AMAZON MOVING TO LONG ISLAND CITY - NOW EVERYONE IS REALLY TALKING.

Long Island City has had a lot of buzz surrounding it. Once a brownfield, home of the Pepsi Cola bottling factory, window manufacturers, and let's not forget the Five Pointz Grafiti Mecca, now the neighborhood is going to be home to Amazon Headquarters.  From it's HUGE residential rental boom, over 7,000 new units hit the market in 2017, to the reveal of the grandiose plan to transform Sunnyside Yards into a "Hudson Yards of Queens" -  the borough is experiencing remarkable rezoning and opportunity. 

Why Long Island City?

"Located just across the East River from Midtown Manhattan and the Upper East Side, Long Island City is a mixed-use community where arts and industry intersect. It is a diverse community with a unique blend of cultural institutions, arts organizations, new and converted housing, restaurants, bars, breweries, waterfront parks, hotels, academic institutions, and small and large tech sector and industrial businesses. Long Island City has some of the best transit access in New York City, with 8 subway lines, 13 bus lines, commuter rail, a bike-sharing service, and ferries serving the area, and LaGuardia and JFK airports are in close proximity." [4]

According to Curbed," LIC was one of four New York City neighborhoods pitched by city and state officials as a possible HQ2 location, and according to the Times, “the state had offered potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies” in order to get Amazon to the city." [1] The location's proximity to Manhattan, 1 stop away on the 7 subway, and connection to major airports make it a transient hub especially for a company like Amazon that depends on trade/imports.

What's Changing in 2019?

And then there’s Sunnyside Yards: Earlier this year, the city and Amtrak announced that Vishaan Chakrabarti’s Practice for Architecture and Urbanism would take the lead on formulating a master plan for the long-dormant site.  Sunnyside Yards will be build up like Hudson Yards, an incredible and complicated feat of engineering in which a platform will be constructed above the rail yard depot building a completely entire neighborhood above it. [3]

Example of How Hudson Yards Platform was Built courtesy of Curbed and Hudson Yards, Related Company, read on here.:

Graffiti Artists History in Long Island City

About Five Pointz Warehouse (Wikipedia):

An example of the neighborhood's past abandoned factories and warehouses, Five Pointz was deemed a graffiti artists' haven.

Jerry Wolkoff, a developer, bought the property in the early 1970s. He originally planned to develop the building, but instead leased the space to companies. Wolkoff started leasing the space as artists' studios in the 1990s. The building's exterior was covered with street art, and the building became renowned worldwide for the art on its wall. The factory building gained the name "5 Pointz" name in 2002 when graffiti artist Jonathan Cohen started using the moniker as a reference to the five boroughs of New York City. The murals were exhibited mainly on the exterior walls of the building, while the interior was occupied by about 200 artists' studios.

In 2013, Wolkoff made the controversial decision to demolish 5 Pointz and replace it with a condominium complex. The announcement resulted in protests and a lawsuit filed by the works' artists against Wolkoff. The 5 Pointz building was demolished completely in 2014. Construction on the new building complex started in 2015, with expected completion by 2017.

If the city builds it, then we all know the rest - PEOPLE WILL COME. The city was also propelled by the fact that Queens could see the addition of more than 80,000 people in the next 20 years; it’s hoping that a large mixed-use development will address a variety of community needs like schools, jobs, and transit infrastructure.[2] Major rental buildings in the last 2 years were giving significant rent concessions such as free amenities, months rent, and gift cards. Moving forward as the neighborhood continues to change, commerce and retail units are in demand as the population needs more options to choose from. 

[1] https://ny.curbed.com/2018/11/6/18066802/amazon-hq2-new-york-long-island-city-finalist

[2]https://ny.curbed.com/2018/5/3/17312400/sunnyside-yard-megaproject-master-plan-queens

[3]https://ny.curbed.com/2014/3/19/10129892/heres-how-the-hudson-yards-platform-will-be-constructed

[4] https://www.bizjournals.com/newyork/news/2018/11/06/heres-what-long-island-city-has-to-offer-amazon.html