September 28, 2006
Viacom May Move to Long Island City
Long Island City may be losing MetLife, but now it seems like media conglomerate Viacom is considering a move to LIC. The Sun has a very interesting article about how the a move east would help reduce Viacom's cost (and improve its bottomline) if its various occupancy costs went down:
The company currently leases 1.4 million square feet (or 78%) of the space in the building run by S.L. Green (which, incidentally, is also bullish on Long Island City) at 1515 Broadway, the former headquarters of W.T. Grant. Insiders say they believe the executive and corporate offices would remain in Manhattan, at rents of about $80 a square foot when its lease is renewed in 2008.The article by Michael Stoler also has a good roundup of LIC developments, from commercial centers like Silvercup West to residential developments from the Toll Brothers.In Long Island City, Viacom could rent brand new, class A office space for a cost of about $45 a square foot. Offices that move to Long Island City from Manhattan and other areas receive benefits in excess of $16 a square foot in rent reductions as a result of various incentive packages, including relocation incentives. In Viacom's case, that would bring the occupancy cost to $29 a square foot. Viacom shareholders, no doubt, would be happy with the possibility of such a move.
While Viacom might move various studios to LIC, we'd imagine they'd keep their Total Request Live studios in Times Square. It's so much easier for the young fans and tourists to find them, though it would be intriguing to see if new visitors to the city would be able to make it out to LIC, given train wackiness.
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queens plaza is one of the easiest places to get to in the city; a ton of lines go through there. i take the 7 train every day, and compared to any other train in the city that i've commuted on, it's absolutely the most reliable. it comes every 2 minutes and thirty seconds during rush hour. the commute time/ease is not the issue here.
thanks to guiliani, queens plaza is rife with strip joints that were forced out of manhattan. it's one of the ugliest transit hubs in new york - if not the ugliest. it's where they let rikers island inmates out with 15 bucks and a metro card at 4 AM. prostitutes still abound. shootings occur regularly. it's kind of like the old times square of the early 90s pre-tax breaks for disney, bmg and mtv ...
TRL to the rescue.
I live one block from Queens Plaza and have an art studio near there too. I love my neighborhood and would be fine with the influx of new businesses and residents - if it didn't mean I will certainly be priced out in a couple of years.
Of course, I still see drug deals and prostitutes on 22nd st, so maybe my neighborhood will refuse this process.
Maybe you Manhattan-centric Gothamist kiddies can't understand how to get to LIC but for us normal NYers it's pretty easy. Jump on the N,W,7,E,R,V and OMG you magically go under the water and appear in Queens. Maybe Gothamist should take their heads out of their Manhattanite asses and explore NYC.
I work for MTVN at 1515 and live in Sunnyside. NOTHING would make me happier than getting the hell out of Times Sq, away from Bubba Gump, and to cut my 20 min commute in half. That said, this - or the equally talked about move to JersCity - will never materialize.
I love when kids from Iowa who have lived in Manhattan for all of five seconds start telling the world how difficult it is to get to Long Island City. Jesus christ, it's ONE f'in stop on the 7 train from Manhattan.
this is the kind of reporting that makes me stop reading gothamist for a month.