Site With Past Violations In Forest Hills Gets Cash To Build Soon

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — A construction site in Forest Hills that was hit with several violations and a full stop-work order last year was recently granted a multi-million construction loan to continue building, according to a report.

The Real Deal reported on Friday that Slate Property Group secured $65 million in real estate financing this June to build its luxury, mixed-use development at 105-02 Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills. The development group told Patch that the financing closed in May.

The 11-story, 166-unit building has been in the works since 2017, but construction stalled this January when the city's Department of Buildings found three violations on the site, according to the Queens Chronicle.

Prior to 2017 the building faced some local opposition from the neighborhood's City Council Member Karen Koslowitz because it required demolishing a Key Foods supermarket.

However, according to the Queens Chronicle, the City Council Member "became open" to the plan when development representatives told her that the new building will include a supermarket — a plan that developers told Patch is still in the works.

This is not the first time that Slate Property Group developed a luxury building where a supermarket once stood.

On Yellowstone Boulevard in Forest Hills the group is at work on another similar project, and in 2015 the developer demolished a Key Foods in Clinton Hill to make way for a luxury development.

In both of those other instances — as is the case with the new development at 105-02 Queens Boulevard, according to the Real Deal — Slate Property Group did not buy the site outright, and instead formed a joint venture with the market's family owners — an increasingly common real estate move in the city.

According to the development group, the Forest Hills site at Queens Boulevard, which was initially slated for completion last year, will be fully built by 2023.

“We are excited to move forward on this new 166 apartment building in Forest Hills," said Brian Vetter, Managing Director at Slate Property Group in a statement to Patch, adding that the development will help tackle "the housing shortage" by creating "much needed affordable housing and new jobs, bring resources to the community and keep New York moving forward."

Slate Property Group plans to set aside 50 units as affordable — in exchange for a property tax abatement — though of the affordable apartments in the developer's Clinton Hill venture were ultimately rented at $2,030 per studio.