Comments on Forest Hills 72: The Austin Street Mall

Did someone mention WHOLE FOODS?! That's EXACTLY ...

2007-12-31T15:49:20.585-05:00

Did someone mention WHOLE FOODS?! That's EXACTLY what we need! Get RID of Natural. Don't know why people think Natural is so great, you can't find anything American in there and it's all overpriced. Bring in a WHOLE FOODS - we deserve quality American food.

Anon - 10:40am. Nice job in trying to cover up th...

2007-12-27T15:07:42.315-05:00

Anon - 10:40am. Nice job in trying to cover up the earlier ignorant comments however you cannot explain what they meant, unless you were in fact the previous poster.

i thought the purpose of this board was to talk a ...

2007-12-27T13:57:41.702-05:00

i thought the purpose of this board was to talk a little trash about forest hills and gossip/news.

not trash people or eachother. if someone writes an offensive comment, just ignore it, this way these negative, ignorant people will have no forum to spew their garbage.

forest hills is borderline trashy. astoria is much...

2007-12-27T12:12:55.489-05:00

forest hills is borderline trashy. astoria is much more young and hip.

Regarding the comments about Astoria being primari...

2007-12-27T10:40:29.800-05:00

Regarding the comments about Astoria being primarily Greek, Brazilian, Latino...

1:13 pm - How about considering what the post was actually trying to communicate before rolling over into the victimhood fetal position and yelping "racist!" reflexively? Read between the lines - he/she is trying to make the argument that Astoria is more of an ethnic enclave with predominantly foreign language speakers, retail and community institutions compared to more gentrified neighborhoods. Its NOT racist to say ethnic enclave neighborhoods are less desirable to the modern, educated, professional types in NYC, which = lower property values.

I don't happen to agree with that assessment - I don't think Astoria is any more of an enclave than Forest Hills, which has plenty of enclave groups inhabiting the area. On the contrary, Astoria has more of a critical mass of modern types, as witnessed by the much large concentration of good restaurants, bars, shopping etc.

I don't think Forest Hills is upscale at all. There may be money here, but money does not automatically lead to the attitudes and behaviors that make a place "upscale". I wouldn't call Forest Hills trashy either, but there are far too many trashy elements here - people who have little pride in their neighborhood or themselves.

108-15/17 72nd Ave map 2-story, 9,600 sf mixed-use...

2007-12-26T13:50:25.129-05:00

108-15/17 72nd Ave map 2-story, 9,600 sf mixed-use bldg Queens owner Represented in-house n/a N. Diankov, Massey Knakal; E. Borukhov, Dakota Realty $3.995M The 15-unit property sold for $3.995 million, or $226 per square foot. The price represents a capitalization rate of 4.02 percent and a gross rent multiple of 18.5. The building contains four offices, 11 residential units and has up to 24,960 square feet of development rights. December 2007

Investor Sells Forest Hills Property for $4 Million
Building on 72nd Avenue Trades for $226 PSF

Charles Kaufman sold the property at 108-15/17 72nd Ave. to Revaz Tchatchanachvili for $4 million, or approximately $226 per buildable square foot.

The building totals 9,600 square feet. The buyer agreed to the capitalization rate of 4.02% and a gross rent multiplier of 18.51. The 15-unit building is in the Forest Hills section of Queens, between Queens Boulevard and Austin Street. It has 11 residential units and four offices.

Massey Knakal Realty Services and Eric Borukhov of Dakota Realty of Forest Hills represented the seller. The buyer represented himself.

Gap Superstore 69-39 Austin StreetOpened for busi...

2007-12-26T13:32:43.443-05:00

Gap Superstore
69-39 Austin Street
Opened for business on March 9th, 2001
The expansive 22,000-square-foot Gap store on Austin Street includes Gap, BabyGap, GapKids and Body Gap.
Found one of the stores

Investor uses 1031 exchange to buy $33m Queens pac...

