Oct. 28, 2019 By Christian Murray

Groundwork has begun on a six-story, 19-unit building on Queens Boulevard located next to Starbucks.

The work is taking place at 46-11 Queens Blvd., a lot that has been abandoned since a fire tore through the north east corner of 46th Street and Queens Boulevard in 2001.

Since the fire, a new building went up on the corner of 46th Street and Queens Boulevard that houses Starbucks, which opened in 2006, and T-Mobile. However, the lot at 46-11 Queens Blvd. has remained empty and the owner has faced complaints over the years about the construction fence being dangerous and garbage accumulating on the property.

The building plans for the vacant site were originally filed with the Dept. of Buildings in July 2017.

The plans, however, were recently reviewed by the Buildings Dept. and on Oct. 2, 2019, they were deemed incomplete, according to a spokesperson for the department.

It is common, the spokesperson added, for building plans to go through several rounds of examinations before being approved.

A permit was issued to the developer, Avi Dishi of Metropolitan Management, on Oct. 9, 2019, to begin earthwork.

The building plans call for ground floor retail, with five floors of apartments. The ground floor would consist of 3,600 square feet of retail space and the second floor would have 3 apartments. Floors 3 through 6 would each have four apartments.

The entire building would be 17,280 square feet and would be about 70 feet tall.