FEATURE ARTICLE, MAY 2005

FLUSH WITH POTENTIAL
A new mixed-use development in downtown Flushing is set to revitalize the underused and underserved Queens neighborhood.
Kevin Jeselnik

When complete, the Flushing Town Center will feature 750,000 square feet of retail space and a parking deck in the three-level base structure, with more than 1,000 apartments and condos in six residential towers constructed above it.

“Most of Flushing’s commercial and residential development — though there has been very little of it in recent years — occurred to the east of downtown while the west was always very industrial,” says Jim Jarosik, senior vice president with Muss Development Company. “So for quite a period of time, the city has envisioned the redevelopment of the west side of Flushing.” The redevelopment of underutilized property in the boroughs has been a priority of New York City’s brass for some time as well; in 1998, the City Planning Commission acted to rezone the Flushing Town Center site and others in the surrounding area for commercial and residential use. Soon after, Jarosik says, a number of national retailers expressed interest in a potential retail development on the 14-acre tract. It was then that Muss Development Company began preliminary development plans.

After assuming ownership of the property, which was previously owned and operated by Con Edison, Muss Development Company operated the property as a light industrial center. “There were some buildings from the previous owner, so we just rented those buildings while holding the site, waiting for the right time to develop it,” Jarosik says. “And beginning about 4 or 5 years ago, there was a lot of interest coming from major retailers. We used that [interest] as the cornerstone to create this development.”

Now, with a master plan in place and with the aid of various state tax benefits offered to developers performing remediation on former brownfield sites, Muss is ready to begin. However, before construction starts, Muss is completing extensive testing on the site and performing remediation of contaminated areas. “We have done a lot of testing already,” explains Jarosik. “We are completing the delineation and characterization of the soil, and there will be an operation in early summer where we will be removing areas of soil and exporting it off the site.” Once the land rehabilitation is complete, Jarosik expects to break ground on foundation work for the buildings by the end of the year.

In planning the project, the team assessed both the lack of a significant retail presence in the area and the ever-present need for housing in New York City. The developers designed Flushing Town Center to deliver a large amount of both. When it is completed in 2007, it will boast approximately 750,000 square feet of retail, some 1,000 residential units and a 2,650-car parking structure. “We designed a project that has three levels of retail in two buildings with a parking deck in the middle,” explains Jarosik. “That three-level structure acts as a podium, and there are six residential towers that are going to built on top of that platform.”

For the retail component, New York City-based architect Perkins Eastman has designed a vertical large-format complex comprising two buildings — the West building and East building — with a parking garage in between. Muss sought to attract the popular big box-format retailers and tailored the buildings for that use. “The spaces have been designed with 20-foot floor-to-floor heights and 30-foot to 40-foot column spacing to attract large-format retailers, be it a discount department store, a home improvement store, or a category-dominant big box such as Best Buy, Marshalls or Staples,” Jarosik says.

The West building has a footprint of approximately 135,000 square feet, with each level roughly 260 feet deep and 500 feet wide. “The ground floor of the West building sets up nicely for one large retailer to occupy the entire 135,000 square feet — you could plug any of a number of big box retailers into that space,” says Jarosik. “We have terraced the building so it is a little smaller going up. The upper levels are going to split up well for a mix of a tenants.”

The East building proved a more challenging building to design, but the end result is similar. “We have carved it up into a variety of spaces ranging anywhere from 20,000 square feet to 80,000 square feet. And then there is one tenant that will effectively occupy the entire 190,000-square-foot top floor,” Jarosik explains. Though leasing is in its early stages, the retail anchors for both buildings (which are not yet released to the public) have been signed. The retail space is scheduled to be open for occupation by spring of 2007 with shops ready for business in the fall of that year.

In order to incorporate a significant amount of residential space in the development, the team had to be creative. Separate entrances for shoppers and residents have been designed around the development’s most important corner — that which is closest to downtown Flushing. “That is the tightest corner of the site, so we had to figure out how to put both the residential and retail entrances near that spot. So, to the left of the corner on College Point Boulevard, we put the retail entrance. To the right, on Roosevelt Avenue, we put the residential entrance,” Jarosik says. Residents will enter their designated lobby and take an elevator up to the roof level of the three-story retail/parking complex. At that point they will exit onto the sky lobby — a streetscape environment on which the six towers are situated. There, they will walk through a landscaped esplanade to their particular tower and take an elevator to their unit. The end result is a community of condominium and apartment homes that seem to have been constructed at street level.

The residential units are being marketed to a range of demographics; Jarosik describes the target market as “upscale, middle-income and multi-ethnic.” The developers have given special consideration to the residents that will live above this fully planned retail center. Explains Jarosik, “I think it has been a particular challenge for our architect to create this large retail environment that needs to be exciting and bright, with large signage and lighting, yet also create a residential community that needs to be quiet and distinctive. So it has been very demanding to develop the actual fabric of the building around that point.”

From the challenges the team faced, a striking example of mixed-use development has emerged. Muss evaluated the site, the community and city, and created the best possible use for the property. Not only will Queens residents now have a destination retail center in their borough, but a significant amount of housing has been provided to a metro area that is much in need. “The company’s background is primarily residential in nature, so our instincts are always to develop residential. Josh Muss, principal of Muss Development Company, is a great believer in creating housing for New York City. He felt it was very important and necessary to create housing as part of this development,” Jarosik says.

And perhaps just as significant is the manner in which these much-needed components were delivered. The team brought the concept of residential over retail from Manhattan out into the boroughs. “A project with multi-tower residential on top of vertical, large-format retail in New York City has not been done in this scale or size before,” says Jarosik. By getting the most out of the property, Muss has kick-started the redevelopment of a once-blighted part of town and is bringing a true mixed-use project to metro New York City.

©2005 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.