2007-12-26T13:31:05.917-05:00

Investor uses 1031 exchange to buy $33m Queens package.
Real Estate Weekly •

Nov 21, 2007 •

Michael Kerwin, senior broker at GFI Realty Services Inc, announced the sale of 69-37 to 69-39 Austin Street and 107-16 71st in Forest Hills, Queens for $33,160,000.

This commercial package consists of two, two-story properties containing four retail locations.

National credit tenants for the buildings include The Gap, Staples and Duane Reade.

The final price for the 42,068 s/f of property was a 5.7% cap rate and came out to $788 psf. Michael Kerwin represented the buyer, an investor from Midtown, as well as the seller, a local forest hills investor. "The buyer purchased this excellent package as part of a 1031 exchange," said Michael Kerwin.

"The transaction took place in just a single phone call when the buyer immediately jumped at the opportunity to own the two pieces of prime retail. We were able to get the deal closed in just two months."

The buildings are leased to national credit tenants in an extremely desirable location.

They are surrounded by other national retail stores such as Barnes and Noble and Ann Taylor.

The properties are in close proximity to the E and 7 trains, along with several major bus lines.

anyone know which buildings on austin street this ...

2007-12-26T13:24:47.040-05:00

anyone know which buildings on austin street this would be? and what store is 107-16 71st avenue?

Two 2-story retail bldgs, 42,068 sf total Manhattan investor Michael Kerwin, GFI Realty Queens investor Michael Kerwin, GFI Realty $33.16M
The commercial package of 69-37 to 69-39 Austin Street and 107-16 71st Avenue sold for $33.16 million, or $788 per square foot. The price represents a capitalization rate of 5.7 percent. The properties were purchased as part of a 1031 exchange, with the transaction closing in just two months.

Anon 6:21pm -What the F*** does the Greek, Latino ...

2007-12-26T13:13:29.400-05:00

Anon 6:21pm -
What the F*** does the Greek, Latino and Brazilian element mean? Is that driving down property values in Astoria? How racist is that! I'm shocked by your ignorance and stupidity.

I live in Forest Hills and enjoy going into Astoria for the Greek / Brazilian feel that gives a cool vibe to the place, and obviously is driving up the real estate values.

What persuasion are you sir/madame? Probably some lowlife that is contributing to the under valued property prices in Forest Hills.

not true. my partner and i have been wanting to bu...

2007-12-26T10:30:38.570-05:00

not true. my partner and i have been wanting to buy in astoria and we can't afford it. so we're stuck with a co-op in forest hills.

Enough already. Can't we just stick to Forest Hil...

2007-12-25T21:02:03.270-05:00

Enough already. Can't we just stick to Forest Hills and try to be positive?

I have a new bank for you!Forest Hills Savings Ban...

2007-12-25T20:24:32.106-05:00

I have a new bank for you!

Forest Hills Savings Bank

Member FDIC :-)

http://www.mlsli.com/uniDetails.CFM?MLNum=2027149&...

2007-12-25T19:41:32.004-05:00

http://www.mlsli.com/uniDetails.CFM?MLNum=2027149&typeprop=1&start=1&rpp=20

A FULL Condo brand new in Astoria for a 1 bedroom is $270,000. Same condo for the Windsor built in 2005 would be $500,000.

Sorry but real estate prices in Astoria are much cheaper per square foot than Forest Hills.

And what does Greeks, Latinos or Brazilians have t...

2007-12-25T19:37:11.325-05:00

And what does Greeks, Latinos or Brazilians have to do with anything? Your ignorant comment shows just far Forest Hills has to go before being truly sophisticated.

It has to do with the quality of the SCHOOLS in the area. Forest Hills is a MUCH MORE desirable place to live.

The good parts of Queens to live in are Bayside, Forest Hills, Whitestone AND Little Neck for instance as well as Jamaica Estates and the like but Jamaica Estates sends their kids to private schools.

I would NOT have moved to Astoria. I am not a bigot and Forest Hills is widely diverse and you have a huge array of backgrounds here. Astoria will never be as nice as Forest Hills is. Prices in Astoria are LESS than Forest Hills not more for comparable homes/condo or co-op units.

