8 THE QUEENS COURIER • FEBRUARY 13, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Courtesy of governor’s offi ce
'One of the saddest days of my life'
Queens business leader refl ects one year after Amazon killed its HQ2 in LIC
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
It was Valentine’s Day one year ago that
Amazon scuttled their plans to build its
mammoth HQ2 campus at Anable Basin
along the East River waterfront in Long
Island City.
Queens Chamber of Commerce president
and CEO Th omas Th omas J. Grech
was leaving a meeting about Amazon
at the offi ces of the Long Island City
Partnership and heading to his offi ce in
East Elmhurst when he got the news.
“I had had a very productive meeting
with the 45-member Community
Advisory Committee and all of a sudden
I was bombarded with phone calls
with people asking me what happened,”
Grech said. “I still call it the St. Valentine’s
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VALENTINE'S SALE
Massacre. What happened next is we got
up, dusted ourselves off and went back to
the business of doing business.”
Grech watched Amazon leave, along
with its promise to create 25,000 to 40,000
jobs at the HQ2 campus. Th e economic
development deal would have generated
$27 billion in revenue, according to the
state, while creating 11,000 union positions
— and it fell through because the
e-commerce giant lacked a “collaborative
relationship with state and local offi cials.”
“Th at was one of the saddest days of my
life,” Grech said. “I was taking calls for the
next fi ve or six months from companies
who were asking if they wanted to move
their company to Queens would they
get grilled by the New York City Council
the way Amazon executives were. I was
embarrassed by the way they were treated
at those hearings.”
Many feared that Queens would no longer
be attractive to big business aft er the breakup.
“Th e thing of it is, we’re a resilient
bunch here in New York City and especially
here in Queens,” Grech said. “Now
we have Macy’s moving their headquarters
to Long Island City, Altice is here
and Este Lauder is coming to Long Island
City. Th ey’re all moving staff here and that
means more jobs.”
And now the Queens Chamber of
Commerce has launched an initiative to
attract many more businesses to the borough.
Earlier this month they rolled out
their “Relocate to Queens” campaign that
employs robust date technology and CIS
to connect businesses to resources that
will empower and allow them to be a part
of Queens growth.
“A year ago Amazon shocked us all
by abandoning their plans to move to
our borough, but it’s important that we
remember what attracted the biggest
company in the world here in the fi rst
place,” Grech said while introducing the
new website. “We have everything here,
from our diverse talent pool, to a thriving
arts scene, to top-ranked educational
institutions, that businesses, both large
and small, need to thrive.
You can take a look at the website here.
“People have been visiting our website
scouting locations and it’s beginning to
really take off ,” Grech said.
Companies are able to search available
properties for purchase or lease and easily
see which locations qualify for Economic
Opportunity Zone tax incentives.
“We call them EOZs and we have 63 of
them right here in Queens,” Grech said.
“And we intend to take advantage of each
and every one of them.”
One year after Amazon ditched its plan to build its HQ2 campus in Long Island City, businesses are moving in to Long Island City.
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