Queens Public Library to Open 5K-SF Court Square Branch at 5PointzLIC

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Queens Public Library (QPL) will reopen its Court Square branch at a new home within the 5PointzLIC residential building in Long Island City, Queens, a property of contention for some graffiti artists.

The library finalized a 15-year lease for 4,500 square feet on the second floor of David Wolkoff’s building at 22-44 Jackson Avenue, with an option to renew for another five years, according to the QPL. Asking rent will be $11,250 per month, with an annual increase of 3 percent to reflect the neighborhood’s growth.

QPL will relocate its Court Square branch, which was previously located nearby at One Court Square in the former Citicorp Building, according to QPL. The library network has 66 total locations across Queens, but closed its Court Square space in 2020 when One Court Square changed hands, according to the LIC Post, which first reported the news.

“Finding an affordable and inspiring new home for the Court Square branch has been a top priority, and we are extremely pleased to be one step closer to re-establishing a permanent presence in the neighborhood,” QPL President and CEO Dennis Walcott said in a statement. “We are grateful to our board of trustees, elected leaders and members of the public for their support throughout the process, and we look forward to transforming the space into a dynamic library for the community.”

QPL said the buildout of its new branch on Jackson Avenue between Crane and Davis streets would take two years and cost $3.2 million. The design of the branch is expected to be completed later this year.

“We are excited to have Queens Public Library here at 5PointzLIC, and we are thrilled that the Court Square community will once again have a great library branch,” Wolkoff, president of G&M Realty, said in a statement. “We are grateful to everyone involved for their help in bringing this transaction to fruition.”

No brokers were involved in the deal. Wolkoff did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

The deal comes after some years of controversial news for 5PointzLIC, which was long known as New York City’s most prominent hub for graffiti artists.

The former five-story Queens warehouse on the site was once covered in murals by some of the most renowned street artists, but its art-filled walls were erased in 2018 when the building’s developer whitewashed the building overnight to construct the current residential tower on the land, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

Jerry Wolkoff, who had owned the property since the 1970s and allowed artists to begin painting its exterior walls in the early 1990s, had long-term plans to eventually convert the site into housing, but artists had no idea he’d do it overnight with zero warning.

Ultimately, 23 artists filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming Wolkoff had violated the Visual Artists Rights Act, which protects public art from being destroyed without the artists’ permission, CO reported.

The judge in the case ruled in favor of the artists, and they were awarded $6.7 million in damages in the landmark ruling, CO reported. The developer tried to fight the decision, but the case ended in 2020 when the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal, the New York Times reported.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.