New Long Island City Skyscraper Will Be Tallest In Queens: Plans

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — For the third time in a handful of years, a new Long Island City skyscraper will gain the status of tallest building in Queens: in this case, a 794-foot tower set to rise near Queens Plaza, according to city records.

Developer Lloyd Goldman submitted plans last month for the 69-story skyscraper at 42-02 Orchard St., facing Jackson Avenue. The site is partly empty, while a handful of industrial buildings occupy its southern end. It sits just south of The JACX: an enormous two-tower development completed in 2019.

The new skyscraper will be mostly residential, containing 818 apartments at an average size of about 776 square feet. A portion will be set aside as affordable, through the city's mandatory inclusionary housing program.

Plans for the skyscraper were first reported last year by New York YIMBY, when developers submitted documents to the Federal Aviation Administration to study any obstructions that the tower could pose to nearby LaGuardia Airport. Last week, meanwhile, YIMBY reported that excavators and dumpsters had appeared on the site, signaling that construction could begin imminently.

Besides the residential component, the tower will include more than 11,600 square feet of commercial space. A two-story garage with "accessory residential uses" will span much of the block at the tower's base.

It will be designed by Perkins Eastman, an architecture firm whose other notable projects the David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital and the TKTS Booth in Times Square.

Goldman, the developer, leads the firm BLDG Management and owns hundreds of residential properties around the city. He also owns a major take in the World Trade Center.

Once built, 42-02 Orchard St. will claim the title of Queens's tallest skyscraper from the Skyline Tower near Court Square: a 778-foot-tall condo building that topped out in 2019. Before Skyline Tower, the record belonged to One Court Square, the iconic blue building formerly owned by Citigroup. (The residential tower Sven, on Queens Plaza North, now holds the number two slot.)

Under Long Island City's 2001 rezoning, the 37 blocks around Queens Plaza and Court Square were designated as a special subdistrict that allows for taller towers.