Tag: staten island real estate

Staten Island’s Mixed-Use Project Makes Big Strides

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Amy Plitt at Curbed.com shares this latest development:

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Rendering of the office/retail space at Lighthouse Point on Staten Island via Triangle Equities

The redevelopment of Staten Island’s St. George neighborhood is chugging right along, and earlier this week, one of the huge projects set for the waterfront—Lighthouse Point—got its proper groundbreaking (though construction began late last year).

Developer Triangle Equities also announced some updates to the site, including the anchor tenant for its 65,000-square-foot retail and office component. That space will go to Regus, a co-working space that already has several offices throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. The stakeholders in Lighthouse Point (which include the NYCEDC and Goldman Sachs’s Urban Investment Group) are positioning this as a boon to the neighborhood, that could “attract out-of-town users who may need short term meeting or office space, therefore positively affecting the interest and patronage of surrounding hotels, retailers, and restaurants” (per a press release). We’ll see about that.

 That office space will join the incoming 12-story, 116-unit apartment building that’s also part of the Lighthouse Point development. When the whole thing is done, it’ll be one of several mini-megaprojects that developers are hoping will transform Staten Island’s North Shore, including the New York Wheel and Empire Stores.
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City’s First Farmer in Residence to Tend Staten Island Building’s Mini Farm

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Nicholas Rizzi at DNAinfo gives a shout-out to first SI “Farmer in Residence” at URBY Staten Island.

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RENDERING OF URBY STATEN ISLAND

The city’s first farmer in residence — at least in this century — is being hired to tend to a Staten island apartment building’s organic mini-farm.

Developers of URBY Staten Island brought on consultant Zaro Bates three years ago to help plan the farm and are currently seeking applications for the resident farmer, said a spokeswoman for the company, Ironstate Development.

Bates, who has a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University’s Agricultural School, will help Ironstate choose a farmer to take the position — which has a $15,000 to $25,000 yearly salary and a rent-free studio apartment, according to the job listing.

FULL ARTICLE

URBY Staten Island website launched for new 900-unit development

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Ongoing construction at URL Staten Island on Front Street, Monday, Jan. 4. When complete, the 30,000-foot, mixed-use complex will bring 900 rental apartment units to the Stapleton waterfront. (Staten Island Advance/Vincent Barone)

via Tracey Porpora/SILive.com – The developers of the 900-unit housing complex being built at the former Stapleton homeport — recently renamed URBY Staten Island — have launched a teaser website advertising the new community.

URBY Staten Island (www.urby.com), touts “brand new waterfront apartments on Staten Island. Launching soon.” The site invites prospective tenants to “sign up for a sneak peak.”

The development, which will offer a mix of well-designed studios, one- and two-bedroom units, is expected to begin during the first quarter of 2016, said a public relations representative for the project.

“Initial pricing will be announced shortly,” he said.

THE NEW WEBSITE

Once signed up, the website sends the prospective tenant this message:

“We’re pleased to know you’re interested in Urby! You’ll be happy to know that you’re now on our priority waiting list. Stay tuned, we’ll be sending you an invite to a special preview in January to come visit us on the Staten Island waterfront, where we’ll give you a sneak peek at our design savvy apartments and innovative building culture.”

THE DEVELOPMENT

URBY Staten Island is a $150 million project to construct 900 rental units in two five-story buildings with 35,000 square feet of ground floor retail, 600 parking spaces and a public plaza at the former U.S. Navy homeport.

Formerly, it’s developers, the Hoboken-based Ironstate Development, named the site URL Staten Island. It has been rebranded.

“The name was changed as Ironstate plans to launch the URBY brand. Staten Island will be the first of a planned series of other URBY developments set to open in other cities. The next URBY is expected to open later this year in Jersey City,” said the spokesman.

Specially curated social spaces for URBY Staten Island will include a spacious fitness center, outdoor pool, onsite farm with farmer in residence and a communal kitchen with a chef to help residents prepare gourmet meals. The site will also offer 300 parking spaces, he said.

FULL STORY

Staten Island Getting First Fancy Food Hall at Empire Outlets

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via CURBED.COM – 

image003No corner of the city, it seems, is immune to the food hall trend. The creative team behind Gansevoort Market, which opened in 2014 in the Meatpacking District, are bringing an upscale food court to Staten Island as part of the forthcoming Empire Outlets megaproject. It’ll be called the Marketplace at Empire Outlets, or MRKTPL (yes, really).

