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Macedonia readies rentals

By Alex Robinson

More affordable housing is about to come online as the Macedonia Plaza development in downtown Flushing nears completion.

Construction on the building is finished, but developers BRP Companies and Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church are just waiting to receive a certificate of occupancy before they can start signing leases and moving tenants in. The city Housing Department expects this will happen in June.

The 14-story housing development, at 37-08 Union St., was built on the former site of a municipal parking lot and will include 143 residential units, 6,287 square feet of retail space and 2,767 square feet of community space. The development was part of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan to create and preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing throughout the city.

As Flushing’s real estate prices have soared and the condo market has heated up, salaries have declined, leaving an ever growing need for affordable housing in the neighborhood.

Macedonia Plaza received approximately 40,000 applications for the lottery for its apartments, according to HPD.

A report by the state comptroller’s office showed that while Queens’ job growth has been strong since the recession ended, average private sector salaries declined by 8.1 percent from 2007-12. This was a result of the loss of higher-paying jobs in the information and manufacturing sectors, the report said.

Another affordable housing project is in the works for downtown Flushing’s Municipal Lot 3. The city’s Housing Department has held a number of so-called community visioning meetings to get feedback from the community and was due to put out a Request for Proposals for the development this spring.

Housing’s targeted goal for the development is to build 100-250 units. Once proposals come back, Housing will take about six months to select a developer for the site, which is adjacent to Flushing’s Long Island Rail Road Station on 41st Avenue. The city expects the actual construction work to take 18 to 24 months to complete.

Reach reporter Alex Robinson by e-mail at arobinson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.