The message is clear: Long Island City is open for business. Its growth is bolstered, as has been the case historically, by access to transportation and its location as the geographic center of New York City. Its location on the water\u2014which, in typical LIC fashion, is being developed<\/a>\u2014means buildings here have commanding views of Manhattan\u2019s skyline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WeWork opened our first location in the area in neighboring Astoria at Studio Square<\/a> in 2016. In March 2018, WeWork 27-01 Queens Plaza<\/a> opened across two floors in the Brewster Building, which is also the site of JetBlue\u2019s headquarters. The building was once an assembly plant for Rolls Royce and Brewster automobiles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A third shared workspace in Queens was added when WeWork Gotham Center<\/a> opened in a commercial tower known as the Jacx in early January, with over 2,000 desks across 11 floors. The space features huge floor-to-ceiling windows that look out onto greenery, and a variety of workspaces for different styles and kinds of work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s a privilege to be able to do what you love for a living, but it\u2019s an even greater privilege to be able to do it in a community that inspires you. For me, that community is Long Island City. The sheer level of growth and innovation taking place here is off the charts,\u201d says Cody Fisher, CEO of Blue Ox Marketing. The marketing firm set up shop temporarily in WeWork Queens Plaza last fall, but will move into Gotham Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGotham has the space and network I\u2019m really looking for to grow my business,\u201d Fisher says. \u201cI\u2019m also excited to be one of the first to move in and help contribute to and shape the culture there.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n He\u2019ll join a membership that Gotham Center community manager Karly McCabe says reflects the history of Queens. \u201cLIC is a growing community of entrepreneurs and small business owners with a tenacious and focused work ethic,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The old is new again in Long Island City. Shuttered factories are now luxury condos; warehouses have been repurposed to become bright office spaces. Today\u2019s Fortune 500 companies have moved into assembly plants once occupied by 20th-century tycoons. Being in the neighborhood gives people a chance to experience what once had been as well as what\u2019s to come. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Long Island City\u2014along with the rest of Queens\u2014became a part of New York City in 1898. Transportation has always drawn businesses to the neighborhood. Back in the 19th century, commerce took off when the Long Island Railroad moved its station to Hunters Point in the neighborhood, after Brooklyn banned locomotives in 1861, according to the Gotham Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s no different today. Long Island City boasts eight subway lines, two Long Island Railroad stops, three NYC Ferry stops, and 15 bus lines. Queens is also home to New York City\u2019s two airports, LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy. Cars have access to major expressways, the Queensboro Bridge, and the Queens Midtown Tunnel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the development boom, Long Island City and its environs maintain a homey vibe, one that\u2019s echoed in the WeWork locations in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m new to this city. There are 12 million people I can meet, but there is a very strong core in my area,\u201d says Tommaso Lana, founder of Embodied Learning, a member at WeWork Studio Square<\/a>, and a native of Milan, Italy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n The office is close-knit, and Lana says he often meets new members while having lunch in the kitchen<\/a>. \u201cAfter hours of working, you need to talk to someone,\u201d he says. Outside the office, he\u2019s run into his community manager, Matthew Lipman, who plays guitar at a rehearsal studio near Lana\u2019s home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTo view our members as not just our coworkers but also our neighbors adds a wonderful layer of connection,\u201d says Lipman. \u201cI look forward to identifying and fostering our members’ growth here in the WeWork Queens network.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Studio Square is home to a diverse group of founders, with many from different countries. Lana says he\u2019s even reconnected with a company from Italy that is now located in Studio Square as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n From neighborhood bodegas to mom-and-pop restaurants, Queens has long been a borough filled with small businesses. A vast majority of businesses in Queens are owned by sole proprietors<\/a>, 10 percent above the national average. (Queens, a county of immigrants, is the most diverse place in the world.) The neighborhood now has 6,800 businesses and 127,000 employees, according to the Long Island City Partnership<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The vast swaths of what was once farmland in close proximity to Manhattan made the land along the East River attractive to manufacturers. The trains brought it all together, and in the 19th and early 20th centuries, factories\u2014including those for Swingline Staplers, Chiclets Gum, and Fischer Electronics\u2014flourished there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The iconic, curlicue Pepsi-Cola sign, which faces the East River and sits in Gantry Plaza State Park, is a preserved symbol of LIC\u2019s manufacturing prowess. The roughly four-story-high sign, erected in 1936, once stood atop Pepsi\u2019s bottling plant along the East River. The plant closed in 1999, but the sign remains and was made an official city landmark in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Silvercup Studios, with its own iconic sign, is still a functioning film studio. Operating on the site of the former Silvercup Bakery, it\u2019s where The Sopranos<\/em> and Sex and the City<\/em> were shot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Piano maker Steinway and Sons set up their factory nearby in 1870. Unlike many others, it\u2019s still operational. Each piano at the Steinway factory is made by hand<\/a>\u2014down to the hand-weighted piano key hammers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In an effort to spur business, the city rezoned the neighborhood in 2001<\/a> from industrial to mixed use. A residential boom followed. According to one study, more apartments were built in Long Island City<\/a> from 2010 to 2016 than in any other city in the country\u201466 percent more units than those built in Los Angeles, the runner-up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since 2006, more than 35 hotels have opened, and there have been over 8.7 million square feet of new and renovated commercial space and over 548,000 square feet of retail space, according to the Long Island City Partnership<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Large companies have moved in, attracted by LIC\u2019s proximity to Manhattan and by relatively more affordable rent. Asking rent for office space in Long Island City is around $50 per square foot<\/a> compared to $85 per square foot<\/a> in Manhattan, according to brokerage JLL. The city also offers sweeteners such as the Relocation & Employment Assistance Program (REAP<\/a>) program, which provides a tax break for each employee relocated to LIC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier last year, tech giant Amazon pulled plans to open a second headquarters in LIC after locals protested the $3 billion in tax breaks it would be receiving. That hasn\u2019t been the case for many other enterprises, which have scooped up space in some of the newest developments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n WeWork members are in good company. Macy\u2019s and New York-Presbyterian have both committed<\/a> to separate 15-year leases in the Jacx. (WeWork\u2019s new Gotham Center location<\/a> will occupy floors 5 to 15 of one building of the Jacx). Opening in 2020, the Jacx is a 1.2-million-square-foot commercial development that has been the biggest contributor to office space in LIC since the Citicorp building opened in 2010. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Airline company JetBlue moved its headquarters into the Brewster Building, once a car and airplane assembly plant, in 2010, and decorated it with a large JetBlue sign on the roof. WeWork 27-01 Queens Plaza N<\/a> also resides in this building. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Factory<\/a>\u2014built in 1926 and once Macy\u2019s furniture warehouse\u2014houses businesses including Uber and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The Paragon and Blanchard buildings, an old oil heater warehouse and fireproof door factory, respectively, have also undergone $30 million in renovations<\/a> to transform them into new office spaces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/01\/Web_150DPI-20180417-Queens-Plaza-Common-Areas-1_v1.jpg\")
The epicenter of the city<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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A history of business<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The future of business<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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