Durst Organization Acquires Hallets Point Project

BY RICHARD GENTILVISO

On the heels of the city Planning Commission’s approval of Astoria Cove, the already approved Hallets Point project has a new majority owner.

The Durst Organization, a Manhattan developer of One World Trade Center, has acquired a 90 percent stake in Hallets Point from Lincoln Equities for a reported $100 million. Hallets Point will be the Durst Organization’s first major development outside Manhattan.

“Large-scale office development opportunities are sparse and Manhattan land is cost-prohibitive to build rentals,” said Chairman Douglas Durst, the thirdgeneration head of the company founded by his grandfather, Joseph Durst in 1915. “It’s time for the [Durst] family to go deeper into residential [development] and to cross the ocean (sic) to Astoria,” he said in a September 27 post on Curbed NY (ny.curbed.com).

Durst will invest $1.5 billion in the 2.5 million square foot Hallets Point mixeduse project that includes over 1,900 market rate apartments in four residential buildings and 483 affordable units divided among four other residential buildings, with two buildings at 80 percent market rate units and 20 percent affordable units and two being entirely affordable units.

The signing of leases in Queens more than quadrupled last month, and about a third of the market from new development has a median rent of $2,788 a month, according to Bloomberg News.

Astoria Cove will consist of 1,723 residential units, 345 being affordable, but it still must go to the City Council where a majority vote is required, probably sometime in November.

Although Community Board 1 unanimously voted in favor of Hallets Point’s application filed by Lincoln Equities and the city council gave its approval in October 2013, Astoria Cove’s application was unanimously disapproved by Community Board 1 in June. Queens Borough President Melinda Katz backed CB 1 as well.

CB 1 was particularly concerned about the impact of Hallets Point project and Astoria Cove on the surrounding community.

“More than 4,000 new apartments are approved or in the approval pipeline for the Hallets Cove peninsula during the next decade. Other remaining sites are expected to request approvals for similar high-density projects,” stated CB 1.

“The developer [2030 Astoria Developers] should work with Lincoln Equities, developers of the nearby Hallets Point project and NYCEDC (New York City Economic Development Corporation) to establish ferry service between Pot Cove and Manhattan so that it would be operational by the time the developments are occupied,” the board recommended.

With ground-breaking probably in 2015 and the first structure at Hallets Cove expected less than two years after, a feasibility study for ferry service promised as part of the city council’s approval last year has not moved forward.

At the city Planning Commission’s approval of Astoria Cove on September 29 Commissioner Carl Weisbrod said, “I am pleased to report that the city is in very advanced discussions to achieve the issuance of a request for proposals for a feasibility study of ferry landing options along the Hallets Point peninsula prior to city council action on the Astoria Cove project.”