The family-run Rosenwach Group is thinking of adding opportunities for hundreds of families to live at the site of a shopping center in Astoria.
Rosenwach filed an application with the Department of City Planning to rezone the LaGuardia Center at 43-02 Ditmars Boulevard in the Queens neighborhood, Crain’s reported. The firm wants to turn the low-rise shopping center into a mixed-use complex with nearly 500 units.
Rosenwach proposed a 412,000-square-foot complex that would be between eight and ten stories tall. The property would include 492 residential units, 25 percent of which would be affordable for those earning a maximum of 60 percent of the area median income.
The proposal also includes a significant retail component — 62,000 square feet in all on the ground floor, including a 2,300-square-foot cafe and gallery — which would allow the tenants of LaGuardia Center to remain in place when the redevelopment is completed. Tenants include a supermarket, a laundromat, a bank and restaurants.
Additional aspects of the proposal include a landscaped public terrace and parking for 175 vehicles.
“We always thought that the center — now and hopefully in the future — was the heartbeat of the neighborhood,” director of operations Henry Rosenwach told the outlet. “We really just want to take it one step further for the community.”
Development costs and timeline were not disclosed. Because of previous work, however, Rosenwach expects to qualify for the lapsed 421a tax break, for which construction needs to be completed by the middle of June 2031 after the deadline was extended last year.
Rosenwach acquired the site in 1989 for an undisclosed price and operates out of the address. In addition to being a landlord, the firm also helped develop rooftop water towers across the city.
Elsewhere on Ditmars, Pasadena-based hospitality investor ASAP Holdings filed a rezoning application towards the end of 2023 to replace the 410 parking spaces at the New York LaGuardia Airport Marriott with a mixed-use building containing 437 apartments and a separate structure containing 98 affordable residences for seniors.
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