City Backs Out Of 'Your LIC' Plan For Former Amazon HQ2 Site

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — City Hall has cut ties with Your LIC, a coalition of four developers formulating plans for a portion of the Long Island City waterfront where Amazon had planned to build a second headquarters, after failing to reach an agreement with the developers over infrastructure investments they would make.

The city will withdraw its plots of land from the Your LIC planning process, after officials determined that the developers were not offering adequate open space and infrastructure investments as part of the project, City Hall spokesperson Mitch Schwartz confirmed to Patch.

Patch has reached out to a spokesperson for the Your LIC coalition and will update this story with their response.

"We remain committed to Long Island City's future as a thriving mixed use community," Schwartz said in an emailed statement. "That means supporting proposals that properly account for the development's critical infrastructure needs and impacts, like open space, transportation and water and sewer.

"After extensive discussions with YourLIC developers, we are disappointed that the proposed project does not deliver on those requirements. This project must complement the surrounding area and properly support the development's residents, workers, and visitors. We're going to hold private developers accountable to those goals. Queens deserves nothing less."

In 2017, before Amazon settled on Long Island City as the site of one of two new headquarters, the NYC Economic Development Corporation chose the developer TF Cornerstone to transform the two city-owned sites into a 1.5 million-square-foot mixed-use complex.

The developer revised those plans after Amazon reneged on its deal, joining forces with three other builders on a comprehensive development plan for the area: Simon Baron Development, L&L MAG and Plaxall.

The coalition, called Your LIC, presented its plans in May, outlining a development as large as 12 million square feet that would be half-residential and half-commercial.

Meanwhile, activists protested that the city should reserve its land for public use rather than letting developers build on it.

But negotiations eventually broke down with the developers over the infrastructure investments they would provide, prompting city officials to pull out of the process.

The city will continue to work with TF Cornerstone on the future of the two public plots of land, the City Hall spokesperson said.

“TF Cornerstone is and will continue to be our partner on the public sites," Schwartz said. "We look forward to working with them in the coming months to identify the path forward.”