LIC is one of the most heavily redeveloped areas in the city with 40+ story towers popping up like candy. It didn’t need a development boost.
In fact they tore up an existing redevelopment plan for HQ2
In fact they tore up an existing redevelopment plan for HQ2
The bottom line is that the Amazon deal had very broad support in NYC, and a very vocal irrational minority just ruined it for everyone.
Although I hope that it’s a bustling tech hub in 5 years.
My comment is about tech workers working in that area. I think this is better for that area to have highly paid workers in remote queens who can live or commute in.
There’s already a ton of tech companies in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The new change would be to have a tech hub in LIC.
On the contrary, much of what makes Queens quite unique is threatened by the one thing we know would follow on the heels of something like an Amazon HQ landing here: even more heated real estate speculation fueled by absentee capital, small businesses losing their leases, rent hikes, and general homogenization.
Nothing about Queens needs to be preserved in amber, but neither does anything about Queens require some intervention to bring up to par. Possibly public transit but that is true of every borough.
Certainly it will increase property values but I don’t think it will be absentee capital as the demand will be driven by something that requires occupancy, working at hq2.
Maybe Queens doesn’t require intervention, maybe it does. Since there’s no hq2 we’ll close to seeing the contra factual of not having this intervention. Maybe the area grows substantially without it.