18
QUEENS WEEKLY, FEB. 24, 2019
LIC tower may be empty
after Amazon pulls out
BY BILL PARRY
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 office
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 find a new tenant after
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
first 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 floors of
office 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 floors 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.
Reach reporter Bill Parry
by e-mail at bparry@
schnepsmedia.com or by
phone at (718) 260–4538.
One Court Square, formerly the Citicorp Building, in Long
Island City was supposed to begin housing Amazon workers
next year. Photo via Shutterstock
(From l. to r.) Oliver Brodlieb, Dealer Principal at East Hills Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram and GNYADA Education Committee
Chair, Jordy Castro, Lazaro Sidoro, Edison CTE HS instructor Miguel Sierra, GNYADA president Mark Schienberg.
Thomas Edison students to rep
city in tech competition fi nals
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
Two Thomas Edison
High School seniors demonstrated
their superior
skills as auto technicians
and left their competition
in the dust, advancing to
the National Auto Technology
Competition finals
in April.
Jordy Castro and Lazaro
Isidoro, trained in
auto technology by their
instructor Miguel Sierra,
beat 11 other teams
of finalists from New
York City, Long Island,
Westchester County, and
Rockland County in the
second round of the National
Auto Tech Competition,
held Feb. 12 at the
Center for Automotive
Education and training
in Whitestone.
“It was a great feeling
to have won and now get
to represent New York at
nationals,” said Isidoro.
“We are more excited
than ever to keep the momentum
going and hopefully
make history by
winning it all!”
“We know how competitive
this competition is,
but we are going to work
even harder so that we
may win,” said Castro.
The 12 teams of finalists
each worked on different
car makes and
models, all donated by
local New York dealerships.
The winning team
from Edison worked on a
Lexus, which they drew
at the conclusion of the
Photos by Dominick Totino Photography
first round of the competition
on Jan. 9, in which
40 teams of local students
competed.
“The competition has
been an awesome experience
and I am very happy
for my students Jordy and
Lazaro because they have
been working so hard. We
will continue to put forth
that effort and represent
New York as best we
can in the final round,”
said Sierra.
The nationally-recognized
competition was
created by the Greater
New York Automobile
Dealers Association
(GNYADA) to draw attention
to well-paying
automotive technician
job opportunities and set
interested students on a
path for a rewarding career
in the auto industry.
“The amount of electronics
and technology
in every vehicle being
sold today has advanced
rapidly, and it is hugely
important to the future
of our industry to have
high quality vocational
education and training
for these talented
young people,” said Mark
Schienberg, president
of the Greater New York
Automobile Dealers Association.
“That is why for
decades we have worked
collaboratively with the
local BOCES and the NYC
Department of Education
to create this Automotive
Technology competition:
to address the need
for qualified auto technicians
and set interested
students on a path for
a rewarding, high-paying
career in the auto
industry.”
Second place winners
from Wilson-Tech Northport
and third place winners
from Orange-Ulster
BOCES, won $1,000 and
$500 in prize money,
respectively.
Reach reporter Carlotta
Mohamed by e-mail at
cmohamed@schnepsmedia.
com or by phone at
(718) 260–4526.
The winning team of Lazaro
Sidoro (l.) and Jordy Castro
(r.) at their work station
during the second round
of the National Auto Tech
Competition.
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