For the past several years the Long Island City Business Development Corporation (LICBDC) has staged its annual luncheon and trade show on the ground floor of Terrace on the Park in Corona, in facilities it has seemingly outgrown, since each year it appears to have reached capacity yet next year draws an even larger response. At this year’s trade show one exhibitor, looking at the attendees packed into the rooms at the base of TOP, said that the event was remarkably crowded. That would indicate a business upturn; yet at the luncheon, the guest speaker, New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, referred not in so many words to a jobless recovery.

The event was also the occasion to confer some annual awards: The Green Business Award to Met Life for achieving LEED Silver certification at its 27-01 Queens Plaza North building; and the William D. Modell community service award to Gary Kesner, executive vice president of Silvercup Studios.

The luncheon was held as usual at the top of TOP, and there LICBDC President Gayle Baron reminded everyone that the Tishman-Speyer building at the corner of Queens Plaza South and Jackson Avenue is steadily rising and will soon provide 650,000 square feet of office space and a parking garage. She spoke also of the redesign of Jackson Avenue and Queens Plaza and of the removal of 300,000 square feet of graffiti in the neighborhood. With regret, she announced that Joseph Conley, second vice chairman of LICBDC and chairman of Community Board 2, is resigning from his LICBDC office.—Thomas Cogan