Evergreen Owners

Studios to two bedrooms with quality prewar details

Like any prewar building, The Evergreen is decked out in locally sourced materials and quality components including hardwood floors, plaster walls, large periodically updated windows and crown molding. However, like any older building, the state of renovation and customization varies greatly from unit to unit. With previous owners having made their own alterations over time, no two residences have the same suite of kitchen appliances or bathroom finishes. While a handful of average sized studios sell for just under $200,000, one- bedrooms with enough space for king beds fetch $285,000. A few top- floor two- bedrooms have sold for upward of $450,000 in the past. There’s good value here when considering how close of a commute The Evergreen is to “the city,” aka Manhattan. “While most co-ops only allow subletting after two years and based on limited timeframes, The Evergreen allows for it immediately, with board approval of course,” Fermin adds. Though the building doesn’t have a ton of bells- and- whistles amenity spaces, the live-in super ensures that all common areas remain spick- and- span. There’s a well-equipped laundry room with an ample number of machines and bike storage in the basement, which can be accessed using two relatively new elevators.

One the U. S.’s first garden cities and the best of multicultural Jackson Heights

Imagined as the first iteration of relatively close by suburbs, garden cities were late 19th- and early 20th-century master planned neighborhoods implemented as alternatives to the cramped intercity “slums” that proliferated across many major metropolises. English planner Ebenezer Howard codified the concept as one that would combine the benefits of city and country living. As the independent entity and, later, New York borough of Queens rapidly urbanized, the plot of land that would eventually come to be known as Jackson Heights was conceived with the concept in mind. It was here that, in 1916, the Queensboro Corporation coined the term garden apartment: Less dense late Victorian-style residential buildings such as The Evergreen were carefully interspersed with communal gardens. Initially, this neighborhood was segregated and “reserved” for white Anglo-Saxon protestants. As of the late 20th Century, however, it has emerged as one of the most diverse pockets in the world. This multiculturalism is reflected in Jackson Heights’s thriving food scene, one that continues to draw in foodies from throughout New York City. “The range of cultures here is what really brings people to the neighborhood,” Fermin notes. “You don’t need to go anywhere else to experience almost every cuisine from around the world.” The section of the now expansive and fluid neighborhood in which The Evergreen is located received landmark status from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1993 and the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.

Northern Boulevard, Jackson Heights’s main commercial artery, is only four blocks away and features hundreds of popular eateries and hip bars. Fermin, who also happens to be a long-time area local, prefers Peruvian mainstay Pio Pio 2, Italian trattoria Uncle Peter’s and tapas go-to Café Salamanca. “The farmers market on 34th Avenue between 79th and 80th streets that runs every Sunday between April and Thanksgiving brings the community together,” she adds. “There’s a great sense of pride in our history and diversity here.” One of the only downsides, however, is a lack of street parking for the hundreds of prewar apartments in the area because there are very few integrated garages.