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Articles about Queens and Glendale! |
'Outer Borough' Finally Attracts The 'In' Crowd By GAY JERVEY ''Rodney Dangerfield grew up in Queens,'' noted Herb De Cordova, a broker with Prudential Douglas Elliman. ''Since he recently passed away, I think it would be appropriate to say that Queens is finally getting the respect that it deserves.'' Brokers are getting a wider range of inquiries about apartments for sale. Recently, Megan Hoffman, a broker with the Corcoran Group, listed a 1,200-square-foot, three-bedroom apartment in a prewar building in the Jackson Heights garden district for $400,000. ''I was inundated with calls, many from Manhattan,'' Ms. Hoffman said. ''People are starting to be drawn to Queens and, in this instance, to Jackson Heights because of not only the affordable space, but also the fact that it is such a thriving, diverse community. If you are walking down the street, you can hear four different languages all at once. You will see somebody carrying a Hermès bag, and somebody who is an average Joe. And I think that is great. That is one reason why people live in New York -- so that they can be surrounded by all different kinds of people.'' The neighborhood's diversity was a plus to the Hills, who landed in Jackson Heights after exhaustive searches elsewhere. Several years ago, after they both graduated from the Parsons School of Design, they moved to Williamsburg. They hoped eventually to buy a loft in a factory that was being renovated. But by the time the building was ready for occupancy in 2001, the loft's price had doubled, and they could no longer afford it. So the Hills began to hunt in other parts of Brooklyn. ''We started out looking in the better areas, like Park Slope,'' Mr. Hill said. Because those neighborhoods were too expensive, they searched in Prospect Heights, Crown Heights and Bedford Stuyvesant. ''After six or seven months, we still couldn't find a place that we could afford that suited our needs,'' he said. On a Sunday morning in the late summer of 2001, Ms. Hill noticed an advertisement for a two-bedroom apartment in the Jackson Heights historic district. ''It had a working fireplace, a dining room and eat-in kitchen, and I thought something must be wrong with it,'' she said. ''It must not have a roof! We walked into this apartment and I said: 'You mean we can afford this! Oh, my God. I can't believe it.''' Several months later, the couple bought the apartment for $173,000. They have never looked back. And now the same friends who were so shocked that they would leave the hip confines of Brooklyn love to visit them. ''They come out here and say, 'Wow!''' Ms. Hill said. ''They want to go to restaurants out here. This is a very vibrant neighborhood that you wouldn't necessarily know about.'' For their part, the Knudsens were all set to leave Greenwich Village and buy an 1,100-square-foot apartment in Inwood in Upper Manhattan for $444,000. ''We had put a bid in, and then my husband said, 'Why don't we check the neighborhood out at night?''' Ms. Knudsen said. ''So we went up there for dinner on a Friday night, and it was pretty desolate. We realized that we would not be particularly comfortable walking home from the subway late at night. Inwood is beautiful, right on the Hudson. But there is just not that much going on up there, and that is not why you live in Manhattan.'' Several of their colleagues had suggested that they check out Jackson Heights. What they found, Ms. Knudsen said, ''was just this great neighborhood, a little-known jewel. We walked into this apartment, and it was just gorgeous -- completely renovated, two bedrooms, a living room, dining room, great kitchen, and it overlooks a garden. We fell in love with it.'' Earlier this fall, the Knudsens bought the apartment for $333,000. ''We are happy as clams here,'' Ms. Knudsen said. ''My husband is a real foodie, and he was so psyched about all of the different restaurants: Indian, Thai, Colombian.'' Still, Queens is far from having the cachet that Brooklyn has gained. ''When I do my open houses in Jackson Heights, the people who are calling me are the people who have vision,'' said Ms. Hoffman of the Corcoran Group. ''You just need some trailblazers to go out there, and that is exactly what we are starting to get.'' Trailblazers notwithstanding, some people suggest that, at least in the interest of its image, there is one thing that Jackson Heights could use. ''We need a Starbucks,'' Mr. Carfagna said, smiling. ''We will know that we have arrived when we have a Starbucks.'' Published: 11 - 14 - 2004 , Late Edition - Final , Section 11 , Column 4 , Page 1 |
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