Developer To Demolish Funeral Home For Housing, Application Shows

REGO PARK, QUEENS — After months of speculation, a demolition application confirms that a Jewish funeral home in Rego Park will likely be torn down in order to build housing.

Parkside Memorial Chapel, located at 98-60 Queens Boulevard, is slated to become a 51-unit, 7-story apartment building, with commercial space and 15 parking spots, according to plans filed with the Department of Buildings on Monday. Crain’s was first to report the story.

The demolition application, which hasn’t been approved by the DOB yet, comes six months after papers were first filed to partially tear down the funeral home, the Queens Chronicle reported.

City Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz, who represents the neighborhoods of Forest Hills and Rego Park, told the Queens Chronicle in February that the development would be “dedicated” to affordable-housing for seniors.

“As a 58-year resident of Rego Park/Forest Hills, it would be with a very heavy heart to witness the demolition of Parkside Chapels,” Koslowitz said. “At the same time, the sadness would be tempered by the fact that the new structure would create desperately needed housing for seniors.”

The Councilwoman’s office did not immediately respond to Patch’s inquiry on whether that project will continue as planned.

Other residents, however, don’t think it’s worth it to demolish the historic building in lieu of housing.

“An architecturally, culturally and historically significant site sadly remains endangered,” Michael Perlman, chairman of the Rego-Forest Preservation Council, told the Queens Chronicle, pointing to the building’s unusual modernist facade and a nearby weeping beech tree, believed to be the only one of its kind in the area.

A handful of other residents signed onto the preservation council’s petition to save the building, too.

This isn't the only instance of buildings, including those with historic significance, being demolished in the neighborhood for housing: In May, the owners of a three building complex in Rego Park, including a historic theater-turned-synagogue, filed permits to demolish the site to make way for luxury housing, Patch reported.

Rudolf Abramov, who works for the building’s development group, said that fifty-one, or 30 percent, of the building's 170-units would be listed as affordable housing, due to the city's Mandatory Inclusionary Housing policy — a welcome addition in a neighborhood that he says has a "huge demand" for rental apartments.