NEW YORK CITY-Earlier in the month, the post-industrial neighborhood of Long Island City, Queens got its latest enhancement: a $47.6 million expansion of the MTA’s Court Square subway line, which now links the G and 7 trains with the E and M trains at 23^rd Street and Ely Avenue into one cohesive station. With the lion’s share funded by Citigroup, the new transfer--projected to benefit 20,000 riders each weekday--is a sign the area is continuing to emerge as a commercial and residential destination, sources tell GlobeSt.com.

“It is certainly an enhancement,” says Gayle Baron, president of the Long Island City Partnership, an advocacy group that promotes economic activity and development that benefits Long Island City’s industrial, commercial, residential and cultural sectors. The subway improvement was a mandatory requirement of the New York City Zoning Code for the development of Citigroup’s Court Square Two, a 14-story office tower adjacent to company’s 50-story tower that defines LIC’s skyline. “What drives construction in Long Island City in general and real estate prices has to do with the fact that there is great transportation and very good building stock.”

But that’s not the only thing happening in the neighborhood. As a result of a 37-block rezoning of LIC’s two core business districts ten years ago, several major mixed-use developments underway in the former industrial zone. The projects include Rockrose’s 800,000-square foot build-to-suit office complex at 10 Court Square, Tishman Speyer’s 3.5-million square foot Gotham Center on the site of a former municipal parking garage.