'Stars Are Aligned' For Long Island City Development
Manhattan is a tight and hugely expensive market that is driving business outward from it. Jersey City has a price advantage over Long Island City, but the latter is part of New York and has a more extensive transit system to and from the Manhattan hub.
BY THOMAS COGAN

An arresting way to consider the recent growth of Long Island City would be to look across the river at it, from First Avenue in Manhattan's East 40s. The number of highrise buildings on view gives the impression of an entirely new city expanding across the river from the older one (even if, as is true, the tallest of those buildings is not of recent construction). The Long Island City Business Development Corporation held its May breakfast meeting slightly to the north of the growing spires, at the Water's Edge Restaurant. There, three developers surveyed what is new and what is scheduled to be in place before long.

The three were David von Spreckelsen of Toll Brothers, Ben McGrath of Minskoff Equities and Anthony Mannarino of Tishman Speyer. All were introduced by David Brause, vice president of Brause Realty Inc. and president of the Long Island City Business Improvement District (LICBID). Brause began by reviewing signal events in recent Long Island City history: the creation of the Queens West Development Corporation in 1984, the building of the Citibank Tower, completed in 1989, and how rezoning in 2001 led to the establishment of Long Island City as the city's fourth business district, after Mid- and Downtown Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. Spreckelsen said he is overseeing five Toll Brothers projects at the moment, one of them a riverfront high-rise in Long Island City. He worked at Silvercup Studios from 2000 to 2004, then left to form a new Toll Brothers division, running it out of an office on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights. He turned to a wealth of friends and associates who helped him find and acquire properties in Brooklyn and Manhattan as he assessed prospects in Long Island City. He told the breakfast audience that he knew he should buy there when a French bistro opened on Vernon Boulevard. He'd also noticed on the Web site he had established to promote his properties that the Long Island City property, 117 condominium residences, was generating far greater response than his properties in Williamsburg and Manhattan. In early February of this year his Vernon Boulevard sales office had not yet opened, but he was doing such tremendous business he had to use the Montague Street office. He had nearly nothing to show to customers, he said, yet they bought at such a rate he had to raise his prices to test their enthusiasm. He raised prices six times, but the demand was ceaseless. It peaked when one buyer was willing to pay $1,000 per square foot. Spreckelsen said he sees full occupancy by next spring.

The property at 30-30 Northern Blvd. currently has a lot of space and, according to Ben McGrath of Minskoff Equities, can be made even larger. The old storage space, which has more than 100,000 square feet, is to be demolished and in its place a 150,000-squarefoot tower for use as dormitories will be built. Another 50,000 square feet of space will be provided for retail business. McGrath said that the dormitory situation in the city is one of serious shortage, with a lot of space that could be used for residential purposes being taken up by students. A new dormitory, built for use by several schools (but probably run by a single group that deals in dormitory management, McGrath said), would address that problem. The Northern Boulevard property is grim-looking right now, and has been for some time, but McGrath foresaw the presence of hundreds of students changing all that, and the surrounding neighborhood too. The building is situated under the Astoria elevated train line and over the IND subway line, while the No. 7 elevated line is just a short distance away. All three lines converge at Queensborough Plaza (Queens Plaza for the underground lines). McGrath said student traffic is constant, so daytime and nighttime activity should be heavy. "If all goes well," he concluded, "we hope to start work on it by the end of the year."

"The stars are aligned for Long Island City," said Tony Mannarino of Tishman Speyer. Manhattan is a tight and hugely expensive market that is driving business outward from it. Jersey City has a price advantage over Long Island City, but the latter is part of New York and has a more extensive transit system to and from the Manhattan hub. Long Island City needs much more retail than it has at present, but Mannarino expressed confidence that retail development was in the offing. Tishman Speyer's big project is a 3 million-square-foot business tower and garage that would replace the municipal garage that has stood for nearly 40 years at Jackson Avenue and Queens Plaza South. Asked when this project, long talked about, will be under construction, Mannarino said the construction period should be between early 2008 and mid-2009.

The question period also produced an inquiry about air pollution that nobody was prepared to answer, suggesting it could become a serious issue as the building boom proceeds. (The questioner asserted the air in the area is quite bad, and conducive to asthma and other respiratory ailments.) The Metropolitan Life disappointment was brought up too, with Braise replying that though the insurance giant gave up half the 800,000 square feet it had taken on Queens Plaza North, it has a 22-year commitment and is bound to use it if the price for space is perhaps a fifth of what it is at any front-office project in Manhattan. The last question was essentially a statement by a woman who said she is the owner of a new condo. She said the sad situation of retail in Long Island City is most evident on any Saturday, when in terms of business it could be described as lifeless. She said retailers shouldn't wait for settlers to arrive and cry for their business- build business and they will come.