Fancy food courts are all the rage these days, and many of them—including the forthcoming ones at Pier 57 and Hudson Yards—are helmed by big-name chefs (in those cases, Anthony Bourdain and Danny Meyer, respectively). While the team behind Gansevoort doesn’t have quite that level of star power, they do have the experience of running that MePa market, which features vendors like Tacombi, Ed’s Lobster Bar, and Champion Coffee. While vendors for MRKTPL haven’t been announced yet, a press release released by BFC (the developer behind Empire Outlets) claims that the idea is to give “out-of-towners an authentic New York feel.” (How that will manifest itself is anyone’s guess.)

The press release also says that the 12,000-square-foot food court will “tie together the history of the New York Harbor with modern communal spaces to eat and gather.” Renderings released by BFC show what that might look like, with an industrial-style look and plenty of open seating (and more than 3,000 square feet of outdoor space), which you can see below.

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The project is slated for completion in 2017, along with the rest of the SHoP-designed Empire Outlets, which will include a hotel, restaurants, and a ridiculous amount of retail space. It’ll sit near the New York Wheel, which is currently under construction.

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URL®Staten Island housing complex to open in December

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Tracey Porpora at The Staten Island Advance reports on the December opening of Ironstate Development Company‘s URL®Staten Island.

-d511e38ae2bf1142URL®Staten Island, the 900-unit housing complex being built at the former Stapleton homeport, is expected to welcome its first residents on Dec. 1.

URL (Urban Ready Life)®Staten Island — being built by the Hoboken-N.J.-based Ironstate Development Company — is a $150 million project to construct 900 rental units in two five story buildings with 35,000 square feet of ground floor retail, 600 parking spaces and a public plaza at the former U.S. Navy homeport.

“This will be a really different type of residential living for Staten Island. I think it’s going to be a credit to the North Shore community. I think it’s taking an underutilized waterfront area and providing really meaningful public access and programming in the form of restaurateurs,” said David Barry, president of Ironstate Development Company, whose portfolio of projects includes Pier Village in Long Branch, N.J.

URL®Staten Island will be the first of several waterfront projects — including the N.Y. Wheel, Empire Outlets and Lighthouse Point in St. George — to take shape on the North Shore.

READ THE FULL STORY AT SILIVE.COM

Explore Staten Island’s Rapidly Changing North Shore

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Rendering of URL Staten Island (Photo: Concrete)

Rendering of URL Staten Island (Photo: Concrete)

Curbed.com reports on new development on Staten Island’s North Shore. 

“Staten Island has a tough time being cool,” said Kamillah Hanks, founder of the Historic Tappen Park Community Partnership, as she spoke to a tour group about the North Shore neighborhood of Stapleton. It’s true: New York’s forgotten borough, often seen as isolated due to its inaccessibility by bridge or Subway line from Manhattan, doesn’t have the same charm or youthful energy that is pervasive in Brooklyn and parts of Queens now. Recently, developers have been aiming to change this perception while also taking advantage of vacant spaces on the island’s North Shore, with notable—and projects including the New York Wheel, Empire Outlets, Lighthouse Point, and URL Staten Island. This past weekend, Curbed took a tour, hosted by Untapped Cities and Munro Johnson, vice president of Staten Island development projects for the New York City Economic Development Corporation, of some of the key sites and newest ventures to hit the island as businesses and residents alike descend on the area after being priced out of other boroughs and neighborhoods.

The tour began mere steps away from the Stapleton Staten Island Railway Station at URL Staten Island (short for “Urban Ready Life,” a rental community developed by Ironstate Development that is part of the larger community known as the New Stapleton Waterfront. Greg Russo from Ironstate explained that the 900-unit development, which is slated to open its first phase by the end of this year, is targeting apartment hunters in their 20s or 30s, as the island has experienced an exodus of young people in recent years. The project, which was implemented by the EDC’s Capital Program, will also foster community life with a public plaza, a cafe, and 30,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Outside of the buildings, the developer hopes to work with the borough to upgrade and create more streets connecting the shore area with the inner neighborhood, as the areas feel very distinct from one another at the moment.

READ FULL ARTICLE ON CURBED.COM

The View from Up Here!

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New York Wheel-thumb

By the time Staten Island’s giant observation wheel finally opens in 2017, it may not be the tallest in the world. But right now, its planned 625-foot height tops all other Ferris wheels, and its views, unsurprisingly, have been touted as the main attraction. (Along with the promise the project, along with its neighboring outlet mall, holds for revitalizing St. George, the area by the Staten Island Ferry Terminal and the Staten Island Yankees’ stadium.) While we await the wheel itself, enterprising Staten Island resident Scott Grella sent a drone up from the site to scope out the views during a particularly lovely sunset. First, the rest of the city, while beautiful, looks mighty tiny and far away. Second, just remember that because of FAA regulations, the drone couldn’t fly all the way up the wheel’s highest point. Third, seeing these views when the wheel is actually built will be costly as heck: $25, $35, and $45 depending on when you go, with the ticket price escalating as the day turns into night.

