Queens Community House purchases long-time Forest Hills headquarters

Queens Community House purchased its long-time headquarters at the Forest Hills Community Center. Photo via QCH

By David Brand

One of Queens’ largest community-based organizations has purchased its Forest Hills headquarters, allowing the agency to upgrade a facility that serves hundreds of children, teens and seniors each day.

Queens Community House bought the Forest Hills Community Center, an historic building created as part of the Forest Hill Compromise, a plan brokered by then attorney Mario Cuomo to build low-income housing in the predominantly white, middle class neighborhood. 

The organization had rented out its headquarters space at the community center before making the purchase official Dec. 29, 2020. 

“The purchase marks an enormous milestone in our organization’s evolution, and it solidifies the continuity of the Forest Hills space as an essential resource for the Forest Hills, Rego Park, and Corona communities,” said QCH Executive Director Ben Thomases.

The Forest Hills site is the node for the 45-year-old organization’s various programs and initiatives, which operate at 32 sites across the borough.

Before the pandemic, about 500 people visited each day to attend a senior center, after-school program, English classes, youth leadership programming and teen center.

QCH purchased the space from tenants of the Forest Hills Coop, which acquired the facility from NYCHA in 2017.

Thomases said the organization will upgrade the space now that it has full control of the facility. The site, closed due to COVID, will reopen better than ever in 2022, he said.

 ‘After a year of limited operations due to COVID, we look forward to welcoming people back to a transformed site in 2022,” he added.