Jackson Heights Life

The city would do a lot to encourage cycling between Queens and Manhattan if they put in protected bike lanes with dedicated traffic signals at the intersection of Queens Blvd and Jackson Ave.  The stretch between there and the 59th Street bridge can be very dangerous when there is a lot of traffic.

It's confirmed...the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is moving to Long Island City.

The New York Times
New Building to Be Home for the Health Department
By CHARLES V. BAGLI
Published: October 16, 2008

The Bloomberg administration and Tishman Speyer Properties have struck a deal to move the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and 2,700 of its employees to a planned $316 million office building in Long Island City, the first phase of a large-scale project designed to bolster a nascent business district in Queens.

The project, called Gotham Center, has been in the planning stages for more than three years. It is near Queens Plaza, at 28th Street and Thomson Avenue, where a six-story municipal garage now sits. Work has begun on demolishing that garage, widely considered to be an eyesore. Tishman Speyer completed the financing for the 21-story building last week and signed a lease with the health department.

“I’m so pleased we finally got here,” said Deputy Mayor Robert C. Lieber. “I think this is going to be huge for Long Island City. Hopefully, it will bring a vibrancy and more people to the area and catalyze the development” of more retail and service businesses.

The city has wanted to create an office district in Long Island City for companies unwilling to pay higher Midtown Manhattan rents. It is using government offices to anchor the project with the hope that private companies will follow. The move would also be enable the health department to consolidate some of its operations in more modern space, officials said.

Citigroup built a 48-story tower nearby in the 1980s, and a second, smaller tower was recently completed across the street. But Long Island City has not quite caught on as an alternate commercial district.

The new building would be the first step in Tishman Speyer’s plan for 3.5 million square feet of housing, office and retail space. The Modell sporting goods family, which had owned some of the land, is a partner.

The Bloomberg administration has been eager to promote new development projects, especially now that the economy has slowed after a long boom and developers are finding it almost impossible to get financing, delaying a number of projects.

Tishman Speyer obtained financing from Wells Fargo for the Long Island City building, which will be occupied solely by the health department under a 20-year lease. The city comptroller, William C. Thompson Jr., said on Thursday that two municipal pension funds were also investing a total of $18.6 million as part of an ongoing agreement with Tishman Speyer to back some of Tishman’s New York projects. He said the deal had benefited the city and the pension funds.

“We applaud the city’s commitment to development, especially in this environment,” said Rob Speyer, co-chief executive of Tishman Speyer.

Seriously, I can't wait for Queen Plaza to look like a PLAZA or a clean, streamlined travel hub. Not the run down ghetto which it is. Unfortunately, it is also one of the main entrances to our borough.

Like we need one of those.......you horn dog you!

new article in the Times today, Friday, April 23, 2010

Living In: Queens Plaza


(excerpt)
Businesses are investing. Last month, JetBlue Airways announced that it would soon quit its Forest Hills headquarters and move its nearly 1,000 employees to a historic building on Queens Plaza North (the runner-up site was Orlando, Fla.). Similarly Gotham Center, a 21-story glass building rising on the site of the former Queens Municipal Parking Garage, will by next year house the city’s Department of Health, bringing 2,800 employees into the neighborhood. There is an increasing supply of hotels, from budget to luxury; a number of new places are up and running, and more are on the way.

The city is also in the process of replacing sidewalks and lighting, and adding crosswalks and bicycle lanes.

“You have a real sense of activity and movement,” said Gayle Baron, the executive director of the Long Island City Business Improvement District. “It’s not all fully realized yet, but it’s really coming, and you see how far it’s progressed in the past four or five years.”

She says her hope is that the improved streetscape and residential appeal of the area will spur the “normal evolution of services,” bringing in retail outlets, sit-down restaurants, drugstores and other amenities that have generally been lacking. And lately she has noted several hopeful indicators like the opening last year of the speakeasy-style cocktail lounge Dutch Kills on Jackson Avenue a few blocks from the Queens Plaza subway station.