New York City Seeking New Plans For Former Amazon HQ2 Site
New York City is looking for a new future for the Queens site that was once slated to become a corporate headquarters for e-commerce and tech behemoth Amazon.
The NYC Economic Development Corp. plans to release a request for expressions of interest for 44-36 Vernon Blvd., a six-story, 672K SF Long Island City property used by the Department of Education as a hub for citywide public school operations.
The NYC EDC is also examining two adjacent parking lots controlled by the city’s Departments of Transportation and Small Business Services, Crain’s New York Business reported.
“The redevelopment of the 44-36 Vernon Boulevard building has the potential to provide Long Island City with additional waterfront access and amenities that the community has longed for,” NYC EDC spokesperson Nico Aguilar told Bisnow in an email.
The NYC EDC expects to release the RFEI this spring with a deadline of this summer, and it is expecting to receive proposals for commercial, light industrial, and community-serving uses.
All three sites sit near the Anable Basin inlet, a 500-foot-long industrial inlet created in 1868 by a family that owned much of the land that is now Long Island City, which was among the locations that Amazon eyed for its HQ2 in 2018.
Amazon pulled back from those plans in early 2019 following backlash from lawmakers, union leaders and progressive activists, The New York Times reported at the time.
As they revisit potential uses for the land, local council member Julie Won said housing is the top priority, Crain’s reported. The city is hoping to create an additional 14,000 homes in Long Island City as part of its neighborhoodwide rezoning that will stretch from the Dutch Kills neighborhood down to Court Square.
Still, community input will be vital as the city thinks about how to use the land going forward, Won said at a Saturday town hall, local news outlet the Long Island City Post reported.
“Planning for our city’s public sites should be a community-led effort, and we are excited to announce plans for an RFEI for those who want to share their vision for the DOE building on Vernon Boulevard in Anable Basin,” Won said.
Any plans for redeveloping the sites should take into account the potential for climate change-induced flooding and the need for green space in the formerly industrial neighborhood, Memo Salazar, co-chair of the Western Queens Community Land Trust, told Bisnow by email.
The WQCLT is planning on submitting its own response to the RFEI and hopes that the waterfront land will be used as a flood-absorbing park, while any housing will be built as a 100% affordable development.
“Public land must be used for the public good,” Salazar said. “That goes triple in New York City, which is down to a precious few parcels of public land.”
Won’s office did not respond to Bisnow’s request for comment or questions about whether her office supported the WQCLT’s vision for land use by press time. However, she described the former Amazon HQ2 site’s emptiness as “a shame and a missed opportunity,” Crain’s reported.
Alternative plans for the site existed before Amazon’s venture into Queens, Crain’s reported. TF Cornerstone previously won a request for proposal from the city to build a 1,000-unit mixed-use project spanning 1.5M SF, but the project never came to fruition and the developer’s control of the site was terminated.
Aguilar told Bisnow local input will be vital to landing on an eventual use for the site.
“NYCEDC looks forward to working together with Councilmember Won and city agency partners on the upcoming request for expressions of interest and learning from the community about potential concepts and uses for this building,” he said.
