14 THE QUEENS COURIER • NOVEMBER 22, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
in Queens
City and state vow to give public say on Amazon
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
adomenech@qns.com
@AODNewz
New York City and state plan to fund
$650 million worth of infrastructure
improvements to smoothen the integration
of Amazon’s HQ2 into Long Island
City, CEO and President of the Economic
Development Corporation (EDC) James
Patchett announced on Monday at a
Queens local media press conference.
Th e funds will be collected over the next
40 years and their allotment will be determined
by Queens residents according to
Patchett and Empire State Development
(ESD) President, CEO and Commissioner
Howard Zemsky. Th e city will use 50 percent
of property taxes (PILOTS) generated
from Amazon’s new buildings to create
the Long Island City Infrastructure Fund.
Aft er an outcry from Queens local offi -
cials about the development corporations
providing little to no transparency
during the Amazon deal, both Patchett
and Zemsky vehemently stressed that
they wanted a “community public process”
about Amazon’s future infl uence in
the neighborhood.
“I think that a lot of folks have had reactions
to this and think that this is a fully
designed project, the truth of the matter is
— it’s not,” said Patchett.
Th e EDC and ESD are planning to
step into local community board meetings
and hold at least two public forums
to gather public feedback about where to
best use funds. According to Patchett, the
dates of these visits and forums will be
announced some time next week, aft er the
Th anksgiving holiday.
“We need to work with the community
to determine where the buildings will
go on the site, how many square feet will
actually go there, what the height limits
will be, how they’ll be designed, how’ll
they’ll be integrated with the community,
how they will be accessed from the existing
streets,” said Patchett.
According to the EDC, Amazon will
donate space for a new 600-seat public
school, build 3.5 acres of open space by the
waterfront at Anable Basin, build 260,000
square feet of aff ordable light industrial
space, 25,000 square feet for nonprofi t art
uses along with retail and restaurant spaces
operated by local businesses. Additional
benefi ts to the neighborhood besides the
40,000 new jobs that are expected to be
created over the next 25 years.
Amazon will set up shop in 5,000 square
feet of at One Court Square starting in
2019 but will only occupy that space for
year. New buildings will be constructed
around Anable Basin with a new headquarters
building expected to fi nished
by 2022. For the four years until the new
headquarters is created, Long Island City
will see Amazon employees fi lling existing
buildings.
In the outline presented by the EDC
and ESD, there is no mention how money
would be used to address an inevitable
housing shortage that will arise from
the huge amount of future commercial
expansion. According to the EDC and
ESD, the city will spend $3-5 million to
launch a new Queens-focused program to
train local NYCHA residents in careers in
IT, cybersecurity and web development,
as what appears to be an eff ort to prevent
the displacement of low-income residents.
In an eff ort to make sure that Amazon
does prove to be a positive newcomer to
Long Island City and New York state,
the state has off ered the company performance
based incentives totaling $1.705 billion,
which includes $1.2 billion in tax credits
through the Excelsior Jobs Program,
which are tied to Amazon’s promise to create
25,000 new jobs and no less than $2.3
billion in investments over 10 years.
Th e state will also provide the company
with $505 million in grant funding tied to
the company’s initial commitment of creating
$40,000 jobs and $3.6 billion in total
investment.
Photo courtesy of Plaxall
A rendering of the Amazon HQ2/Plaxall campus on the Anable Basin in LIC.
Nolan explains support for Amazon HQ2 campus in Long Island City
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@cnglocal.com
@QNS
Less than 48 hours aft er voicing her support
for the deal that will bring Amazon’s
HQ2 headquarters to Long Island City,
Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan sought
to further clarify her position.
Nolan was the only representative from
western Queens to join Governor Andrew
Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio at a
Tuesday news conference to announce
the “largest economic development project
in New York State history,” according
to the Governor’s offi ce.
Nolan called the establishment of the
HQ2 campus “the fulfi llment of many
things that we’ve been working on.”
But on Wednesday morning more than
a hundred of her constituents joined state
Senator Michael Gianaris and Jimmy Van
Bramer, and several more elected offi -
cials and labor union members in Long
Island City to rally against the subsidies
the company will receive as part of
its deal with the state and city to establish
its headquarters around Anable Basin
during the next decade.
Th e crowd erupted in boos. Nolan, who
has battled against large-scale development
in western Queens for years, got the
message and released the next morning
what was titled in an email as “an additional
statement.”
“I still believe the most ideal situation
would have been for the city to pause
LIC development, particularly the type
of high rise very dense residential towers
that keep being approved all over western
Queens,” Nolan said. “I have always
tried to support whatever ULURP decision
out community boards and various
City Council members decide, so a more
general moratorium seemed like the best
way to express my concerns. I asked for
a moratorium so that the city could produce
a more comprehensive plan.”
In her statement, Nolan explained how
the city ignored the original plans to
“reinvigorate the LIC economy that go
back many years” by developing mixeduse
buildings, instead allowing tall residential
towers to be built in the community.
“Th e governor’s and mayor’s eff ort to
return to a more mixed-use development
was, in my opinion, a good policy
goal,” she said. “If it does not happen,
massive development will still occur
in Long Island City and western Queens,
it will just not be a comprehensive plan,
but more of the piecemeal high-rise nonunion
construction we keep seeing and
the city keeps approving.”
Nolan fi nished her statement with
a message to the voters of her 37th
Assembly District who have re-elected
her since her fi rst term in 1984.
“I realize many of our constituents are
against this plan and want to respond to
their concerns,” Nolan said. “I will keep
meeting and listening to as many voices
as possible so as to ensure the best possible
outcome for all of us who live, work
and love the communities of Sunnyside,
Long Island City, Queensbridge and all of
western Queens.”
Photo courtesy of Governor's offi ce
Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan speaks about the Amazon HQ2 deal on Nov. 13.
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