92-61 165th Street, Rendering via NHS Development Corporation

With new residential and commercial developments and transit options, Jamaica, Queens is on the brink of renewal, after many years of neglect. Adding to the area’s revitalization, the construction of a new 14-story affordable housing building was finished last fall. Now, applications are being accepted at the building for 88 affordable apartments at 92-61 165th Street in Jamaica Center, Queens. New Yorkers earning 40 and 60 percent of the area median income can apply for units ranging from a $494 per month studio to a $1182 per month three-bedroom.

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Photo courtesy of Laffey Fine Homes from a previous listing

President Trump, who is currently in New Jersey on a 17-day vacation, announced that he will travel to Trump Tower this Sunday. While his Midtown penthouse will be getting a lot of attention this weekend, his childhood home in Queens is also making headlines. The home at 85-15 Wareham Place is up for rent on Airbnb, according to a recent listing on the company’s website (h/t NY Post). The modest Tudor style home in Jamaica Estates is listed for as much as $725 per month. The home features five bedrooms, sleeps 20 people, and includes a life-size cut out of POTUS in the living room. Even though the president only lived there until he was four years old, according to the listing, “this is a unique and special opportunity to stay in the home of a sitting president.”

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Since initially hitting the market last summer, Donald Trump‘s childhood home in Jamaica Estates, Queens has seen quite the runaround. After a price chop from $1.65 to $1.2 million, the listing was pulled in November to head to the auction block, but shortly thereafter Manhattan real estate mogul Michael Davis bought the Tudor-style home sight-unseen for just under $1.4 million. He then flipped it for $2.14 million, nearly twice what he paid and double the neighborhood average. Mansion Global now has the scoop that the mystery buyer, whose identity was shielded behind the LLC “Trump Birth House,” will rent it out for between $3,500 and $4,000 a month, on par with similarly sized homes in the neighborhood.

***Update 7/16/2017: Just one day after it was announced that Donald Trump’s childhood home would be placed on the rental market, DNA Info reports that the Queens property has already found a tenant. Real estate agent Jason Friedman of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage told the website that “a long-term lease, for at least a year” was signed “almost immediately” after the home was listed, although for how much is not clear. Friedman shared only that the rent was more than the $3,500 reported yesterday. No word yet on who has scooped up the property.

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When Manhattan real estate mogul Michael Davis bought Donald Trump’s childhood home sight-unseen for just under $1.4 million in December, he had high hopes of flipping the Tudor-style residence in Jamaica Estates, Queens. Now, just three months later, the Times tells us that he’s done just that, re-selling it at auction last week for $2.14 million, more than double the neighborhood average. Interestingly, the transaction was facilitated by lawyer Michael Tang who specializes in real estate investments made by overseas Chinese buyers. Tang told the Times in an email that he was unable to disclose the name or any other information about the buyer, whose identity is being shielded behind the newly created LLC “Trump Birth House.”

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Hoping to cash in on Trump-mania, an anonymous New York investor scooped up the President Elect’s childhood home in Jamaica Estates, Queens in the hopes of bringing it to auction next month and turning a profit. Mansion Global got the news from auctioneers Paramount Realty USA, who say the bidding will take place on January 17th. Previous reports have estimated that the six-bedroom, Tudor-style home that Trump’s father Fred built could fetch up to ten times its most recent $1.2 million ask, or a whopping $10 million.

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A common question about Donald Trump is “Where did he come from?” and this new listing for his childhood home in Queens may be one piece of the puzzle. Newsday reports that the Jamaica Estates home in which the presidential hopeful lived as a young boy has hit the market for $1.65 million. The six-bedroom tudor home at 85-15 Wareham Place is listed as his address on his 1946 birth certificate (he was born at nearby Jamaica Hospital) and is located in an affluent enclave where the average sales price is around $2 million according to DNAinfo.

More on Trump’s beginnings

With all corners of the city bursting at their seams, once overlooked business nodes are experiencing a resurgence of construction activity. Perhaps most foreign and far-flung to Manhattanites is Jamaica, Queens, where a cluster of high-rises is rising around its transit hub, which serves LIRR commuters and is a terminus to JFK’s AirTrain network.

The neighborhood’s latest large project to come forward is from Flushing-based Ampiera Group, who have proposed a 100,000-square-foot hotel and office tower at 90-75 Sutphin Boulevard, just one block from the transit center. The building’s exterior, comprised of a mix of glass and stone, is designed by MY Architect, who are working with the development team on at least two Long Island City projects. Approved permits and documents filed last summer co-align with images published on the architect’s website that call for a double-winged building with a low-rise leg fronting Sutphin Boulevard. The low-slung retail buildings along Archer Avenue will be demolished to create a plaza at the foot of the tower.

More views and details ahead

We so often write about homes in Brooklyn and Manhattan that we sometimes neglect the gorgeous real estate that can be found in The Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island. Recently, Forest Hills has gotten its fair share of our attention, but when we came across this Tudor-meets-Cape beauty in Bellerose Manor, we were reminded us of how much the outer boroughs have to offer.

More photos of suburbia in the city

Sutphin Avenue in Jamaica via Panoramio

Not yet, but that’s just what the new head of the neighborhood’s Business Improvement District (BID) is planning.

To realize her goal of turning Jamaica into one of NYC’s hot tourist spots, Rhonda Binda is organizing neighborhood tours and launching a series of pop-up installations that would focus on the community’s history and culture, as well as local artists. In partnership with the Queens Tourism Council, she hopes these offerings will attract both locals and visitors alike, especially those who have layovers at JFK airport.

More details ahead