Amazon: From LIC to Hudson Yards
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | DEC. 27-JAN. 2, 2020 23
BY BILL PARRY
Amazon abandons its plan
to build an HQ2 campus in
Long Island City
In November 2018, Amazon
announced that after a yearlong
nationwide competition, the
e-retail giant announced that
Long Island City would become
the company’s northeast home.
Amazon would build its massive
HQ2 campus at Anable Basin
along the East River waterfront
and vowed to create 25,000 goodpaying
jobs over 10 years, with
a plan to grow to 40,000 over 15
years.
Opposition to the “greatest
economic development” project
in state history exploded overnight
with elected officials who
said offering nearly $3 billion in
tax incentives was feeding corporate
greed, and a significant
coalition of community groups
concerned with gentrification,
technical support for ICE, and
anti-union policies.
After several explosive City
Council hearing where Amazon
officials were grilled incessantly,
Senate Majority Leader
Andrea Stewart Cousins in
early February recommended
state Senator Michael Gianaris
as a member of the state Public
Authorities Control Board,
which could potentially veto
the project. Governor Andrew
Cuomo fumed that the Senate
was “playing politics” be nominating
Gianaris to the panel as
he was one of the main leaders
of the opposition.
On Valentine’s Day, Amazon
broke up with Long Island City
saying its plan required “positive,
collaborative relationships
with state and local officials
who will be supportive over the
long-term.”
Cuomo furious with Queens
officials for chasing
Amazon away
Governor Andrew Cuomo
was apoplectic after Amazon
abandoned its HQ2 campus
plan in Long Island City, a deal
which he had called an “unparalleled
economic boom” for the
borough, the city and the state.
Referencing Queens lawmakers
who opposed the Amazon
project, Cuomo dismissed
them as “a small group of
politicians who put their own
narrow political interests above
their community, which poll after
poll showed overwhelmingly
supported bringing Amazon to
Long Island City, the state’s economic
future and the best interests
of the people of this state.”
State Senator Michael Gianaris,
who was nicknamed
“The Amazon Slayer” by New
York Magazine, said that Amazon’s
behavior “shows why they
would have been a bad partner
for New York in any event.
Rather than seriously engage
with the community they proposed
to profoundly change,
Amazon continued its effort to
shakedown governments to get
its way.”
City Councilman Jimmy
Van Bramer, who led the charge
against Amazon executives
during the hearings, stuck a
celebratory tone, saying, “when
our community fights together
anything is possible, even when
we’re up against the biggest
corporation in the world. I am
proud we fought for our values,
which is a fight for working
families, immigrants, and organized
labor.”
Long Island City business
community tries to rescue
Amazon deal
In the weeks that followed
Amazon’s decision to scuttle
plans for its HQ2 campus in
Long Island City, Eric Benail,
the co-founder and CEO of Modern
Spaces launched an online
petition to show support for the
e-commerce giant.
“I think we have a 5 to 10
percent chance to bring them
back,” Benaim said. “I’ve been
working for two weeks to bring
them back and you never say
never. Business people always
walk away from the table, and
sometimes they come back.”
John Brown Smokehouse
owner Josh Bowen, a former
supporter of state Senator Michael
Gianaris and City Councilman
Jimmy Van Bramer,
paid his own was to Seattle
where he met with a top Amazon
executive for 2 hours trying
to rescue the deal.
“Someone has to represent
Queens. Mike and Jimmy abdicated
their duties,” Bowen said.
“I gave it my best shot. I gave
him the whole song and dance
and I could tell, this guy really
wanted to be in Long Island City
but they were seriously grossed
out by the actions of our elected
officials. If Mike and Jimmy
had just talked to these guys it
would have been a whole different
story.”
Manducatis Rustica owner
Gianna Cerbone, threw herself
into the effort to pave the way
for Amazon to become part of
the only neighborhood she’s ever
known, even if it cost her some
regular customers who didn’t
agree with her. She served on
the Community Advisory Committee
and hosted several get-togethers
between small business
owners and Amazon executives
knowing that the HQ2 campus
would serve as an anchor for the
neighborhood.
“I wouldn’t fight for something
that wouldn’t be great for
this community,” Cerbone said.
“We worked very hard on this
and the Amazon people were
speaking with us about what
they could do for this community.
It’s quite sad that a couple of
individuals would use misinformation
that drove them away.”
Local civic leader laments
loss of Amazon in his
neighborhood
Weeks after Amazon scuttled
its plans for Queens, Hunters
Point Parks Conservancy
president Rob Basch was riding
a bike down Vernon Boulevard
towards 44th Road. He began to
grow angry.
“I just saw how desolate this
are of the neighborhood is with
nobody around and I thought,
‘This is what it’s going to be
like here without the Amazon
HQ2 campus for at least the
next three to five years,” Basch
said. “No complex full of workers,
no 600-seat school, no $27
billion in tax revenue to fix our
infrastructure, especially the 7
train.”
Seth Bornstein, the executive
director of the Queens
Economic Development Corporation,
watched anxiously as
mistakes, misinformation and
missed calculations reigned on
many levels.
“Government and community
leaders are the stewards
of our city,” Bornstein wrote on
his blog. “To that end, I believe
the ones who opposed Amazon
let down a generation of young
people, especially those of low
and moderate income, women,
minorities, and immigrants. We
must remember the word ‘progressive’
has ‘progress’ embedded
in it. If young people do not
have opportunities, they cannot
make progress.”
A post-mortem for Amazon’s
HQ2 campus proposal for
Long Island City
When news broke that Amazon
agreed to lease office space
in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards
for more than 1,500 employees
it stirred up some ghosts
along Anable Basin where the
e-commerce giant had planned
to build it massive HQ2 campus.
Amazon scuttled those plans because
of opposition from elected
officials and a coalition of community
groups.“Amazon is coming
to New York just as they
planned,” state Senator Michael
Gianaris said. “Fortunately, we
dodged a $3 billion bullet by not
agreeing to their subsidy shakedown
earlier this year.”
Governor Andrew Cuomo,
who had seethed at Gianaris’
role as the so-called “Amazon
Slayer,” fired back.
“This is crumbs from the table
compared to a feast,” Cuomo
said. We don’t have a problem
bringing businesses to Manhattan
but we have been trying for
decades to get that Queens waterfront
developed.”
Thomas J. Grech, the president
and CEO of the Queens
Chamber of Commerce, the
oldest and largest business association
in Queens, said the
deal would have been a transformative
opportunity for the
borough.
“Bringing Amazon’s HQ2
campus to Long Island City
would have created 25,000
good-paying jobs, solidified
NYC as the world’s preeminent
tech hub, catalyzed economic
activity to support small businesses,
and generated $27 billion
in tax revenue to invest in
our subways, our schools and
our public housing,” Grech
said. “Amazon’s arrival in
Hudson Yards not only comes
with a fraction of the jobs, but
no commitment to invest in job
training for NYCHA residents,
STEM programming in our
public schools, or investment
in crucial infrastructure. The
people saying ‘I-told-you-so’
today are either incredible
disingenuous, or lack a fundamental
understanding of
mathematics.”
YEAR IN REVIEW
Governor Andrew Cuomo was apoplectic after Amazon abandoned its HQ2 campus plan in Long Island
City, a deal which he had called an “unparalleled economic boom” for the borough, the city and the
state. Courtesy of Cuomo’s office
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