3 Queens reacts as Amazon backs out
of multi-billion dollar plans for LIC
QUEENS WEEKLY, FEB. 17, 2019
BY BILL PARRY AND
ROBERT POZARYCKI
After Amazon announced Thursday
that it was backing out of its billion-dollar
plants for Long Island City, Queens
reacted with a mix of fury and elation.
The plans to develop a new campus on
the Anable Basin waterfront and bring at
least 25,000 jobs to the community were
ended on Feb. 14 in a lengthy statement
from the world’s largest retail company
to its DayOne blog.
“After much thought and deliberation,
we’ve decided not to move forward
with our plans to build a headquarters
for Amazon in Long Island City, Queens,”
the company wrote. “For Amazon, the
commitment to build a new headquarters
requires positive, collaborative relationships
with state and local elected
officials who will be supportive over the
long-term. While polls show that 70%
of New Yorkers support our plans and
investment, a number of state and local
politicians have made it clear that they
oppose our presence and will not work
with us to build the type of relationships
that are required to go forward with the
project we and many others envisioned
in Long Island City.”
The Valentine’s Day breakup deprives
the city of an estimated $27 billion in economic
revenue that the Amazon project
in Long Island City was projected to generate
over the next 25 years. Amazon had
touted that the average annual salary for
the each job would be $150,000.
One of the partners in the project
was to have been Plaxall, which owns
much of the land around the Anable
Basin that would have been developed
under the Amazon proposal.
“We’re extremely disappointed by
this decision,” Plaxall Managing Directors
Paula Kirby, Tony Pfohl and Matthew
Quigley said in a joint statement
to TimesLedger. “Since our grandfather
opened Plaxall’s doors on the waterfront
seven decades ago, our family has believed
in the overwhelming promise of
Anable Basin and Long Island City as
centers of productivity and innovation.
We continue to believe that today.”
Amazon reached the deal with the city
and state in November 2018 in exchange
for receive up to $3 billion in tax incentives.
Local elected officials opposed the
plan, citing the reported tax breaks and
Amazon’s corporate history — and a need
to use public funding for infrastructure
improvements and housing.
The decision came less than a week
after The Washington Post — which is
owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos
— reported that sources within Amazon
were reconsidering its HQ2 deal with
New York City. That report came out days
after state Senator Michael Gianaris —
whose district includes Long Island City
and is staunchly opposed to the deal after
its November 2018 announcement — was
named to the Public Authorities Control
Board, giving him potential veto power
over the plan.
Gianaris and other lawmakers — including
City Councilman Jimmy Van
Bramer and Assemblyman Ron Kim —
believed the $3 billion incentive package
would be better spent on affordable
housing and the crumbling subway system
instead of “corporate welfare” to the
e-commerce giant.
Last week, after the Washington Post
reported about Amazon having second
thoughts on Long Island City, critics believed
it was gamesmanship. However,
the Feb. 14 statement proved Amazon
wasn’t bluffing.
The Seattle-based company said it
would proceed with its plans to develop
corporate campuses in Nashville and
northern Virginia. However, at this time,
it doesn’t appear Amazon will search for
an alternative location for its planned
LIC HQ2.
“We are disappointed to have
reached this conclusion — we love New
York, its incomparable dynamism,
people, and culture — and particularly
the community of Long Island
City, where we have gotten to know
so many optimistic, forward-leaning
community leaders, small business
owners, and residents,” Amazon’s
statement continued. “Governor Cuomo
and Mayor de Blasio have worked
tirelessly on behalf of New Yorkers to
encourage local investment and job
creation, and we can’t speak positively
enough about all their efforts … The
steadfast commitment and dedication
that these leaders have demonstrated
to the communities they represent
inspired us from the very beginning
and is one of the big reasons our
decision was so difficult.”
Modern Spaces co-founder and CEO
Eric Benaim, who launched an online
petition last week imploring Amazon to
stay in the deal, said that Amazon’s loss
would have troubling repercussions for
Queens and the city.
“I am absolutely devastated not just
for my business, that will be fine,” he
said. “I’m devastated for the 25,000
families who lost an opportunity here,
25,000 families won’t be able to afford
groceries, 15,000 of these families from
Queensbridge. 25,000 jobs we lost. I’m
devastated not just for Long Island City
and Queens but New York City.”
Earlier in the week, Benaim had
warned, “If the Amazon deal falls
through, it not only affects Long Island
City, but also New York City as a whole.
If Amazon leaves LIC, it tells every single
company that they are not welcome and
that NYC is closed for business. Other
businesses won’t be attracted to the area
because they will know NYC kicked out
the biggest company and rejected the
biggest economic impact in the history
of the state.”
De Blasio, who along with Cuomo
gushed about the Amazon deal last November,
was angered on Feb. 14 that Amazon
seemingly spurned the city.
“You have to be tough to make it in
New York City,” de Blasio said. “We gave
Amazon the opportunity to be a good
neighbor and do business in the greatest
city in the world. Instead of working
with the community, Amazon threw
away that opportunity. We have the best
talent in the world and every day we are
growing a stronger and fairer economy
for everyone. If Amazon can’t recognize
what that’s worth, its competitors will.”
Queens Borough President Melinda
Katz seemed to echo the mayor’s
sentiments, pointing a finger of
blame at Amazon for turning its back
on the borough.
“We all want jobs to come to Queens,
and Amazon used the promise of job creation
to extract major concessions for
this project. But after last month’s City
Council hearing, it became increasingly
clear that they had no intentions of being
good neighbors and committing to the
required negotiations,” Katz said. “They
rejected our values of supporting working
people and were unwilling to work
with our local communities toward a
mutually beneficial resolution. New
York has the best tech work force in the
nation, much of which is here in Queens,
so if Amazon wants to take their jobs
somewhere else with a lesser work force
so they can undercut wages and workers’
rights, that’s their choice.”
Gianaris said that Amazon’s behavior
“shows why they would have been
a bad partner for New York in any
event. Rather than seriously engage
with the community they proposed to
profoundly change, Amazon continued
its effort to shakedown governments to
get its way. It is time for a national dialogue
about the perils of these types of
corporate subsidies.”
Van Bramer struck up a more celebratory
tone, saying, “when our community
fights together, anything is possible,
even when we’re up against the biggest
corporation in the world. I am proud that
we fought for our values, which is a fight
for working families, immigrants, and
organized labor.”
“Defeating an anti-union corporation
that mistreats workers and assists ICE
in terrorizing immigrant communities
is a victory,” Van Bramer said. “Defeating
an unprecedented act of corporate
welfare is a triumph that should change
the way we do economic development
deals in our city and state forever.”
Photo via Shutterstock