Cyclo, a new Vietnamese restaurant brought to you by the owners of Tuk Tuk, is scheduled to open next Friday!
Altogether now “banh mi, banh MI, BANH MI!”
HEY PALO ALTO, BETTER WATCH YOUR BACK
Fresh off the news that Publicis, the huge international advertising agency, is coming to LIC, we get the possibility that the city is looking to turn our little town into the next technology center. The proposal, labeled the “Anable Basin Tech Incubator”, cites many of the facts that we already know about the neighborhood, as advantages of locating something like this here. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to add a little of the State’s money to grease the wheels, but personally I think it is going to happen anyway. As I have been highlighting in my posts the last few months, many small tech companies have already made the decision to locate here. Though we are far from achieving critical mass, the momentum is there and so are so many of the things small tech companies are looking for including being a mass transit hub, lots of nearby housing stock, an educated work force, and lots of relatively inexpensive office space. By 2014 I predict Goldman Sachs will be opening up a satellite office in LIC. Which leaves me with one final question about the tech explosion in Long Island City: Will it be more like Palo Alto or Bangalore?
Maybe we will share some of our good fortune with our neighbors across the creek in Greenpoint. The New York Times had a big update on Sunday about all the building and gentrification going on in that neighborhood. Basically they are charting a similar path to Long Island City’s. What I couldn’t help but wonder is “Gee, the front page picture on the article looks remarkably like the one I posted on July 19th!” I may have to give Arthur Sulzberger a call. If Greenpoint is still in the throes of gentrification, Williamsburg has officially completed that stage and commenced full on disneyfication or maybe “meatpackingfication” is more like it, with the opening of the Wythe Hotel. The yuppies of yesterday are the neo-hipsters of today, plus ca change…
But wait, sometimes things do go back to the way they were. There are rumors of the Macy’s fireworks coming back to the East River! Check out the last story and come to your own conclusion as to the probability. Who knows, maybe the fireworks can be timed to signify the grand opening of the LIC incubation?
Proposed Tech Incubator In LIC – what happened to starting up in your garage?
Long Island City’s Tech Takeover – will it be feted with fireworks?
Who You Calling Gritty? – will I still be able to get kielbasa and pierogis?
All Roads Lead To Wythe Avenue – Wythe Avenue, Gansevoort Street, Collins Avenue…
Follow That Tourist – mentions some Queens tourist spots and concludes with an offer to stay at the Z Hotel in LIC for $1,000 a week plus breakfast
Newtown Creek: Past, Present, Future Workshop
New Ferry To LIC, Brooklyn Exceeds 1M Passenger Mark – can you imagine what the numbers would be if the LIC embarkation point wasn’t so remotely located?
LIC Ice Cream Shop Relies On Community – more on Malu
Macy’s May Bring Fourth Of July Fireworks Extravaganza Back To The East River – where they belong!
DWINDLING
Recently I penned a note as to why I do not expect rents in Long Island City to soften, despite all the new rental buildings being developed or having just been completed. Today comes the other side of that vise: there are no residential buildings being built with sales in mind, and thus very little inventory to buy if one wanted to get off the rental increase treadmill. Now if I am the developer of that lot above, or say the lot across from the playing field on 5th Street that just broke ground, I would have a very serious discussion with my partners and lenders about maybe switching my original rental intentions over to condos. But hey, I’m no developer, I’m just a poor schlub fantasizing about having more room for my bike.
Lack of availability and three million dollar condos notwithstanding, the bigger real estate story for LIC this week(and possibly this year …or decade) is on the commercial side. I am not talking about the sale of the Citi tower either, that is just meaningless paper shuffling between large institutions despite the large denominations being tossed around, as far as the neighborhood goes. The deal that really might change the face of LIC, both commercially and residentially, is Publicis’ decision to relocate many of its Manhattan based employees to LIC. In my mind, the cachet a big international advertising agency brings to a peripheral commercial area like Long Island City is a watershed moment. Once the first corporation makes the jump, others become more willing, and the perception of the area goes from being manufacturing and warehouse-centric to “happening” and cutting-edge, with the added bonus of a discount for those who act fast. Think of Conde Nast and the impact their last two moves had on the surrounding neighborhoods. But hey, who am I to surmise about the destiny of LIC’s commercial district? I should just be happy we’re getting a beer garden within stumbling distance.
Prices Rise For Smaller LIC Condos As Supply Wanes – get’em while they’re hot!
Queens Most Expensive Condo Hits The Market For $3.25 Million – we told you about this last week, but a natural extension of the story above. Did she really say the economy is recovering? Quick, call Bernanke.
