The catalyst for the growing interest, brokers and developers say, is the success of Long Island City, just across the East River from Manhattan, where some condos have been selling for more than $1,000 a square foot.

“Many developers we’re working with started out in Long Island City and are now moving to other areas of Queens,” said Eric Benaim, the chief executive of the Modern Spaces brokerage, which has offices in Long Island City and Astoria. “They were able to see the potential with Long Island City and are now open to doing projects in other areas.” Industry executives like to draw comparisons between the quickening pace of development in Queens and the rapid transformation of Brooklyn over the last few years. With prices skyrocketing in prime parts of Brooklyn like Cobble Hill and Williamsburg, said Michael Tortorici, a founder of Ariel Property Advisors, “now you have other areas that used to be considered second- or third-tier, like Crown Heights and Bushwick, catching up very quickly.”

In Queens, he continued, “I think you can see the market following the same pattern,” with momentum from Long Island City and Astoria carrying into Elmhurst, Flushing and beyond.

But that is where the comparisons end. Queens may be on the rise, but it lacks the buzz that has turned Brooklyn into a global brand. Still, Queens fans say that is precisely why they like it. “Queens is Queens,” said Rich Buceta, the president of SingleCut Beersmiths, a new brewery in Astoria. “It basically doesn’t have to live up to any sort of hype or image like, say, Manhattan or Brooklyn. Queens is much more low-key. It’s much more unassuming. We’re not trendy. We’re not trying to appeal to the latest fad.”

Astoria

Long known as a Greek immigrant neighborhood, but home to many other ethnicities, Astoria has been rapidly gaining popularity with young professionals first lured across the river by Long Island City, its trendier and pricier next-door neighbor. In Long Island City, the average rent in a luxury building is $3,650 a month, while in Astoria it is $2,520, according to Modern Spaces brokerage, which opened an Astoria office last year to capture some of that business.

Development is on the way along Astoria’s waterfront. Last month, Lincoln Equities Group was given the go-ahead to build Hallets Point, a $1 billion project to include 1,921 market-rate and 483 below-market-rate apartments on seven and a half acres on a promontory that juts out into Hell Gate, at the convergence of the East and Harlem Rivers. The project, which will be near the Astoria Houses, a public development, will have Manhattan views, a supermarket, retail space and a waterfront esplanade designed by James Corner Field Operations, which worked on the High Line.

And 2030 Astoria Developers, headed by John Mavroudis of the Queens group Alma Realty, is eyeing a nearby site for a large residential development.