Long Island City, once an industrial area known for its large manufacturing plants and hulking waterfront warehouses, is becoming a neighborhood of choice for entrepreneurs and businesses looking to expand.
As larger manufacturers have left the area, taking blue-collar jobs along with them, it has seen an increase in smaller companies, artisanal food businesses and tech start-ups.
Hilo Materials Handling Group, a heavy-duty equipment dealer, is set to open its second facility in the neighborhood on Tuesday.
“It’s centrally located, easily accessible and we can service the [other] boroughs from there,” said Hilo President Steven LoPiccolo.
Amy’s Bread, which sells artisanal baked goods in three Manhattan locations, began moving its production facility — and about 120 workers — from Manhattan to Long Island City last month.
“The spaces are nice and open and fairly big,” said owner Amy Scherber, who was pleased by the growing number of fellow food businesses located nearby. “It’s much cheaper than Manhattan.”
Jukay Hsu, founder of the Coalition for Queens, which fosters the borough’s tech community, said he’s seeing more entrepreneurs moving to the area due to its creative energy, proximity to Manhattan and cultural scene.
“Long Island City’s poised for growth in the tech industry,” said Hsu, who added many Queens residents are choosing to create businesses in their borough.
Gayle Baron, president of the Long Island City Partnership, a business advocacy group, said “there’s an ebb and flow” of companies moving in and out. She also stressed that many large manufacturers have stayed in the neighborhood.
A lot of tech-driven start-ups are coming in because space is “still relatively inexpensive compared to Manhattan,” she said.
But she has also seen businesses that want to expand leave because there aren’t multi-acre sites available in the neighborhood.
Some large companies are leaving Long Island City in search of larger spaces and cheaper rents. FreshDirect recently announced it is moving to the Bronx, enticed in part by a fat city subsidy.
Krinos Foods, a Greek food manufacturer based in Long Island City for 31 years, announced last week that it would be moving to a new facility in the Bronx as well.
“It’s not cost-efficient to knock down [our] building and start from scratch,” said Krinos President Eric Moscahlaidis. “No other location in Long Island City was that was large enough existed for us to move into.”
