LIC High-Rise Tower Voted Down By Board Over Neighborhood Concerns

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — A proposed high-rise tower on the Long Island City waterfront was rejected by a community board last week, as members said developers had failed to account for its impact on the surrounding neighborhood.

The project by Quadrum Global would entail a 23-story apartment building at 45-40 Vernon Blvd., on the corner of 46th Avenue near the Anable Basin inlet. It would also include new waterfront open space and the rehabilitation of the dilapidated Paragon Paint warehouse, which would connect to the tower and become home to retail and housing.

The block, currently zoned for manufacturing, would need to be rezoned for residential use in order to build the project. While that would normally force developers to wind through the monthslong public review process known as ULURP, Quadrum is making a different argument: the site is so contaminated from its 80 years as a paint factory that it will cost about $13 million to clean it up — making it financially unfeasible to build a smaller project within the existing zoning.

Citing that "hardship," developers want their zoning changes to be approved instead by the city's somewhat-obscure Board of Standards and Appeals. To do so, Quadrum must meet a list of criteria set by the city, including that the hardship was not created by the current or preceding owners, and that the zoning change "will not alter the essential character of the neighborhood."

In recent presentations to Community Board 2, developers played down the tower's potential impact on neighborhood character by pointing to Queens West, a high-rise development that sits just a few blocks away along the East River.

That comparison was misleading, according to CB2 land use chair Lisa Deller, who pointed out that the Vernon Boulevard site sits at the edge of the low-rise, residential community in Hunters Point.

"What they’re doing is saying, we’re really part of the waterfront development, we’re not part of the upland community," Deller said during Thursday's meeting. "We disagree with that."

Neighborhood resident Amber Barth also spoke out against the hardship claims, arguing that Quadrum should abide by the credo "caveat emptor" — let the buyer beware.

"The monstrosities that have been built in the neighborhood are something that we really just don’t need," Barth said of Long Island City's recent development boom. "There is sunlight that hardly penetrates certain blocks anymore."

Some of those who have spoken out in favor of the 45-40 Vernon Blvd. project include Charles Yu, an executive at the Long Island City Partnership, and Brendan Leavy of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, according to minutes from a previous CB2 meeting.

Besides providing 226 apartments and retail space, developers say the project would create a new public space connecting Vernon Boulevard to Anable Basin. No affordable housing has been guaranteed, though developers have said that they would include units listed at 130 percent of the area median income if the project gets a tax break from the state — a promise that board members called insufficient.

"We recognize that the city has an urgent need for housing," Deller said. "But we feel that it's really important to this community board for housing to be developed in a comprehensive way, in the context of the people who currently live in this community."

The 45-40 Vernon project dates back as far as 2015, when developers first filed plans with the Board of Standards and Appeals. Part of the 28-acre YourLIC proposal that was intended to coincide with Amazon's scuttled headquarters, it was withdrawn along with the entire proposal in 2020.

Developers said they made changes from that previous proposal, including a shorter tower, wider setback from Vernon Boulevard, a more contextual facade, added retail and a redesigned open space.

Board members voted almost unanimously on Thursday, with one no-vote and one abstention, to support a letter that rejects Quadrun's request for zoning changes.

But the board has no formal power to stop the project, which will head next to the Board of Standards and Appeals — a far quicker process than ULURP, which often drags on for a full year.