, ''was just this great neighborhood, a little-known
jewel. We walked into this apartment, and it was just gorgeous -- completely
renovated, two bedrooms, a living room, dining room, great kitchen, and it
overlooks a garden. We fell in love with it.''
Earlier this
fall, the Knudsens bought the apartment for $333,000.
''We are happy as clams here,'' Ms. Knudsen said. ''My husband is a real foodie, and he was so psyched about all of the different
restaurants: Indian, Thai, Colombian.''
Still, Queens
is far from having the cachet that
''When I do my
open houses in
Trailblazers
notwithstanding, some people suggest that, at least in the interest of its
image, there is one thing that
Published: 11 - 14 - 2004 , Late Edition - Final
, Section 11 , Column 4 , Page 1