Rockrose continues LIC expansion with 300-unit tower

Rockrose Development’s Long Island City expansion continues.

The developer is planning a 19-story residential building at 43-14 Queens Street, according to a permit application filed with the Department of Buildings. The building will have just over 300 apartments, along with approximately 4,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. SLCE Architects is listed as the architect of record.

The developer paid $13 million for adjacent lots (the other is at 43-14 Queens Street) in late November. A parking garage and industrial building occupy the two lots, according to Crain’s, which first reported the news.

Rockrose, led by father-and-son team Henry and Justin Elghanayan, is one of the most active developers in Long Island City, with four massive rental buildings completed and several other projects in the works. Two of its rental properties — Eagle Lofts, at 43-22 Queens Street, and Hayden at 43-25 Hunter Street — are among the tallest buildings in the borough.

It’s also planning what it said is a smaller phase of Eagle Lofts, with about 200 apartments at 27-34 Jackson Avenue, and a 123-unit building at 43-12 Hunter Street. An affordable housing lottery for the latter opened in October.

While the Manhattan and Brooklyn rental markets have slowly begun to recover from the pandemic-driven downturn of early 2020, Queens has been lagging. According to the latest rental market report from Douglas Elliman, inventory in northwest Queens — which includes Long Island City — remains high, and median rents are low.

Even with those renter-friendly conditions, the number of new leases signed was down 21.5 percent from the same time last year.

[Crain’s] — Amy Plitt

Correction: The new building will have approximately 4,000 square feet of retail. The 28,000 square feet cited in an earlier version of this story is the amount of retail and commercial space on the entire merged zoning lot, including Eagle 1 and 2 and the Jackson Avenue buildings, according to Rockrose.