Crescent Club Launches In LIC – shoulda kept’em condos
LIC Citi Tower sells for $500 Million – an LIC icon changes hands
Publicis To Move From Manhattan To LIC in Blockbuster Deal – if the above is an icon, this is a game changer!
New High End Hunters Point Sprinkler Features Lifeguard – and her name is Pamela Anderson! Only the best for LIC …or maybe this is a bit much?
Queens Parks Offer Free Yoga With Sweeping Views – free is free, yoga is yoga, nuff said, now GO!
Wedding Bells Ring For Sunnyside Pol – congrats to Jimmy V from LICtalk
MTA Poised To Restore Some Subway And Bus Services – the changes would include a permanent extension of the G train to Church Avenue
Shapeways Opens Doors To Its NYC 3D Printing Distribution Center – another cutting edge LIC biz we’ve previously cited
Driver injured After Vehicle Smashes Into LIC Condo Building – local news here, get your local news here
11109
There is not a lot of LIC news today, and what did make the cut is not very meaningful. Most importantly, none of it is sordid. Therefore I will use this sparse and chaste day to entertain and enlighten you, and possibly make you a little jealous, with a tale of LIC’s past. Courtesy of the LICtalk wayback machine, we take you to the very beginning of the 21st century, when the Long Island City waterfront was just a one hit …err building wonder and a man named Clinton was in the White House. When I say “jealous”, remember when reading the prices in the first article, dated February 27th of 2000, that the dot-com bubble was almost at it’s pinnacle as the Nasdaq Index would hit its all time high three weeks later. In tandem with that cresting, NYC real estate prices had skyrocketed over the previous five years, and also were in a speculative frenzy as everyone’s net-worth, on paper anyway, had exploded, and thus people were feeling very flush. Furthermore, every banker and trader on Wall Street had just pocketed seven figure bonuses, solely for being alive(oh the good times)! One location absolutely no one was looking to place that lucre, was in gritty and unfashionable Long Island City. Thus I have the set the stage, fasten your seat belts cause here we go, to the land of $210M two bedrooms —->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
If You’re Thinking of Living in Long Island City, Queens circa 2000 – hmm, I’m not so sure the “next bohemia” thing worked out as planned, but the rest of the article was quite prescient
LIC Food Truck Lot Forced to Scale Back
LIC Rises To The Top For Bakers
Year Of The Takeout – today featuring a dish from Vernon Boulevards ‘New City Kitchen Express’
Answers To Questions About New York – LIC signs
Hotels Pop Up In Brooklyn, Can Queens Be Far Behind? – tres Queens?
BEER AND ICE CREAM
Beer and ice cream, that sums up my life these days. So I start with a story containing more details about the beer garden coming shortly to LIC via John Brown Smokehouse. Then I follow it up with a story about Malu, our local ice cream shop on Jackson Avenue that makes their own ice cream. It’s absolutely delicious and the store is exactly what every neighborhood strives for, and we here in LIC actually get!
Next up we get to real estate, which as frequently is the case dominates the LIC news, not to mention our lives. Then comes an excellent recap/review of PS1’s Warm-Up last week, which acts as a reminder that it is going on again this Saturday, and every Saturday in the summer. Then comes two other cultural events happening in the ‘hood this weekend. That should be plenty of things to do and see, as we await JB…
LIC Beer Garden To Open This Month – Christmas comes early to LIC! +it mentions a beer festival at Alewife this weekend too
Queens Themed Ice Cream Shop –alright kids, one more beer and we’ll head over to Malu
Apartment Rents Rise At Highest Rate Since 2007 – that’s right, blame it on Generation Y
LIC Penthouse Could Break Record For Queens Condo –now we know where the JB Smokehouse after-party is at
Buyers In A Hurry To Buy At One Murray – i’ll take two!
Micro Apartments Coming To NYC – how ’bout we just convert that 4th bathroom in the Penthouse into one of these?
Fate Of 5Pointz Awaits Approval From City Board – I’m not laying odds on that decision, bye bye 5Pointz
PS1’s Warm-Up Comes to Temperature For Its 15th Anniversary Season – one word sums it all up: hedonistic
Warm-Up Mix Previews – in case you want to get started early
Free Lincoln Center Performances Coming To Queens Libraries This Summer -flamenco at LIC Library this Saturday at 2:30pm
The Stage Party Gets Wild In LIC
To Find Fields To Farm In NYC, Just Look Up – mentions LIC’s own (mis)named Brooklyn Grange’s One Acre Rooftop Farm