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 23rd 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.
In addition, Metlife moved from Manhattan to 27-01Queens Plaza North, taking 700,000 square feet in a 12-story office building just over the 59th Street Bridge, while Manhattan-based Edward J. Minskoff Equities is also crossing the East River to develop a 1,640-bed, 19-story $300 million mixed-use structure at the juncture of Northern Boulevard and Queens Plaza North.
On the controversial side, building owner Jerry Wolkoff has proposed to develop 5Pointz--a 200,000-square-foot warehouse turned graffiti art mecca--into market-rate rentals and a luxury shopping mall on the neighborhood's main Jackson Ave. thoroughfare, which has yielded mixed responses from residents, as reported in the New York Daily News.
But with an $8 capital improvement plan underway for the neighborhood, Baron says the LIC Partnership, in conjunction with civic organizations and the real estate community, are working to make the city more welcoming for businesses. Expected for completion in December 2011, planned improvements include new roadway configurations for Queens Plaza and Jackson Ave., as well as new green space and public plazas when entering the borough. “All of this is definitely an enhancement for businesses here, and a tool to attract new businesses as well,” Baron says. She added that CUNY Law School has purchased six floors in Two Court Square adjacent to the Citigroup tower, and JetBlue is moving their world headquarters just a few blocks away to 27-01 Queens Plaza North, in a move to consolidate their Darien, CT and Forest Hills, NY operations.
As a result of office activity, multifamily is on the uptick. In February, the city selected the Related Cos. to construct a $360-million, 900-unit mixed-use affordable housing structure along the waterfront here, which will have access to the new East River Ferry service.
And as the city emerges as a 24/7 live/work environment, Baron says retail development is next to come. “It has enough critical mass,” she says. “You can walk down Vernon Boulevard and find new retail. It is just another one of several positive things that is happening in Long Island City, which is growing the possibility of a place to live, to work and visit,” Baron says.
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