Amazon HQ2 in LIC? Yay or Nay?

[abcdefghijk]

Location is everything.  Young folks like to be where young folks are.  And they are prepared to pay top $'s for that.

That is simply a fact. It is a question of priorities. (And maybe escaping from folks who remind them of their parents )

C'mon, older posters on this board must remember what it was like to be young?

A big part of being young means socializing and having fun with your peers!

[abcdefghijk]

I have accepted that my peers will rarely travel here to Jackson Heights.

And that I have to go to the centers where young folk hang.

(But the great thing is that transportation is excellent to get pretty much anywhere from the Roosevelt Ave stop.)

[JH3525]

The problem a young person would have purchasing a cooperative in Jackson Heights or anywhere is the up front costs.  If you're looking at a $450,000 one bedroom cooperative in Jackson Heights you'll need 20% down (for most cooperatives) which is $90,000 + closing costs + other costs if its not in prime move in condition.  They will most likely be renting and there is very little rental inventory in Jackson Heights.  I was a rental agent many years ago in Manhattan and two singles sharing a one bedroom was very common so a luxury $3,000+ one bedroom would not be a problem. 

[abcdefghijk]

The problem a young person would have purchasing a cooperative in Jackson Heights or anywhere is the up front costs.  If you're looking at a $450,000 one bedroom cooperative in Jackson Heights you'll need 20% down (for most cooperatives) which is $90,000 + closing costs + other costs if its not in prime move in condition.  They will most likely be renting and there is very little rental inventory in Jackson Heights.  I was a rental agent many years ago in Manhattan and two singles sharing a one bedroom was very common so a luxury $3,000+ one bedroom would not be a problem.

Agreed. Jackson Heights is definitely not the affordable option that it used to be.  For a few years now.

[JK resident]

This is not what others believe

 https://streeteasy.com/blog/nyc-neighborhoods-amazon-arrival-impact/

[abcdefghijk]

This is not what others believe

 https://streeteasy.com/blog/nyc-neighborhoods-amazon-arrival-impact/

Real estate hyperbole. Besides, nowadays tech workers will only work 2 or 3 years @ Amazon or wherever. Before the next tech job.

Most are not interested in putting down "roots" which is really what a neighborhood like Jackson Heights offers.

Today, it's a different, less encumbered lifestyle to previous generations...The tech "lifestyle" has nothing to do with the "Levittown" American dream. Mobility is highly valued.

[JK resident]

New rental almost finished on 72nd Street. Sterling bank sold another tower coming.
LIC average rent $3500 for a one bedroom. There will certainly be more rental towers in JH.

https://www.propertyshark.com/Real-Estate-Reports/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Amazon-map_new.png?_gl=1*1tmwl9d*_ga*YW1wLWtwbXZiQjFaUTZVcXRONFZSZDlIVWZrdGxzSUZaQi1YbXVKR0l6c2J3SWliWkVDQTF6blBNZVhPa2ljaFdDcGs.
 
JH looks like a bargain.

[abcdefghijk]

New rental almost finished on 72nd Street. Sterling bank sold another tower coming.
LIC average rent $3500 for a one bedroom. There will certainly be more rental towers in JH.

https://www.propertyshark.com/Real-Estate-Reports/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Amazon-map_new.png?_gl=1*1tmwl9d*_ga*YW1wLWtwbXZiQjFaUTZVcXRONFZSZDlIVWZrdGxzSUZaQi1YbXVKR0l6c2J3SWliWkVDQTF6blBNZVhPa2ljaFdDcGs.
 
JH looks like a bargain.

Instead of fabricating, I suggest you speak to a 20-something person in tech.  Do your research.

[deja]

Besides, nowadays tech workers will only work 2 or 3 years @ Amazon or wherever. Before the next tech job.

It's also not a matter of what tech workers may personally want.  The way the industry works, you get more out of moving on every couple of years than staying with a single employer.  More in terms of both money and experience with different systems.

