‘Change is good’: Small LIC
businesses see promises of
Amazon’s impending arrival
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
Amazon offices in Long Island City mean
business for a number of stores and restau-rants
on one of the area’s main roadways,
Vernon Boulevard.
“Change is good,” said owner of Centro Pizza Bar
& Italian Kitchen Steve LoGiudice.
According to LoGiudice, business so far for his
restaurant, located at 47-23 Vernon Blvd., has been
good since it opened roughly a year ago. Amazon’s
trickling arrival in the neighboring Anable Basin area
will only make things better.
“The increase in local foot traffic will help all busi-ness,”
said LoGiudice.
Many of the businesses, especially restaurants,
on Vernon Boulevard share LoGiudice’s sentiments,
recognizing that all of the 25,000 Amazon employees
expected to arrive over the next several years will
need to eat, drink, go the pharmacy, bring their kids
to the doctor and have their pets groomed.
Growth is inevitable and to some fighting against
is a battle that has already been lost.
“Change is happening by the hour,” said Meir
Newman of Sinks & Stones, a tile and stone store.
“This isn’t LIC anymore, it’s an extension of Man-hattan.”
Long Island City has been in the midst of a residen-tial
real estate boom for the last several years, with
over 12,000 apartments having been added to the
neighborhood between 2010 and 2016, according
to reporting from Curbed NY.
The neighborhood has even been called the fastest
growing neighborhood in the United States. And with
Amazon opening a hub in the neighborhood, growth
is going to be expedited.
But development literally comes with a price.
Although a high number of businesses on Vernon
Boulevard stated that they were excited by the
prospects of Amazon coming into the area, they
recognize a downside. Some say the rent will only
get more expensive.
“Of course the landlords will spike up the rent,”
said the general manager of Woodbines Craft Beer
and Kitchen Bob Bryan Stack. “So would you if you
had a building here.”
But Stack is confident that the revenue made from
the increased business brought in by Amazon will help
soften the blow of a rent spike.
According to an email that a representative from Amazon
sent us, Amazon’s presence in Seattle has proved beneficial.
“Amazon has invested over $4 billion in Seattle
since 2010 and created over 45,000 direct jobs. These
investments have created an additional 53,000 indirect
jobs in the city and added an additional $38 billion into
the city’s economy,” the representative said in the email.
But others doing in business in Long Island City
have some skepticism.
36 FEBRUARY 2019 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
For Yung, a Korean immigrant and co-owner of
Glory Deli, the fear of being priced out after 24 years
of business is very real.
But only time will tell what Amazon’s impact on
businesses will be.
“I think it's going to be pretty good for lunchtime
especially — well, that’s what we hope,” said Dariza
Jansen, a waitress at Madera Cuban Grill, about the
arriving Amazon employees.
According to Jansen, Madera believes that Amazon
will help save the restaurant from slow business on
weekdays.
“There is a lot of competition around here so it really
just depends on what they like,” she said.
Feature
Photo by Alejandra O'Connell-Domenech
Steve LoGiudice, owner of Centro Pizza Bar & Italian Kitchen.
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