44 The QUEE NS Courier • PERSON OF THE YEAR • JANUARY 8, 2014 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com person of the year s Jamaica had gone quickly from one of the city’s major commercial centers — a hub for Long Island shoppers who arrived at the Long Island Rail Road station — to a shell of its former self. Its row of movie theaters, including the once-majestic Loews Valencia, shut their doors. The Valencia would later be resurrected and renovated as a church. Towery oversaw city, state and federal partnerships over the next four decades that resulted in a revitalization of the neighborhood into one of the borough’s hottest development areas. From 1978 to 1996, private investment in Jamaica totaled just $17 million, compared with the $364 million that has been invested in the last three years, according to the GJDC. “He has had tremendous accomplishments,” Albenese said. “Jamaica was not growing, not serving the best interest of the business or residential communities. There was a tremendous need for a person of his caliber.” Towery credits a number of strong public initiatives in Jamaica in the past few decades that led to the rebuilding of the downtown. He persistently advocated what he calls “pre-developments” through seven mayors and eight governors, dating back to John Lindsay and Nelson Rockefeller, and the federal government to attract more private investment. This includes removing the Jamaica Avenue El and extending the subway to Parsons Boulevard, which started the creation of the transportation hub in the downtown area, and moving York College into the neighborhood instead of alternative sites. Towery says York College’s move to Jamaica was the greatest development for the neighborhood while he was head of the GJDC because of the jobs it creates and the college’s ability to interact with the community in many ways. “We worked our tails off to get York College here,” he said in a recent interview. Today the college, part of the City University, is the only site in the borough selected to be part of Gov. Cuomo’s START-UP NY initiative, a much-heralded economic development initiative that will encourage businesses to partner with the school and move to Jamaica, either to a location on the campus or in the surrounding area, in exchange for wide-ranging tax breaks. York College is now in negotiations with many businesses looking to partner with the school in exchange for being exempt from corporate, sales or property taxes for 10 years. The new businesses would move to a property near the school or build on a portion of 3.5 acres of vacant, governmentowned land on campus. The college is slowly becoming the hub for business, opportunity and community that Towery envisioned it could. The GJDC also supported building the new regional Jamaica headquarters for the U.S. Social Security Administration and U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which are two federal agencies that brought jobs into the neighborhood. The not-for-profit also advocated for the construction of the AirTrain rail line from John F. Kennedy International (continued from page 36) Breaking New Ground in Queens & Kings Counties Jamaica Center Mall Queens, NY Scott Village Brooklyn, NY New Fairway Market in Roosevelt Raceway Mattone Group, LLC 134-01 20th Avenue Collage Point, NY 11356 Wycko Food Bazaar Brooklyn, NY Tel: 718.353.5500 Fax: 718.353.0704 www.MattoneGroup.com Scott Village Brooklyn, NY Jamaica Center Mall Queens, NY MetroTech Brooklyn, NY The Mattone Group Salutes Carlisle Towery Person of the Year 2014
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