[JK resident]

It only makes sense to believe that Amazon will have a effect on JH housing prices. JH is only two stops on the E or M away. I don’t need to speak to a tech worker who lives in India to ask him or her what they want. Amazon hires huge numbers of Indian computer programmers who come to the US on H1 visas. The US universities don’t have enough  American students that study computer science. While not all workers will be Indian, many will be because the best schools for computer programming are in India. Who are the CEOs of Microsoft and Google? Indian Americans. What neighborhood sells Indian food and has Indian restaurants. Jackson Heights.

 https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/the-amazon-effect-in-new-york-will-reach-beyond-long-island-city-117444

 

[the80s]

New rental almost finished on 72nd Street. Sterling bank sold another tower coming.
LIC average rent $3500 for a one bedroom. There will certainly be more rental towers in JH.

https://www.propertyshark.com/Real-Estate-Reports/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Amazon-map_new.png?_gl=1*1tmwl9d*_ga*YW1wLWtwbXZiQjFaUTZVcXRONFZSZDlIVWZrdGxzSUZaQi1YbXVKR0l6c2J3SWliWkVDQTF6blBNZVhPa2ljaFdDcGs.
 
JH looks like a bargain.

Instead of fabricating, I suggest you speak to a 20-something person in tech.  Do your research.

But everyone who works in tech is not in their 20s. I know people who work for Google, for example, who are in their thirties with kids and mortgages, who live in quiet neighborhoods. That's a significant share of the people who work at companies like this. Sure, Amazon will recruit plenty of people right out of college who probably would (for the most part) have no interest in a place like JH, but if Amazon is hiring 25,000 people, they won't all be entry-level programmers with no job experience whose main interest is nightlife.

I think with those numbers, I'd be surprised if JH doesn't become an attractive option for at least some new Amazon employees. Whether it's enough to have a significant impact on the neighborhood, I'm not sure. The potential impact on the neighborhood directly adjacent to the company's new campus seems much clearer.

[seattlelite]

Smart technology workers will come to Jackson Heights when they see what those new luxury rentals cost in LIC. $3000+ a month for a one bedroom. Many will figure out you could buy a coop or condo in JH and hop on the train for ten minutes.

If Amazon comes to LIC then the E/M from Jackson Heights to Amazonia is about 16 minutes, yeah.

But note that even if Amazon doesn't come, the E is 24 minutes to Google, and Google is already here and expanding massively (to 20,000+ according to https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-plans-large-new-york-city-expansion-1541636579). And I think people do tend to stay at Google for longer than just 1 or 2 years, unlike Amazon, so they might be interested in buying rather than just renting.

[abcdefghijk]

What I do find funny is that I can imagine the PR and Marketing geniuses at Amazon coming up with this nation-wide competition for Amazon HQ2. 

And congratulating themselves on their brilliance.

And now it seems to have blown up in their faces because they made such a big deal about it.

Had they negotiated the exact same terms on the down-low, like Google and others have done, there would be no issue.

In a way, the publicity-seeking Amazon geniuses brought this problem on themselves!

[JK resident]

Google is moving to Hudson Yards in Manhattan. Amazon is moving to the outer borough of Queens. That is something no major company has ever done. Those benefits are only available if you move to Queens. It is all based on laws in Albany done years ago to help poorer outer boroughs.

[abcdefghijk]

Google is moving to Hudson Yards in Manhattan. Amazon is moving to the outer borough of Queens. That is something no major company has ever done. Those benefits are only available if you move to Queens. It is all based on laws in Albany done years ago to help poorer outer boroughs.

I believe Hudson Yards also has city tax breaks.

I would say the Metro-tech section in Downtown Brooklyn has been a biz center since when?  The 80's? 90's?

Queens, LIC is next. (now) Though Citibank did start it in LIC in the what? The 80's?   Then the South Bronx.