Block Of Broadway In Astoria To Become 158-Unit Building

ASTORIA, QUEENS — The auto body shop, taxicab parking and medallion leasing office that have long occupied a block of western Broadway in Astoria may soon be displaced by a nine-story apartment building, city records show.

Developer Damien Smith filed plans Thursday for the new building at 11-20 Broadway: a corner lot facing 12th Street, about a block east of Vernon Boulevard and Socrates Sculpture Park.

Replacing the parking lot and one-story garage will be a 148-unit apartment building, standing 90 feet tall and including 4,200 square feet of commercial space. The apartments will average out to roughly 680 square feet each.

An unspecified number of the apartments will be affordable through the city's mandatory inclusionary housing program, according to the plans.

Records show the Broadway lot was purchased for $7 million last year by an entity listed as "12 Street & Broadway LLC," based in Maspeth, with Smith named as a member.

Demolition plans have been on file since last summer for the garage building at 11-06 Broadway that covers much of the site, home to a taxi medallion leasing company and an auto shop. The southern and western edges of the block fall under a different tax lot, and do not appear to be affected by the new building.

The new building will be designed by Gerald Caliendo Architects, a Queens firm responsible for numerous buildings around Astoria — including another apartment building on 31st Street whose plans emerged last week.

Development has surged on Astoria's once-industrial far west side in recent years; the Broadway site sits directly across from an eight-story building completed in 2011, and steps away from a number of other towers built in the same period.

Have an Astoria news tip? Contact reporter Nick Garber at nick.garber@patch.com.