Check out the drone video on Curbed.com

Staten Island’s Turning Point?

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A view of URL Staten Island, a new residential and retail complex rising in the Stapleton neighborhood, from the Stapleton platform of the Staten Island Railway. URL overlooks Upper New York Bay. Credit Edwin J. Torres for The New York Times

A view of URL Staten Island, a new residential and retail complex rising in the Stapleton neighborhood, from the Stapleton platform of the Staten Island Railway. URL overlooks Upper New York Bay. Credit Edwin J. Torres for The New York Times

C.J. Hughes features Staten Island development in this week’s The New York Times.

From the article:

A wide bay may separate Staten Island from the rest of the city. But in terms of real estate, differences between the borough and other enclaves seem to be lifting like a morning fog.

New rentals and condominiums, some with perks like a pet spa or rooftop beehives, are rewriting the island’s skyline. Big-city cool is popping up in a place not always noted for it: Small-batch espresso will soon flow at a coffee shop; a jug band played kazoos at a recently opened brewery; and stores selling brand-name skinny-leg pants are on their way. And a fresh crop of renters and buyers, unable to afford pricier precincts and unfazed by stereotypes about how the place can seem insular, bland or run-down, are setting sail for the island.

 Rising on a desolate stretch of waterfront is URL Staten Island, short for “Urban Ready Life,” a $250 million mixed-use project with about 900 rental apartments in a series of buildings resembling factories, with bands of windows and flat roofs, the better to house bee hives.

The first phase, with 571 studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms, will open this fall. Interiors will feature stone counters and bamboo floors, plus stacked washers and dryers. Studios will likely start around $1,600 a month, and two-bedrooms at $2,800, said David Barry, the president of Ironstate Development, the developer.

The site will contain 35,000 square feet of retail space, more than half of which is now leased. Among the future tenants are a pizzeria, a store dedicated to specialty olive oils and Lola Star, a Coney Island clothing shop that is soon to open a branch in that other rising outpost, the Rockaways. Coffeed, a chain that brewed its first cup in Long Island City, Queens, will also be there.

National chain stores, such as those that dot Staten Island’s strip malls, are not welcome at URL. “This place has its own special character,” Mr. Barry said. “The stores should reflect that.”

URL will also have a 5,000-square-foot plot planted with vegetables that can be purchased from an on-site farm stand. Or, for a fee, residents will be able to request that its kale, spinach, rainbow chard and mizuna be prepared by a chef who will do double duty as the head farmer, said Mr. Barry, who was sifting through résumés for the post as he spoke.

READ FULL ARTICLE AT THE NEW YORK TIMES

Tiny Houses BIG on Staten Island?

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The Salsa Box Tiny House by Shelter Wise is a cozy, compact cabin with a queen-sized bed and lots of creative nooks and crannies for storage. (Michael Lloyd for Oregonlive.com)

The Salsa Box Tiny House by Shelter Wise is a cozy, compact cabin with a queen-sized bed and lots of creative nooks and crannies for storage. (Michael Lloyd for Oregonlive.com)

Tracey Porpora at The Staten Island Advance tackles this very question:

In the 1980s John Mellencamp sang about the American heartland where little pink houses exist.

Some decades later, builders are trying to make home ownership affordable by building “tiny houses” across the county — particularly in the Midwest.

Albeit not pink, these apartment-size houses are actually becoming a trend.

For example, the Portland, Or.-based Shelter Wise, has designed a compact 96-square-foot home, reports Oregonlive.com. Though tiny by all standards, the design boasts all the amenities a homeowner needs: queen-size bed, bookshelves, bath and kitchen.

The best part: it costs only $22,500.

With the struggle for many middle- and low-income wage earners to be able to afford home ownership on Staten Island, some people are wondering if the tiny house could be the answer. 

 

 

READ MORE AT SILIVE.COM

A Neighborhood of Contrasts: Living in Staten Island’s Tottenville Neighborhood

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0215-rea-web-LIVINGmap-300 via C. J. Hughes/The New York Times

Tottenville, a self-contained enclave along Staten Island’s southwestern waterfront, can be rich in contrasts.

Brightly painted wood-frame houses from the Civil War era sit near beige 21st-century stone mansions. Lines of cars snarl Amboy Road, but on wooded paths by Raritan Bay, a walker may have only cardinals for company.

And on a recent afternoon, along the industrial Arthur Kill waterway, tugboats sat marooned in a dirt lot, while next door at La Bella Marketplace, shoppers browsed the Italian delicacies.

“There is modern, there is old. There is large, there is small. But this is definitely a very quaint and quiet community,” said Mildred Merlucci, who relocated to Staten Island a few decades ago from Brooklyn in search of more light and space.

FULL ARTICLE