So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell: ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anymore!’
I was really close to running a post entitled “Slim Pickings in Long Island City Post-Amazon” when news filtered out about a last gasp at bringing back Amazon. Yesterday came the report from QNS.com about Josh Bowen the founder of JB Smokehouse personally trekking out to Seattle to try to get Amazon to reconsider, an effort I viewed in the manner of Don Quixote. BUT, the media loves a good story and it slowly trickled out of LIC. THEN, The New York Times reported late today that Mario Cuomo has also been begging appealing to Amazon to reconsider, including garnering a phone conversation with Pontiff Bezos. PLUS a letter signed by multiple NYC cognoscenti, including the pontiff of NYC, David Solomon – and many other recognizable cardinals with pull, will be published in tomorrow’s Times, ALL of which lead to the headline above, and what effectively counts as LICtalk’s first ever double-issue. WHOA, that’s serious, time for all of us to go to the window…
Cuomo Speaks With Bezos, Furiously Trying to Win Back Amazon – yes, Bezos!
NY Leaders Urge Amazon to Reconsider – NY Times letter
QueensBridge Grapples with Amazon HQ2 Fallout – yo Mike n Jimmy “Aramark, a food and retail service provider, was looking to hire 300-500 workers on the spot for Citi Field in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, at pay rates of $15.25 to $16.70 an hour, and hired a couple dozen workers from the nearby Astoria Houses, according to Urban Upbound workers.”
—————– Part II aka ‘Slim Pickings’ ————————–
What’s next for Anable Basin? Oh wait, that was last week’s topic, and possibly next week’s too. Or maybe we can discuss apartment prices pre/post/past Amazon? I am truly curious to what extent buyers in the middle go through with their impulsive purchases. One listing at The View actually closed at a slight premium to its asking price and another in only 26 days and at a whopping price for a fairly conventional 1-br. Meanwhile actual selling prices at Citylights right down Center Blvd just couldn’t get out of their own way, with a recent low post-Amazon (but pre-withdrawal) close at just under $600 a sq ft. Sure, the building has a crushing debt load but the tax man has been unusually cruel to this tower if numbers in the Wall Street Journal are correct. Per the story below, the average apartment in NYC pays ~.5-.75% of their assessed value in property taxes, with 1.2% considered very high. Citylights is at a whopping 1.6%!1 What does that portend for other condos in Long Island City when their tax abatements wear off? Who knows, maybe I’ll get a(nother) story out of it, because in addition to fewer buyers post-Amazon there’s a paucity of news.
//Listen up little kiddies, make sure you get a good education otherwise you’ll end up writing for a rag like this. To help you (and your parents), the Gantry Parents Association is hosting an event called “Educational Landscape of LIC” this Saturday, March 2 from 10am – 12pm at Hunters Point Middle School. For more info and to register click here.
Amazon’s NYC Departure Leaves NYC Development Site’s Future Unclear – more likely Back to The Future
LIC Real Estate Activity Doubled with Promise of Amazon – how many might back out…?
The View – listings on Streeteasy, present and recently sold
Why New York Values Ken Griffin’s $238 Million Condo at Less Than $10 Mil – City’s tax system undervalues co-op’s condos in prime neighborhoods
LIC Businessman Travels to Seattle In Hopes of Rescuing Amazon Deal – why not
Two LIC Restaurants Named James Beard Finalists – we’re in the finals!
Despite Amazon’s Departure, the Future of Art in LIC is Unclear – like the future of everything in LIC
LaGuardia Community College Leader Announces Her Departure – Gail Mellow leaving LGCC after 20+ yrs
LIC’s Clock Tower Project Begins to Rise – the first of roughly 70-stories and almost 1,000 units
- average selling price recently is $625k and average apartment pays $10k per year [↩]
Jasson says
March 1, 2019 at 9:41 amThis would be AWESOME if they can revive the deal!!!! Smack AOC & JVB in the face and send them to the corner!!!!!
Welcome Opportunity says
March 2, 2019 at 12:56 pmThis deal would provide so much opportunity for New York state AND our kids aspiring for great jobs one day, that the only responsible thing to do is to negotiate the best deal our state could get WHILE ENSURING THE DEAL GOES THROUGH. The state must continue on the right path in the future. No deal should be considered an absolute tragedy and any politician that stands in the way of the 70% favorable majority should be considered not representative and disgraceful. Fight for 3 people, yet turn your back on 7 people? Focus too aggressively on the negative aspects which could be negotiated while not communicating AT ALL the favorable future outcomes for the state and NYC?
This Amazon opportunity almost never comes along. It could be a generational opportunity. It’s more than any opportunity our government can make by themselves. Let’s come together and work together to make our state better, now and for the future.
JRo says
March 4, 2019 at 2:06 pmThis deal could have been the impetus for LIC and Queens to become the leading tech hub in the country and the world. Our politicians should have been focused on how to make this a mutually beneficial deal and not on how to kill it.