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Cord Meyer Built For The Middle Class

Forest Hills Gardens was created by Cord Meyer. Tribune Photo By Ira Cohen

By Jeff Feinman

“Without Cord Meyer, there would be no Forest Hills,” is how one resident put it at June’s Community Board 6 meeting, in which the company’s proposed 21-story residential tower on Queens Boulevard was being discussed.

That statement may be rather close to the truth, as Cord Meyer has been a leading developer in Queens for more than 100 years – from when Cord Meyer Jr. acquired a substantial parcel of farmland and created Forest Hills to the planned residential monolith that may loom opposite its existing twin on Queens Boulevard.

Continuing The Legacy

Under a new management core led by CEO Sal Panico and COO Anthony Colletti, Cord Meyer is still going strong. “We plan to be here for the long haul,” said Colletti, who has worked at the company for 23 years.

“George and Charles Meyer both retired three years ago. They ran the company since the late 1980s, and from 1904 until just a few years ago, a Meyer had always been in charge of the company,” Colletti said. “Cord Meyer was really at a crossroads. They talked about liquidating and selling their properties, but the owners, who are fourth generation, surprisingly and happily had enough interest in the family business to keep it going.”

Cord Meyer’s history stretches all the way back to when Queens was propelled by farms and agriculture. In the 1890’s Cord Meyer Jr. partnered with Samuel Lord, co-founder of Lord and Taylor, to build the Forest Hills Gardens as a place for workers in Manhattan to live and relax. Meyer Jr. then established trolley connections and installed sewers in central Queens.

Throughout the 20th Century, the Cord Meyer Development Company created a number of high profile development projects including the Continental, Forest and Arbor Close, the Lexington and Livingston Apartments. Those projects were impressive enough to be awarded Certificates of Excellence in Design by the Queens Chamber of Commerce.

The City Shifted

Anthony Colletti is the company’s COO. Tribune Photo By Jeff Feinman

In the 1980’s, the company started turning towards the co-op trend and took advantage of the shift in the real estate market.

“In the city, it seems to be extremely difficult to build affordable rental housing,” Colletti said. “That was our trademark, that was our bread and butter. We didn’t build anything to sell. We built those buildings to hold onto and rent out space, which builds up the equity in the company. Generally those buildings would appreciate, and the value of the company grows and grows. That was always the hallmark of Cord Meyer.”

Colletti said that Cord Meyer has had difficulties in recent years being able to follow such a trend. In the current market, the company has mostly been selling buildings and enjoying a two-to-three-year period of activity, which then disappears when the building is sold.

One of Cord Meyer’s larger creations as of late was The Windsor on Queens Boulevard, a 22-story residential tower with spacious living areas, panoramic views of the city, and a beautifully furnished lobby. Originally designed to be an 11-story office building, Cord Meyer scrapped those plans after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

“After 9/11 happened, we thought there would be an incredible demand in Queens for office space, thinking that people would want to leave Manhattan,” Colletti said. “We didn’t want to be ghoulish and capitalize on that, but as it turned out, no one was talking office space anywhere in New York City. People were leaving, closing down, going to New Jersey, so there was a glut of office space in Manhattan and prices went way down. So it really didn’t make sense to build a giant office space here.”

Looking Ahead

In the near future, the Windsor may have a height-savvy equal when Cord Meyer constructs a new building on the other side of the boulevard. At the June CB 6 meeting, Colletti and other representatives said that an application has been put before the Board of Standards and Appeals to have permission to construct 167,400 square feet of building space, with the majority of that number going towards residences.

“We’d like to have a project that draws people and that doesn’t take away from existing buildings,” Colletti said.

The new building would contain luxurious apartments with one-to-three bedrooms, and the existing commercial space already on the site, which includes a Key Food and a pharmacy. It is also expected that the new building would have a number of community benefits financed by Cord Meyer, including doctors’ offices and cleaning crews, and additional parking space. Construction is expected to begin in early 2007.

The Windsor, as it was being constructed. Tribune Photo By Ira Cohen

Colletti said that even if the proposals for more building space are approved, Cord Meyer executives would still have to decide if the project makes sense. “Building costs have risen out of control, so the costs at this sight might be 40-50 percent more than what they were across the street,” Colletti said. “We don’t believe we’ll be able to sell it for 40-50 percent more. The costs are a concern today, it’s a problem everyone is experiencing.”

Another concern, Colletti said, is a possible drop in demand because of rising interest rates. Even so, Colletti said he believes there is demand for more luxury housing.

Current properties owned by Cord Meyer include Bay Terrace of Bayside, the Cord Meyer Office Building, the Forester, Forest Hills Professional Suites, and retail space on Northern Boulevard in Woodside. Cord Meyer is considering adding two buildings, 21,000 square feet, of retail space at Bay Terrace, but the plan is not imminent.

Cord Meyer officials said they are very happy to see the development projects that are taking place in Queens. “It’s about to explode,” Colletti said. “You have the new Shea Stadium site, the enhancement of Kennedy Airport, there’s hotels being built around the borough. Queens is so large, and you have massive development going on in the Rockaways, then you have Long Island City and Astoria, which have the great allure of being five minutes from Manhattan. It’s very encouraging.”