New photos of Hero LIC; Nearly-finished condo selling tax-abated one-beds from $775K

Hero LIC at 24-16 Queens Plaza South. Credit: Redundant Pixel

Thursday, Dec 12, 2019 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

Long Island City readies to add another residential high-rise to its burgeoning ranks, as completion approaches at Silverback Development’s 22-story, 109-unit luxury condo at Hero LIC at 24-16 Queens Plaza South at the foot of the Queensboro Bridge. The Woods Bagot design perches a sleek Art Moderne tower atop a prewar base, preserving a touch of history at one of the oldest neighborhoods in Queens. Currently available one-bedroom units start at $775,000, and two-bedrooms go from $1.15 million.

Units are outfitted with washers and dryers, oak floors, Caesarstone counters in the kitchens, and tempered-glass showers in the bathrooms. Loft duplexes comprise the building’s penthouses.

The white facade, crossed with horizontal black bands and accented with curved balconied at the corners, contrasts against the ubiquitous blue glass of the Long Island City skyline. The architects fashioned the junction between the historic facade and the new tower into a one-of-a-kind common area, where a 3,000-square-foot terrace meanders between the 30-foot-tall pillars. Curved floor-to-ceiling glass wall at the fitness center faces a lushly-planted parapet. The second deck perches atop the high-rise and offers sweeping panoramas of the Long Island City skyline, the graceful span of the Queensboro Bridge, and Midtown Manhattan across the East River.

Numerous apartment towers rose in Long Island City over the past few years, most of which offer rental apartments (here’s CityRealty’s ranking of LIC’s Top 20 rentals). At this time, condominium projects remain relatively rare, though their numbers are steadily rising. Next door, the 14-story, 48-unit Independent LIC has converted from rental to co-op this summer, just two years after building completion; the co-op is priced comparably to Hero LIC, with studios on the market from $440,000, one-bedrooms from $585,000, and a two-bedroom available for $1.1 million. A few blocks further, Skyline Tower, recently topped out as the tallest building in Queens, offers one-bedrooms from $915,798 and two-bedrooms from $1.19 million. Half a block away from Skyline Tower, recently-finished CORTE features a selection of three-bedroom condos that start at $1.98 million.