THE New York Times is out today with a story on the emptying out of the Blanchard and Paragon buildings on Borden Avenue, in order to make way for higher-paying office tenants. Whole businesses are vacating the premises, typified by the protagonist of the story, a furniture upholsterer who is leaving for Long Island. LICtalk has previously profiled two businesses in the Blanchard. The first BklynBooks (aka iPodMeister) was mentioned in the Times story, and is moving to Paterson, NJ. The second, Manhattan Fruitier, has moved a little further east to the LIC/Sunnyside border. Prophetically, the owner of the latter sent me this quote when I asked him about the sale of the building a year ago: [Read more…] about THE DOWNSIDE OF GENTRIFICATION IN LONG ISLAND CITY
Business
NEW CONDOS STILL SELLING LIKE HOTCAKES IN LIC
ACCORDING to an article this weekend in Crain’s, The Harrison, a 27-story/120-unit condominium in Court Square, is 60% sold despite the fact that it won’t be completed until June, and thus doesn’t even have a model apartment to exhibit. In addition, the article mentions that all 33 condos in The Marx are sold.
The latter building is located on the Astoria/LIC border across the street from the Kaufman Studios. Heretofore I’d refer to this as a no-man’s land, yet [Read more…] about NEW CONDOS STILL SELLING LIKE HOTCAKES IN LIC
MORE CHANGES COMING TO VERNON BLVD & MORE TACOS
HUNTERS Point Dental will be moving to new and bigger offices at the base of One Vernon Jackson. This prime new location, on Vernon Boulevard just south of Cafe Henri, has been vacant since the building’s construction in 2010. Moreover, HP Dental’s previous home three storefronts north of Dorian’s Diner (49-13 Vernon Boulevard), will now be open to a new tenant for the first time in 32 years! [Read more…] about MORE CHANGES COMING TO VERNON BLVD & MORE TACOS
VERNON BOULEVARD: THE NEW LOOKS FOR 2017
Commerce never sleeps, and despite it being the holiday season there is no respite from change along Vernon Boulevard. Four addresses along the heavily trafficked southern portion have seen new activity during the latter half of December.
First of all, the Butcher Deli installed a new facade, indicating that the [Read more…] about VERNON BOULEVARD: THE NEW LOOKS FOR 2017
LONG ISLAND CITY 2016 – HOW DID WE GET HERE?
“Since the 1920’s, city planners have dreamed of transforming Long Island City into a major urban center just five minutes by subway from midtown Manhattan on the Queens bank of the East River. In September, the City Planning Commission will vote on proposed zoning changes that would make the dream possible.”
BY “September,” we’re talking 1995, which was when the opening paragraph above was written in an article in The New York Times. These zoning changes combined with additional ones made to Court Square/Queens Plaza in 2001, were the starting point of the march to what Long Island City is today.
Like many things, it took a little longer to play out, but the end results were also much, much bigger than anticipated.
In Hunters Point, the edict above led to [Read more…] about LONG ISLAND CITY 2016 – HOW DID WE GET HERE?