The former Shalimar Diner at 63-68 Austin St. (Photo: Queens Post)
Dec. 21, 2018 By Meghan Sackman
The Shalimar Diner property in Rego Park was recently scooped up to the tune of $6.55 million.
The property owners, Aldterton Associates, sold the 63-68 Austin St. location to two LLCs under the same address—63-38 Austin and RW Austin—on Nov. 15, according to property records.
The sale of the Austin Street site, which housed the diner for decades until shuttering last month, was brokered by Goldenwood Property Advisors.
Rubin S. Isak, founding partner at the firm, told the Forest Hills Post that the prime location saw about 40 offers.
“You can’t find another property like this,” Isak said. “It’s irreplaceable.”
The 14,000 square foot lot has 140 feet of frontage along 63rd Drive, and 100 feet of frontage on Austin Street that includes the parking lot next to the diner.
Isak said the amount of interest in the spot “shows that this property is a prime corner for commercial use.”
“There’s a lot of money looking to invest in those areas,” he said.
It is still unknown what the buyers will build in the Rego Park site or if they will seek to rezone.
The lot, however, is currently zoned R4 with a C2 overlay, meaning that a one-story retail building, or a mixed-use building with stores on the first floor, can be built as of right, among other possibilities.
The new owners have not responded for comment on the purchase by press time.
The diner on the property, which opened in 1974 and was featured in the Martin Scorsese film “The Wolf of Wall Street”, closed on Nov. 25 after the owners said they were unable to reach a lease agreement with the landlord.
7 Comments
So sad to see a landmark of this area go 🙁 I wish we could keep more of the things that made Forest Hills/Rego Park home for us all – like the Diner or like Barnes and Noble that closed on 71st. We dont need any more large commercial spaces that make the neighborhood feel impersonal.
The Diner Era has all but closed. We now can order food from our smartphones. This has become the norm for Millennials and GenXs who are slowly replacing the Baby Boomers who patronized these diners.
I’m new in the neighborhood, but I found it to be a great spot to have dinner, around 6, it was dinner for the older crowd, like the senior citizens, in the neighborhood, always a comfortable place to eat, going to miss the place
Of course they were unable to reach a lease agreement with the Landlord. The Landord was staring at at $6.5 million offer. Diner never had a chance.
Queens doesn’t need another residential building. We need diners and clothing, shoe, hardware and other small businesses which built this city m I miss Shalimar – the people who worked there and especially the food. Lease negotiations are not done in a few days. The owners asked for an unreasonable rent on purpose knowing dam well what they were going to do.
ill just get that crap on Amazon. there’s a housing shortage!
We need school and hospitals here. The population has ballooned in the recent years and nobody think about the infrastructure.