LIC's Massive East Coast Project, Half-Done

The $1 billion-plus East Coast project, a massive, 7 building residential complex that has been two decades in the making, is just past half-done. Developer TF Cornerstone has now completed three rental towers, a condo building called the View, an eight-acre park, and a waterfront promenade. The project is more than half done.

 All told, the project is expected to be finished in 2014 and will add some 3,500 units of market-rate housing to Long Island City, a post-industrial waterfront neighborhood that had been dominated by low-slung factory buildings and a scattering of town houses.

East Coast is a 21-acre parcel owned by the state and approved for some 3 million square feet of development. The plan was tweaked a decade ago to remove roads from around the buildings, with the resulting open space at the site a huge boon to neighborhood residents. The builders built tall, statement-making buildings on small footprints, surrounded by as much green space as possible, giving the whole community a classic feel, with towers in parks surrounded by highways.