BUSINESS, ALL BUSINESS IN LONG ISLAND CITY

DO you like the new look of the LICtalk website?  Yeah, we figured it was long overdue for an aesthetic makeover, especially since we can’t do anything about the writing.

The tale of how we created the Gantry icon with LIC TALK embedded some may find interesting.  Basically, I snapped a photo of the gantries, paid $30 via a 3rd party site to a recently graduated computer engineer in Sri Lanka named Chathuranga, messaged what I was looking to do, and after some back ‘n forth to get it perfect, voila!1

Furthermore, since a formal business deal has been matriculated between Chathuranga and myself, I am now one of the 4,000 invitees to his wedding in April.  Best of all, my banker at Goldman says the updated site is now worth 50% more than it’s previous value of $8.73.  50%?  Wow that’s some return on my investment, I should be running a major corporation!

//IT’S all business today, and while we’re on the topic, I recently came across three of them in LIC that typify the unusual nature of many of the small companies here.  The first is called Anvil Craft Services, which is a mobile canning service that allows northeastern microbreweries to can their own beer.  Still in its incipiency, it’s definitely well-positioned location wise, to fill a niche that’s under-served.

The second business is Bloomfield Industries, an innocuous-enough sounding name, as is the exterior of their Borden Avenue building.  Yet lodged inside are rows and rows of marijuana plants being grown for the New York State medical marijuana industry.  Unfortunately they’ve run into a little trouble recently, though it’s more of a financial nature than a slowdown in demand.

Ok, we’ve uncovered the burgeoning beer and pot markets, what could be next?  How about cheese?  Some of you may already be aware that Murray’s Cheese maintains aging caves, aka the ‘stink tanks,’ along Borden Avenue, as it’s been written up in numerous publications.  But did you know there is a major cheese distributor nearby called Larkin Cold Storage?  We’re not talking Kraft Singles here, but the expensive stuff imported from France and sold all over the country.  It’s a family owned business now run by its third-generation leader Adam Moskowitz, who also happens to be the founder of the legendary Cheesemonger International and a former rapper.

Wow, beer, pot, and cheese, what interesting and amazing businesses lie behind the seemingly quiet street fronts in the industrial areas of LIC.

//ON that note, many may wonder why there are so many bland chain type stores going into the new towers popping up everywhere.  There’s a reason for that, and it too has to do with business. According to a Bloomberg article:

“Commercial landlords are holding out for retailers that can boost property values and credit ratings”

You can read the story if you care about all the details, for us it kind of answers the question as to why Related Companies and Times Square Development are keeping their respective retail sites in Hunters Point South and One Vernon Jackson vacant.

//FINALLY, while we’re on the subject of business, some very recent comments from Barry Sternlicht, the founder of Starwood Hotels, on the biggest business of all in LIC: real estate.  Keep in mind this was said at a financial conference where it’s not unusual for speakers to use superlatives to stand out.

“New York City is a disaster…The rents are probably down 15 percent in the high end…My son lives in an apartment in the city and his rent is down 20 percent year over year. …Didn’t have to move. So, New York City is weak.”

Blame The Banks For All Those Boring Chain Stores Ruining Your City – national retailers are often rewarded for their perceived credit worthiness with lower rents

A Banker Turned Builder in LIC – yet another unusual biz in LIC. Best & Co. manufactures wood interiors and has 125 employees on 44th Drive.  They also own the aptly-named coffee shop The Mill

Manufacturers Find Niche in NYC – “You can make manufacturing local again,” said Shapeways CEO, which employs 70 people at its 3-D manufacturing plant in LIC

Skeptics Say City’s Environmental Studies Understate Damage from Development – here’s the gist: “In 2001, the Bloomberg administration rezoned LIC’s manufacturing land to “mixed use” … That EIS said the rezoning would likely generate a few hundred residential units but that there would be no need for new schools, police facilities or firehouses. Fourteen years later, more than 10,000 new housing units had been built…”

Industrial Retro in LIC – the NYT rundown on The Harrison condo-building. 27 stories, 120 units in Court Square, and very cool looking

A Detailed Look at the Luna-LIC Conversion – more like a very detailed look.  If you want an inside look at converting an old office bldg to resi, this is your primer

At Secret Theatre, ‘The Underpants Godot’ Works on Many Levels – see this kind of stuff before it vanishes from LIC …and NYC

1. To be more specific, I searched thru a site called Fiverr.com for someone who could do Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.  It took me two or three requests w/ other providers before Chathuranga, whose handle is blux_tt on Fiverr, agreed to take on the gig.  We then negotiated a price and delivery time and I sent him the photofile. A day later came the first draft, the next day the second one, then another day of back and forth leading to 6-7 fairly simple revisions [↩]