LIC Developers Unveil Plans For Former Amazon HQ2 Site

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — Four developers unveiled their tentative plans for the Long Island City site that was once slated for a sprawling Amazon campus.

The plans, which were presented Wednesday night to Queens Community Board 2, call for a development as large as 12 million square feet that would be half-residential and half-commercial, according to a spokesperson for the developers' YourLIC coalition.

Half a million square feet of the development would house community resources like arts and cultural space, a workforce training center and up to three public schools.

The towers are likely to range from 400 to 700 feet in height, the YourLIC spokesperson said.

That means the tallest building would be slightly smaller than the nearby Skyline Tower on 44th Drive, which touts itself as the tallest condominium in Queens at 778 feet, or 67 stories.

A planning document previously obtained by Patch shows that the developers have also been considering a proposal to de-map two streets in the area, which, historically, has been done to make room for increased development.

There would be seven acres of public open space on the site, according to the developers.

Possibilities include a new half-acre public plaza on the site currently home to a NYC Department of Transportation facility, a community park along Vernon Boulevard and an elevated public terrace with waterfront views on the site that's now a Department of Education parking lot.

The Your LIC project was born after Amazon canceled plans for a massive Long Island City campus, one of two HQ2 sites the e-retailer announced in 2018 after a purported nationwide search.

The developers — TF Cornerstone, Simon Baron Development, L&L MAG and Plaxall — were then brought together by City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and hosted a series of public workshops in November to discuss the future of the 28-acre site, with themes like economic empowerment, resiliency, public open space and community resources.

Your LIC plans to host a final workshop over the summer, start the environmental review process by the end of the year and the city's formal review process in 2021.