20 THE QUEENS COURIER • FEBRUARY 21, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
in Queens
File photo/Shutterstock
One Court Square, formerly the Citicorp Building,
in Long Island City was to begin housing Amazon
workers next year.
Most of iconic LIC tower
faces long-term void
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
When Amazon announced it would
create its HQ2 campus in Long Island
City in November it signed a letter of
intent to lease most of One Court Square,
the 50-story offi ce tower that used to be
known as the Citicorp Building, as a temporary
headquarters during the massive
build out planned for Anable Basin.
Amazon planned on moving in 700
employees at One Court Square this year
and expanding its presence to nearly 3,000
workers in 2020.
Savanna, the real estate company that
bought the tower last year and said it was
thrilled that Amazon had selected One
Court Square, now needs to fi nd a new
tenant aft er the e-commerce giant pulled
out of its HQ2 deal on Feb. 14.
Without new tenants, the tower will
be mostly empty in about 10 months —
making it one of the fi rst casualties of the
Amazon failure.
Citigroup, the building’s anchor tenant
since it opened in 1990, planned to move
most of its employees out of the tower and
vacate a million square feet on 31 fl oors
of offi ce space a year before its lease was
up to make way for Amazon — and even
though the e-commerce giant cancelled
its deal with the state and city on Feb. 14,
Citigroup is not going to stay put.
“Our Long Island City presence consists
of One Court Square and Two Court
Square, where we have 3,000 and 500
people respectively,” a Citigroup spokesperson
said. “In order to accommodate
Amazon’s plans to build a headquarters in
Long Island City, we had planned to move
about 1,500 people at One Court Square to
other fl oors there or to Two Court Square.
“While these transitional plans may
change, our long-term plans to relocate
most of our current employees in Long
Island City to other New York metropolitan
area locations have not changed. Our
lease at One Court Square ends in 2020
and at that point, we will have at least
1,000 people at Two Court Square,” the
spokesperson added.
A Savanna spokesman declined to comment.
Optimism amid despair for LIC
Partnership after Amazon fl op
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Since Amazon announced it was going
to build its HQ2 campus in Long Island
City in November, one of the deal’s biggest
supporters was Elizabeth Lusskin,
the president of the Long Island City
Partnership, the neighborhood organization
that advocates for economic development.
But the deal’s collapse on Feb. 14, culminated
by Amazon formally withdrawing
its vision for Queens, saddened the
organization — yet hopeful that something
good may still come from it for the
neighborhood.
Th e Partnership’s mission is to attract
new businesses to the the fastest growing
metropolitan area in the country,
retain those already there while welcoming
new residents and visitors to the
vibrant mixed use community.
For the last three months, she spoke
highly of Amazon’s decision to locate
its second headquarters around Anable
Basin. Lusskin remarked that it was the
culmination of 30 years of work to bring
great jobs to Long Island City and western
Queens with its 35,000 public housing
residents and more than 50,000 students.
Photo: Mark Hallum/THE COURIER
Long Island City Partnership president
Elizabeth Lusskin was a key supporter of
Amazon’s HQ2 plan but warned the company
had options the day before it cancelled the
project.
Even after reports surfaced that
Amazon was reconsidering the move
to Long Island City back on Feb. 8,
Lusskin remained positive telling a
business crowd that she had gotten
no indication of any change in the
company’s decision, but she did warn
that Amazon had plenty of other
options.
“Th ey have before them fully fl edged
proposals from a number of places,” she
said on Feb. 13. “Th ose didn’t go into the
garbage.”
Th e following morning came the stunning
announcement, Amazon decided to
cancel the project because of the opposition
from local offi cials.
“Th e departure of Amazon’s HQ2 is a
tremendous disappointment and blow
to Long Island City residents, businesses,
nonprofi ts and more, who were eager
to seize on the opportunities created by
the largest economic development project
in New York’s history. On the brighter
side, the world is getting to see what
Long Island City has to off er as a home
for great companies and great people,”
the LIC Partnership said in a statement.
Even so, Lusskin and the LIC
Partnership insisted that all hope is not
lost for the neighborhood’s future.
“Having one of the largest companies
on the planet make LIC its fi rst choice to
locate one of its new headquarters highlights
just how far we’ve come-with even
more opportunities on the horizon,” the
LIC Partnership statement continued.
“Before Amazon’s announcements, the
Long Island City Partnership was advocating
for investments to our infrastructure,
workforce development, schools
and mass transit, and we will continue
to do so.”
‘They let us down’: NYCHA reps blast Gianaris & Van Bramer
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Th e presidents of the tenants’ associations
representing 17,000 residents at
four northwest Queens public housing
complexes had rallied on Feb. 11 in support
of Amazon’s plans to build its HQ2
campus in Long Island City just days aft er
reports surfaced that the e-commerce
giant was reconsidering the project.
Just three days later, Amazon offi cially
pulled out of the project, blaming the
lack of collaboration from local offi cials
without naming names. Th e tenants’
association presidents, however, were
quick to identify two offi cials to blame
for the debacle.
Th e four presidents, Claudia Coger
from the Astoria Houses, Annie Cotton
Morris from the Woodside Houses,
Carol Wilkins from the Ravenswood
Houses and April Simpson from the
Queensbridge Houses put out a joint
statement that put the onus squarely
on two of their elected representatives
in government, state Senator Michael
Gianaris and City Councilman Jimmy
Van Bramer.
“From the beginning, grandstanding
politicians who refused to be at the table
dismissed the work of those of us who
were. Th ey put petty politics above true
public service and they spread misinformation
to whip up a small band of opponents.
New York has now lost 25,000
good-paying jobs,” the presidents said.
“Th e city and state will now lose tens of
billions in revenue that could have been
invested NYCHA, and the tenants we
fi ght for every day.”
Th e four women had been appointed
to seats on the 45-member Community
Advisory Committee, an organization
focused on Amazon’s new headquarters
and the thousands of jobs the company
promised to create benefi tting their
residents.
Van Bramer and Gianaris — who
opposed the Amazon project aft er the
deal was fi rst announced last November
— announced they would not participate
in the CAC calling it a “thinly veiled
attempt to present the Amazon development
as a fait accompli” and give local
validation to the project they we working
to stop in its tracks.
“And now New York has now missed
a generational opportunity to cement its
place as the tech hub of the future. Jimmy
Van Bramer and Mike Gianaris used to
be the politicians we came to when we
needed help,” they said. “Th is time they
didn’t even talk to us. Th ey never asked
what we, the people of NYCHA, actually
wanted. Th ey put their own political
interests above their constituents and did
not meet with us or even listen to us.”
“Th e grandstanding politicians will try
and blame Amazon and anyone but
themselves for this disaster. Nobody
should believe them, they let us down,”
the joint statement concluded.
Th e Courier reached out to the offi ces
of Gianaris and Van Bramer for comment
and is awaiting a response.
Photo: Mark Hallum/THE COURIER
NYCHA tenant association presidents April
Simpson and Claudia Coger are blaming
Michael Gianaris and Jimmy Van Bramer for
the collapse of the Amazon HQ2 deal.
/WWW.QNS.COM
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