Barone Management is developing a 100,000-square foot office and industrial-flex space building, in Long Island City, NY.
Multifamily and hospitality development has soared over the last decade in Long Island City, the slice of Queens hugging the East River’s eastern shore. One- and two-story warehouses had long squatted along the city’s industrial byways, but steel-and-glass high-rises have supplanted those aging industrial edifices in a wholesale upending of Long Island City’s traditional character. It seems everything in Long Island City has been purpose-built, designed and constructed to serve markets pinpointed before the first yard of concrete was poured.
It’s taken Scott Barone, founder and president of New York City-based Barone Management, and a lifelong resident of Queens, to journey down the road less traveled. Barone has broken ground on Long Island City’s first commercial spec development in a generation or more.
Once completed, the three-story, approximately 100,000-square-foot structure promises to be malleable enough to house both office and industrial or flex-space tenants, while delivering enviable city and water views and spectacular frontage along four streets.
Built for LIC
In a way, it’s a building customized to the new Long Island City. With greater numbers of local residents has come increased need for support businesses, Barone says. The development’s prime driver is the notion that new, high-quality industrial and office product can be tailored to smaller businesses that require between 2,200 and 5,200 square feet. ‘We’re going to appeal to small and medium-sizes businesses that never had quality space before,’ Barone says.
Also helping will be the building’s proximity to Manhattan right across the river, and its setting even closer to the 25,000 units of housing being built in the current cycle in LIC.
Convenience will be a critical selling point. Barone’s building will be within steps of Court Square, the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge and the Queensboro Plaza subway station, now undergoing NYMTA renovation. The station will be a key cog in the LaGuardia Airport Access project, a major Big Apple infrastructure improvement. The spec structure will also profit from the $76 million renovation of Queens Plaza itself. That improvement initiative promises to yield improved traffic circulation and pedestrian and bicycle access, while also incorporating a new 1.5-acre public park and beautifying the neighborhood as a whole.
