PRR Powerhouse
Basic Data
Designed by McKim Mead & White, The Long Island City Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) Power House was begun in 1890 and finished in 1909 in order to provide power for the electrification of the Long Island Railroad (LIRR). Originally a PRR generating plant, later N.Y. & Queens Electric Light & Power Company. In 1959 the Schwartz Chemical Co. moved from Manhattan to the PRR Powerhouse, then in the near-past, the property was used by the Long Island City Tennis club for, well, tennis courts.
Analysis
There has been talk about rehabilitation of the PRR Power House. According to a source, in the recent past a developer has inquired to a local New York architect about rehbilitating the PRR Power House into a boutique hotel (much like the Hudson Hotel (http://hudsonhotel.com), I guess). Even if you use, as a median estimate, $200/sq. ft. the cost of renovation would exceed $20 million. Right now I doubt that the return on investment is worth the conversion under Article 7B of the New York State Multiple Dwelling Law from industrial to commercial or residential use.
For fun, let's run some numbers. Because the age of the building, the fact that there probably is asbestos and lead paint all over the place, and that the building has been left open to the elements, let's estimate $200/sq. ft. for design and construction. Starting with a base building of around 100,000 sq. ft. let's use the whole first floor for commercial - 34,000 sq. ft. leaving us with 66,000 sq. ft. of space. Now, lets remove 20% of that for mechanical, building services and walls, which leaves us with 52,800 sq. ft. of residential space. Let's pretend that Long Island City (LIC) became the next SoHo where residential rent can run around $1,000/sq. ft. we can also say that we will have 100% residential occupancy and 70% commercial occupancy (which would be stretching it in LIC).
| Property | 100,000 sq. ft. | x $100/sq. ft. | = | $10,000,000 |
| Commercial | 34,000 sq. ft. | x $350/sq. ft. | = | $11,900,000 |
| Residential | 66,000 sq. ft. | x $400/sq. ft. | = | $26,400,000 |
| Total | 100,000 sq. ft. | = | $48,300,000 | |
| Commercial | 34,000 sq. ft. | x $1000/sq. ft. | = | $34,000,000 |
| Residential | 52,800 sq. ft. | x $1000/sq. ft. | = | $52,800,000 |
| Total Revenue | 100,000 sq. ft. | = | $86,800,000 | |
| Cost | $48,300,000 | x 1.25 (taxes & contingencies) | = | $60,375,000 |
| Revenue | $86,800,000 | x .7 (it is LIC) | = | $60,760,000 |
| Total Profit | = | $385,000 |
Now, I didn't play with the numbers so that our profit would be under $500,000 - that's just how it turned up. So you can see how much money it would take to develop this property. This is even assuming that the current owners would sell for $10 million.
Photos
Historical Exterior
Exterior
Interior
Interior
Interior
Interior
Interior
Interior
Exterior
Drawings
- Missing image
Queens-County-1898-1903.pdf
1898 Sanborn Map
external Links
- Internal Photos (http://www.hopetunnel.org/subway/lirr/prr.html) - Interior Photos 21 FEB 2004
- Arrts-Arrchives (http://arrts-arrchives.com/electrification.html) - photos and info
- Urban Wasteland (http://urbanwasteland.com/detritus.ny/structures/_schwartzco/) - exterior photos
- Urban Lens (http://www.urbanlens.com/files/chemical/chemical.html) - interior photos
- Queen's West (http://www.queenswest.com/neighborhood/discussion/00001397) - current discussion
References
White, Norval and Elliot Willensky 2000. AIA Guide to New York City. New York: Three Rivers Press.
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