Real Estate
Photo courtesy of TF Cornerstone
Anable Basin Business Plan
BY JENNA BAGCAL
www.qns.com I LIC COURIER I JUNE 2018 15
TF Cornerstone, in partnership with
Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design
Center (GMDC) and C4Q, plans to create
100,000 square feet of new, affordable
manufacturing space in Anable Basin to
accommodate the ever-present need that
Long Island City businesses have — and
remedy problems faced by businesses
that have left the neighborhood.
In April 2018, the LIC Partnership released
a snapshot of the neighborhood,
which showed that 39 percent of newly
opened businesses in the neighborhood
were in the manufacturing space. New
businesses in the area take up about
126,000 square feet, according to the
LIC Neighborhood Snapshot.
Hundreds of years ago, Long Island
City became a manufacturing hub in
New York City. Fast forward to 2018,
and demands for business space in
the neighborhood have not gone away.
In the past, displaced businesses in
Long Island City have had trouble reestablishing
themselves in the neighborhood
due to lack of space and increasing rent
prices. As a result, businesses have had to
move their operations elsewhere, including
Long Island, New Jersey and Brooklyn.
Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design
Center (GMDC), a nonprofit, is
one of the partners in the Anable Basin
proposal. Brian Coleman, the chief executive
officer of GMDC, oversees the
nonprofit that owns and operates the
manufacturing space at 1205 Manhattan
Ave. in Greenpoint where some
displaced LIC businesses now operate.
Coleman estimated that 40 to 50 percent
of the businesses in his Brooklyn
factory have been displaced from Long
Island City in recent years.
Two such businesses are LF Upholstery
and MHG Studio. Both of these
businesses were previously located in
LIC and moved when their landlords
sold the buildings where they were
located.
LF Upholstery, which specializes in
custom upholstery for designers and
architects, has been in business for
nearly 30 years. According to Carmen
Soto, the showroom manager at
the company, they were located in a
building on 23rd Avenue in Long Island
City. She said that when the owners
sold the building where they operated,
the rent prices of the new spaces they
were looking at were "not conducive"
to their business.
MHG Studio has been run by married
couple Michele H. Glick-Guarneri
and Victor Guarneri for nearly 20 years.
According to their website, they are a
full-service leather crafts shop specializing
in architectural leatherwork,
restoration, custom leatherwork and
original furniture design.
Before moving to Greenpoint, the
couple said their business was on 35th
Avenue. They echoed the sentiments
of LF Upholstery saying that business
owners in LIC wanted to charge them
"$32 per square foot" for manufacturing
space.
In addition to the new manufacturing
space, according to their rezoning
proposal, TF Cornerstone’s plan
includes a proposed school site, art
institutions, mixed-income housing
and waterfront access, which has not
been available to the public since the
19th century.
Anable Basin would bring 100,000
square feet of manufacturing space
to LIC
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