Greensward

Just imagine the dim-sum dumplings!

QueensWay: New York City’s Most Controversial Potential Park

Parks: what’s there not to dislike?

A group of parks activists in Queens have been pushing “QueensWay,” a linear park that would be built atop the old Rockaway Beach Branch of the Long Island Rail Road in the central and southern parts of the borough. As New York Times opinion writer Eleanor Randolph put it in her pro-QueensWay piece, it “has no celebrity patrons, no Diane von Furstenberg, no Barry Diller, no big-name donors to give enough seed money to turn the park into a fashion statement.”

But with a High Line-like makeover, she wrote, “QueensWay would offer both a walkway and a bike path. There could be small shops or stands featuring cheese guava buns, dim sum dumplings, pani puri or yam fufu.” Read More

lease beat

97-77 Queens Boulevard.

Educational Affiliates Ink 40K in Queens

Educational Affiliates is signing a 40,000-square-foot lease at 97-77 Queens Boulevard, a large office building owned by the LeFrak Organization in Rego Park, Queens.

The tenant operates career schools that train nurses, medical assistants, commercial drivers and computer specialists among other professions.

A source familiar with the lease said that Educational Affilitiates plans to open a nursing school at the location. Read More

Whale Watch

The Category Killer.

Wooing Walmart: NYC brokers still have eyes for elusive retailer

The weekly phone calls. The dinner invites. The gifts.

When representatives from Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, waltz into the New York Hilton for this year’s two-day International Council of Shopping Centers conference, many of the city’s most intrepid retail brokers will be close behind them, perhaps even plying those officials with compliments, dinner invitations and business opportunities. Read More

Monday: I Spy Jessica Coen

  • New Scientist asks the passé question, “If terrorists exploded a nuke in the heart of a big city, how would we cope with the epidemic of radiation sickness that would inevitably follow?”
  • The East Village Maritime Hotel is experiencing setbacks. The current height allowance is for a college dorm, which Read More