The Boulevard Of Zombie Condo Development

Woodside And Elmhurst, Queens, N.Y.

Remember when Queens Boulevard was called the boulevard of death? Because of the high amount of vehicular accidents that put the fear of death in pedestrians that out of necessity would dare to tread across the four lane quasi-highway? Well, it has got comparably safer to commute and cross than in the past, but it has been replaced by a new form of existential threat, and that is over-development. With this post, I bring forth three technically new buildings that have been built but have remained strangely unfinished and apparently have yet to be occupied. (But strangely they are already on the market).

Welcome to the christening of Queens Boulevard as the Boulevard Of Zombie Condo Development here in Impunity City

Your city.

Lets begin at this mesh covered monstrosity at 64th St.

 This sign has aged quite a bit, but upon closer inspection, this building was supposed to be completed a few days from now in the year 2018

Next, let’s cross the BQE and check out this budding condo building by 69th St.

Look it’s already garnering interest, but too bad the poor buyer is going to have to wait a little much longer, for this was supposed to be done in the vague completion date of Winter 2018

But the one down the block by 70th St. and Queens Blvd. is the most undead of them all.

But at least it comes with genuine street art, so the developer saves a few dollars on artwashing, avoiding to commission some bland pseudo famous graffiti tagger.

Lo, this zombie condo complex is four years behind schedule…

This building gives off quite an ghoulish aura of mystery. For who knows when construction actually started for this development and when it actually stopped. And of course why it stopped, for there is no D.O.B. certificate on it like the others and a stop work order was clearly and vainly ripped off the building placard.

To be fair and balanced here, those photos were taken in late August/early September. And some progress had occurred when I returned on a mild day just before Thanksgiving…

The mesh was taken off of the 58th building. But it still remained dormant and not a creature was stirring. Well, surely rats might be stirring in this one, they are fricking everywhere and prefer to squat in these ample abodes if they are not in a NYCHA building.

Well, most of the mesh is off. And the faded placard is still there after 3 months.

The 69th St. building was less zombiefied. For what looked like there were what I assume are contractors or realtors present.

But the zombie building on 70th is still in craptacular shape…

…and to go along with the eerie vibe when one passes by, it seems the zombie condo building has become haunted. Because some entity or apparition put up some real estate banners on some of the crappy little balconies on the higher floors.

The genuine graffiti still remains. The same tags too.

And the same placards still remain too, even the scraped stop work order wasn’t even removed by the elements or even a dabble of goo gone. Which doesn’t do much to ward off suspicion about why this building is still like this for so much time. And it’s safe to presume that there is no “affordable housing” in these complexes because the developments were initiated before de Blasio’s bullshit Housing New York program got implemented.

With the widely reported and countless updates about the dearth of affordable housing and the escalation of the homeless population, it’s shouldn’t be perplexing why these luxury condo buildings (at least what they are advertised to be) are wasting so much space without being used for so long. Another big waste is how the city gave them permits to build these zombie condos in the first place despite the need for more more housing and better quality housing for the poorest citizens of the five boroughs.

The biggest irony of all is the next big residential complex a few blocks away is the Pan American Hotel, which has operated as a homeless shelter in almost the exact amount of years has the 70 St. Zombie Condo development has been behind schedule for completion. In fact, the hotel may have started being a shelter the same exact year as the perceived schedule completion date!

Another interesting about these zombie buildings is that those bike lanes were approved and installed as these were still being constructed (except for ol’ 2015 there). Surely the city expected those residents there to be utilizing these lanes on the regular. But as those three zombie building eyesores remain lifeless, the bike lanes that were once universally rejected by the communities of Woodside and Elmhurst continue and still remain barely used and barren most of the time.

It might be apt to also call these zombie bike lanes too. Too bad this wasn’t much help for this bike shop since it got stretched to Rego Park either.

Yet still more unaffordable and unattainable condo development is still on the way on the Boulevard of Zombie Condo Development, leaving the working poor and shrinking middle class go wanting for a roof over their heads and the luxury of privacy.

This fugly zombie condo complex by the Queens Center Mall is a year late too.

Apparently, one clear reason that these buildings are taking so long to be finished is because of mandatory safety training rules that had to be made into law. Somehow they didn’t have the sense or the morals to implement these rules in the first place.

Somehow, these buildings are still just standing there unoccupied. Could be these condos are too pricey or to shitty looking to risk putting your savings in there and living in it for the rest of your life and probably too risky and not ample enough to raise a family in.

But at least the developer of this monster is showing some accountability:

It’s too bad when all of these zombie apartment buildings finally get done (with the exception of Zombie 70), they will remain lifeless. These zombie condo buildings will just sit there gathering moss and dust as the real estate market speculation/fabrication for the cost of these dwellings ludicrously rise.

These towers only reason for existence is to show that you can work in this city, but you sure as hell can’t live in it. While hundreds of thousands of citizens can barely scrape enough cash to save to transition or to make the rent where they are right now.

Which sort of makes them zombie tenants.