And what does Greeks, Latinos or Brazilians have t...

2007-12-25T18:51:03.908-05:00

And what does Greeks, Latinos or Brazilians have to do with anything? Your ignorant comment shows just far Forest Hills has to go before being truly sophisticated.

Melissa above is right. We need to be shopping at the better places. But the problem is we frequently don't even have a choice to make our voices heard. I live on the north side so I can't make it to Trader Joe's on a regular basis. Look at the pathetic assortment of stores that line Queens Boulevard. It's pretty sad when you're thankful that a 7-11 and a Walgreens even exist. Why is the lame Chamber of Commerce only interested in Austin Street and not QB???

Forest Hills is worth more. Astoria is Greek, wit...

2007-12-25T18:21:44.925-05:00

Forest Hills is worth more. Astoria is Greek, with tons of Latino's and Brazilians moving into the community.

Forest Hills is a much better population and has a MUCH better school system with the prestigeous Kew Forest School and the other schools as well.

Alot of new construction is coming for 2009 for the area and when we see the final mix, we will all be happy.

Don't understand why a bank should be crowded. Online banking is where its at now. I haven't been inside a bank brank in years. All I go to the bank for is to Deposit at the ATM. Withdrawl of cash only if necessary if stores don't accept credit cards at the ATM. Alot of these banks will probably be gone.

I myself do my fair share of complaining about the...

2007-12-25T14:51:46.621-05:00

I myself do my fair share of complaining about the retail and restaurants on Austin Street and then I remember the shopping strip that is Steinway Street and I'm glad to be living in Forest Hills.

astoria is much more desirable. and LIC with those...

2007-12-25T12:47:49.518-05:00

astoria is much more desirable. and LIC with those upcoming hirises... slammin'

You guys are obviously amateurs when it comes to r...

2007-12-25T08:36:41.834-05:00

You guys are obviously amateurs when it comes to real estate. One million buys you a crap site in Astoria while One million in FOHI gets you a decent townhouse, mind you not in the Gardens. You tell me which underlying piece of land is more expensive.

To the person who thinks Astoria is selling higher...

2007-12-25T03:27:47.979-05:00

To the person who thinks Astoria is selling higher than Forest Hills...Nice job dismissing the value of real estate in the Gardens simply because there's nothing like it elsewhere in the City. That's exactly the point. And many 1-family houses in the Closes, not in the Gardens, are selling at $1 million or more. Commercial real estate is well in excess of $100/square foot. Not too shabby...And I'm sure people are clamoring for those fabulous Astoria/LIC public schools.

nothing goes on in the 112th precinct. i happen to...

2007-12-24T21:40:54.733-05:00

nothing goes on in the 112th precinct. i happen to believe they are paid off by various underground business interests to ignore all illegal activity in forest hills

Traffic rules? there aren't any. today on x-mas ...

2007-12-24T21:29:39.849-05:00

Traffic rules? there aren't any. today on x-mas eve around 1 p.m. Austin Street was a disaster. Any police around no. The light at Continental changed for Austin Street every 20 seconds. The Continental was over a minute. The traffic disaster was a well, a disaster. A policeman should have been there directing traffic.
I hardly see any beat cops anymore. I'm not quite sure what goes on in the 112th other than the fact that it is Central Booking.

A ratty 2-family in Forest Hills go for around the...

2007-12-24T16:52:44.357-05:00

A ratty 2-family in Forest Hills go for around the 1MM mark. And this is outside the Gardens.

Astoria property is worth more because its closer ...

2007-12-24T16:39:30.012-05:00

Astoria property is worth more because its closer to Manhattan. They're getting $800 a square foot for new condos in Astoria and over $1000 a square foot in LIC. And you need $800k to buy a ratty 2 family in Astoria that is probably only 20 feet wide. I know, cause I sell em.

What is FOHI fetching? -- except my slippers before I go take a snooze.

The only difference is the Gardens where you have product that doesn't exist anywhere else in New York.