LIQCity
June 15, 2015 By Jackie Strawbridge
Vernon Boulevard’s dilapidated Paragon Paint Factory building may soon be part of a huge new residential development.
Construction plans were filed Saturday for a 28-story, 296-unit building at the site; partial demolition plans for the paint factory were filed a day earlier.
According to developer Brent Carrier, the rear portion of the factory will be torn down. The remaining structure will be attached to the new tower and will hold both first-floor retail and residential space.
“We want to preserve the façade of the paint factory and combine it into the new building,” Carrier said.
Carrier declined to discuss specific design plans for the paint factory, but acknowledged that its green exterior will change.
“[It] will look like an updated version of what it is today,” he added.
According to Carrier, the project is being developed as a joint venture with Simon Baron Development.
The development project is also planned to include another residential tower and a park in the lots adjacent to the paint factory.
Carrier filed plans for a 14-story, 48-unit residence at 45-24 Vernon Blvd. in late May.
A warehouse at 45-28 Vernon Blvd. is also slated to be demolished and replaced by a park connecting Vernon Boulevard to the waterfront, Carrier said, adding that it will be built privately but open to the public.
Developers bought that property last December, according to City documents. No construction plans for this site have yet been filed.
Carrier said he hopes to begin construction on the new tower next year and have it occupied by 2018.
Simon Baron Development could not be reached for comment on this story.
Featured Events
17 Comments
Paint! Where will all those heavy metals go?
Would be great to see a rendering. Keeping the facade is a fascinating idea.
IF they keep some of the character of the old building, this wont be a total disaster. People are going to put up new buildings in LIC – simple as that. If they can keep them even remotely interesting by keeping old facades, etc…then i wont be as upset. The one thing that seems interesting is the park connecting Vernon to the water. It would be a nice addition and leave you by Anable Basin? which would be better than walking down a long parking lot. At least LIC does it right in terms of park space.
Character? Interesting by keeping an old facade? Get real. It’s a completely out of scale 28-story building in a location where the zoning says it should only be six stories tall. We really are deluding ourselves when we start believing real estate developer hype. This is just going to be a huge, hulking ugly building that crams more nudniks into the area. No surprise here — it’s just one more abomination in this neighborhood.
I am not sure that your claim that the lot is zoned for 6-floor buildings is correct. The residentially zoned district on Vernon seems to end at 46th Rd, with the exception of the LIC Bar. The area this lot is in looks to be zoned differently, likely manufacturing. It would be great is someone more familiar with the zoning process could comment…I am unsure if my conclusion is correct.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/zone/map9b.pdf
What exactly do you want? The lefties claim there is not enough “affordable” housing (i.e. subsidized). Well in order to meet the demand, you have to allow buildings to be built.
There are 35+ stories a block away.
Instead of retail on the first floor, maybe a school? You know, for all the additional families that will be coming to the area in this building as well as HPS.
Time to get out of dodge
This hood will be a sardine can
No infrastructure
it already is Mike, and has been for many many years. Where have you been
Oh! Just imagine! Another tower with overpriced apartments in LIC. How novel.
Anyone know of any Condo’s/Co-Ops in LIC where you can get a 1 Bedroom for around 500k?
Look at North Queensview homes. You can get a 3br for around 400k. Not new, trendy or luxury, but the best deal in the area. Well maintained and low maintenance with no property mortgage.
This violates zoning but they will follow the play book and hire expensive attorneys to plead poverty to the BSA.
Check out this article to understand how impoverished these folks are: http://therealdeal.com/blog/2013/11/26/simon-development-snaps-up-lic-site-for-15m/
God I hope they have a ton of outdoor space in order to have lots and lots of barbeques
Seriously, What are the zoning rights on Vernon, and do they change at a certain street? This is 4+ times higher than what I understood it to be.
Any lawyers on this blog?
Vernon down to the building with the LIC bar looks like it is zoned as R6A, which is up to 6 or 7 stories. The Paragon Paint factory looks like it is in an M3 zone, which is for heavy manufacturing (based on my highly limited understanding of the zoning maps). Given the activity on the rest of the block, I am going to guess that there is or has been work underway to rezone the block to some type of R zone. Because the area was formerly a heavy manufacturing zone, it is entirely plausible that the City would not have required that the re zoned area also be R6A, ie, it could have been re zoned for higher density residential since it was functionally a blank slate from an R zone perspective. Nothing conspiratorial or underhanded here…just standard re zoning from manufacturing to residential.
What is this zoned for? 28 stories on Vernon Blvd? Yuck!