Curbed Inside: Long Island City's EastCoast 2

Curbed Inside visits the interior of a structure with an eye towards revealing the design and architecture. If you've got a project you'd like Curbed to consider for shooting, drop us a line.

[All photos: Will Femia]

Sequels have to be bigger and badder than their originals to be successful, and don't think the Rockrose Development Corporation doesn't know that. The company's EastCoast project?a group of rental and condo towers in the Queens West chunk of Long Island City?had its first building open about a year ago, and even though the original is 100% leased, the Rockrose gang still decided to step up their game in both design and amenities for Phase 2. The second rental building is a 31-story tower officially known as 4705 Center Boulevard but referred to by anybody who's anybody as East Coast 2, and it's set to open any minute now. In addition to being the building that will finally bring Queens West its long-awaited grocery store, East Coast 2 will also provide Rockroseians with a parking garage, gym, lap pool and various other good-time activities. East Coast 3, a condo building, is currently under construction just northwest of EC2. Seven East Coast buildings are planned in total.

For Curbed Inside, the team at Rockrose was nice enough to let us have the run of he place and snap away. But before we get to the pictures?the many, many pictures?here are the facts: Arquitectonica handled the architecture, and the Rockwell Group whipped up the interior design. The first 10 floors of the building are finished, and those are the floors that will begin occupancy during the first week of November. Rents start at around $2,020 for studios, and go all the way up to around $5,700 for big-ballin' top floor two-bedrooms. As of two weeks ago, about 50 leases were signed, with many more contracts out awaiting some fresh ink.

The model in the leasing office shows EastCoast 1 (in the foreground), EastCoast 2 (with the amenity space/garage building) and the future Handel Architects-designed condo building.

THE BUILDING!

Manhattan views are a prime selling point (renting point?), so the building juts out more as it gets away from the river, so that most apartments have some sort of city view.

The lobby. Click to expand.

The Rockwell Group went with sort of a lake-house-meets-Vegas kind of vibe throughout the building. Hence the foliage and swamp grass.

Hallway on a finished floor.

THE APARTMENTS!

Looking west, with a glimpse of AvalonBay's under-construction rental building next door (the two are locked in a parking garage face-off), and beyond that, the Powerhouse.

All of the two-bedroom units have washer/dryers. Like real human beings!

Tale of two kitchens: unfinished apartment, finished apartment.

Oh yeah, there's views out into Greenpoint and Willliamsburg too. Yawn.

The $5,700-per-month view from a top-floor 2BR facing Manhattan. We're not gonna lie, floor to ceiling windows + entirity of Manhattan skyline = slightly terrifying. Click to expand.

THE AMENITIES!

Looking down upon the top of the parking garage, which is being turned into a communal landscaped deck, complete with grill.

Closer to the deck, looking at the shed that houses the pool and across the street at EastCoast 1.

The future lounge. Flatscreen TK.

Those TVs are going to come in handy, because there ain't much action on Center Boulevard to keep you distracted while you're sweating out last night's bender.

The womens' locker room, which is nicer than any locker room should ever be. Tenants at both EastCoast buildings pay an annual fee for access to the gym, sauna, pool, etc.

Sure beats the lockers at the Y.

How many LIC gentrifiers does it take to make a sauna very uncomfortable? We'll soon find out.

The indoor lap pool, open year-round. It's shallow, so no horseplay!

Did we mention the whole swampy thing going on in this building? We did? Good.

The 10-seat screening room. There were some sample film series itineraries on display, including a ('natch) Queens week that includes Coming To America. Something tells us that Prince Akeem would be quite confused if he was dropped into this part of Queens today. Then he'd probably take the penthouse.

· East Coast [eastcoastlic.com]
· QueensWest Stumbles Into Becoming Real Neighborhood [Curbed]
· LIC's Queens West North Gets Big [Curbed]
· LIC Rising: New Rendering of Queens West [Curbed]