Aug. 30, 2016 By Hannah Wulkan
The Queens Motor Inn in Woodside, a hot sheets hotel where rooms are rented by the hour, will be torn down to make way for a new apartment complex next summer.
Owners of the one-star Yelp reviewed motel, located at 64-11 Queens Boulevard, recently accepted an offer to sell the building which will be finalized come spring.
The hotel is known for its low rates, where guests can book a room for $57 for a four hour stay – or get nightly deals for about $100.
The owner of the hotel, Queemo Corp., recently accepted an offer from developer Gadi Ben Hamo, of Woodside-based Mount Sinai Properties. The sale will not be finalized until next spring. The price details were not disclosed.
Ben Hamo filed the permit for demolition yesterday, and the Inn is scheduled to shut down in May 2017, with demolition and construction beginning soon after that, he said.
Ben Hamo said he plans to build an apartment building that will include about 120 rental units, some of which will be classified as affordable.
He said that he won’t break ground on the project until the state legislature resurrects the 421a tax abatement program, which essentially exempts developers/owners from paying property taxes for 10 to 15 years.
The exemption expired in January, causing many developers to abandon or rethink projects that had not yet broken ground.
“If the city wants any kind of affordable apartments they have to work with the developers and make it worthwhile,” said Ben Hamo, explaining that if the 421a exemption is not reinstated, he will not build and the lot will remain empty.
Mount Sinai Properties also owns and hopes to develop the property at 72-12 Queens Boulevard, which is currently a used car lot. “I think everything on Queens Boulevard will be redeveloped when the tax exemption gets figured out,” Ben Hamo said.
The Queens Motor Inn made headlines last year when two men “bought” a woman and held her there against her will, repeatedly forcing her to have sex with them.
The Inn has also had reports of bedbugs and robberies over the years.
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One Comment
I cant believe the queens motor inn is not there anymore. I stayed there for Christmas in December of 2016.memories that’s all we take with us.