Because I'm a snob, and because I think his shtick is kind of silly, I haven't read Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point." But I've used the phrase in coversation -- usually trying to pinpoint the exact moment when the New Jersey Nets lost me as a fan -- as a substitute for "the moment when something achieves critical mass." And while we're obviously still a ways away from green building in New York City having reached critical mass, there's a sense, in reading about the just-announced lease signed by King Polo supermarkets at the LEED hopeful Queens Family Courthouse development in Jamaica, Queens, that something tipping point-y is going on. Surely the existence of a LEED hopeful development in a comparatively distant Queens neighborhood that didn't previously have a supermarket, period, has to mean something, right?
King Polo, despite sounding like a 1980s rapper (or DJ), is actually a New York City-based supermarket chain plotting an aggressive expansion program -- two supermarkets per year in all five boroughs, according to a company spokeswoman -- in the city over the next few years. The absence of stores selling fresh food in many New York City neighborhoods remains a low-wattage scandal -- one that the City Planning Commission is seeking to remedy through an under-review resolution offering tax incentives to grocers, the New York Observer's Emily Geminder reports. But the arrival of King Polo in Jamaica is surprising not just because the neighborhood -- per this article by the Queens Chronicle's Vadaisha Brown -- currently doesn't have any supermarket but because of the ambitious scope of the project itself.
The King Polo will anchor the 30,000-square-foot retail space on the lower floors of the Dermot Company's ongoing $130 million mixed-use redevelopment of the Queens Family Courthouse at 89-14 Parsons Boulevard; the project will also offer 346 units of low- and mixed-income housing. The entire project will pursue an unspecified LEED rating, and it will be interesting to see how the King Polo -- considering the notorious energy-hoggery of supermarkets -- will integrate any possible energy efficient elements. Dermot specializes in just this sort of macro-scale, surprisingly-green odd-neighborhood development -- Stephen cheered their work on the Lower East Side Girls Club back in June -- and the support of the AFL-CIO's Housing Investment Trust for the QFC development (the HIT, whcih focuses on this sort of good-for-the-community development, touts the project here) is a good sign. The HIT promises that the development process -- which will thankfully leave the courthouse's Italian Renaissance facade intact -- will utilize recycled content, low-emitting paints and solvents, and energy efficient mechanical systems and high-performance windows. I'll keep an eye out for more details -- green and otherwise -- and will be following this development closely. Jamaica's a very interesting neighborhood (a friend of mine did a public art project there a few years back), and it's nice to see it receiving some good news, regardless of whether that news signals a tipping point or just a welcome opportunity to buy a head of lettuce.
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Google
Comments
Post new comment