(post by Dee) Queens Plaza, an area underneath and around the Queensborough Bridge (built in 1909) will celebrate 100 years in 2009. It’s come a long way in the past few years, but it wasn’t supposed to take this long for this gateway to Manhattan. From the poor city politics to a bankrupt city coiffures of the 70s, through crack 80s and crime of the 90s, Queens Plaza endured a long period of rusting and falling apart. The remnants of this broken period can still be seen… projects in Queensbridge, crappy dilapidated warehouses, strip joints and now-abandoned porn shops, and the depressing-looking buildings and bodegas of Dutch Kills.

The future looks bright. Since 2001, when 37-block area in LIC was rezoned and slated for development and business improvement, the interest and the buzz has been growing. Sure the progress in redevelopment of Queens Plaza is taking too long, but at the end of 2007 a newly-found commitment from New York City’s Department of City Planning (DCP) to continue work has put us back on track. A $43-million project to build a new park; make improvements to ease traffic and even revive some real estate have been recently reported in the NY Daily News article and map about Queens Plaza. This post comparing Queens Plaza to old Times Square is no longer valid. 2007 passed, and 2008 is here, and we’re back on track. Sure the recent economic woes are going to slow things down but the transformation of LIC is not going to stop. Too much money has been committed, too many projects are on the way. Let’s examine condos first: You have View 59, The Fusion, Queens Plaza, The Crescent Club, 41 Ave Condominium, Star Tower… there are plenty of units sold, some people even moved-in but, unlike Queens West south and west of Queens Plaza, where many more luxury rentals and condos with already living residents finally got a supermarket and a mega-drug store, this area of LIC is lagging behind.

Good news is that Gotham Center, Tishman Speyer’s years-in-the-making mega-development (well, for Queens anyway) is moving forward. That is huge! The dilapidated parking garage where the Gotham Center is to stand has been an eyesore and I officially declare it the ugliest building in all of NYC. It will go down.

And Queens Plaza, while a few years away from real glory, will eventually be connected with the Court Square, also in need of services and stores. Queens Plaza will eventually be an awesome place to live. Once the city’s economy picks up and the office spaces there get leased, and business comes to serve all the thousands of new residents in condos and luxury rentals, it will finally take off and prove its haters, and critics, wrong. It will have been a long journey and many lives for Queens Plaza.

Pictures of Queens Plaza’s Condos (North) and Looking South toward Court Square