Inside Long Island City’s Real Estate Scene, Post-Amazon April 16, 2022 Beth McCandry Global investors bet big on Indian real estate again; billions of dollars in the offing Archdiocese’s legal fees at $7.58M | Guam News
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<p>At the end of 2018, <strong>Amazon</strong> put Long Island City in the spotlight with his plan to build a 4 million-square-foot campus within the Queens neighborhood and add 25,000 new jobs. Despite the company’s decision to pull out just a couple of months later, which put to test the neighborhood’s future, the area has continued to thrive, according to local experts.</p>
<p>Andrew Barrocas, CEO of brokerage firm <strong>MNS</strong>, believes Amazon would have accelerated the growth of the neighborhood by five years. on the other hand <strong>Cushman & Wakefield</strong> Executive Director Mitch Arkin and Thomas Donovan, partner and vice chairman at <strong>B6 Real Estate Advisors</strong>think Long Island City was always on the train of growth—with or without the e-commerce giant.</p>
<p>“Even throughout COVID-19, Long Island City performed and now is fully recovered,” said Arkin. “Thousands of units are being built, vacancy is down, and absorption is high for both residential and retail space. Office is recovering but healthy in the neighborhood.”</p>
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<p>Long before Amazon announced its flagship plans, one of the main catalysts behind Long Island City’s growth was The Long Island City Core Rezoning, approved in 2001. Thanks to that legislation, the once-industrial area’s blueprint has changed dramatically, with high-end residential buildings replacing vacant warehouses.</p>
<p>“Business owners had to look for space elsewhere,” said Donovan. “When my team and I bring warehouses to market, there’s usually a fight, because that kind of space is so hard to find now. Roughly 80 percent of the industrial stock is gone.”</p>
<p>According to Yardi Matrix data, more than 15,000 residential units came online in the neighborhood throughout the last two decades, with 3,500 units delivered between 2019 and 2022. An additional 4,400 units were under construction as of April 2022, with more than 23,600 units in planned and prospective stages.</p>
<p>The original rezoning reshaped the entire Court Square and Queens Plaza North areas, and some feel too much residential was added with not enough office inventory, Arkin noted, adding that office demand isn’t as high as residential demand in the neighborhood.</p>
<h2>Projecting the future & growing pains</h2>
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