I’ve been reading the Streeteasy message boards about LIC. Interesting stuff. One thread was a throwdown between LIC and Downtown Brooklyn (newly dubbed as DoBro). DoBro won on the amenities, since LIC’s $/sqft for luxury condos seems to be in about the same range. YES. DoBro should win on the amenities, but is that all a neighborhood comes down to? LIC never was, will be, or wants to be Downtown Brooklyn. LIC’s an industrial neighborhood that’s been heavily rezoned and is beginning to introduce the largest influx of residents in its history. DoBro, while it was and is a major commercial district, was not primarily an industrial hub and has a totally different aesthetic. It also has the Fulton Mall.

Bottom-line. If you don’t like an industrial aesthetic, don’t move to LIC. Even though, as some message board posters stated, the look of the new condos conjures up visions of Hoboken or Houston (?), the existing and surrounding aesthetic is primarily INDUSTRIAL. These were factories, people. Big, gigantic, fuel dumping factories. (Is there residual toxic pollution? YES. But that’s for another post.)

LIC’s amenities are lacking if you consider the $/sqft on a lot of the new luxury condos. Most of the marketing seems to be aimed at the convenience of Manhattan commuting, which is wise since it’s LIC’s strong point as a marketable neighborhood for new development. But amenities will always show up if the people do. Look at any neighborhood where there was a major influx of residents into a primarily industrial neighborhood. SoHo. Tribeca. Are there amenities there? I’ll let you answer that for yourself.

Lots of good conversation going on these days. The Vernon rumors delivered yesterday, and an older post about the CUNY dorm building, has inadvertently created an informal LIC wish list. So we’ve decided to tally the requests, and present them to the vast sea of enterprising entrepreneurs out there; some of whom might understand what it is to live and start a business now in LIC.

There seems to be a general preference amongst the actual residents for the independent, local chain, and mom/pop type retail amenity, over national brands. Save for probably a decent pharmacy (which is delivering in Queenswest in the form of a Duane Reade). Brokers and developers are more interested in the national brands of course, as they can pay high premiums on the new GF retail emerging with the residential development.

The list so far, in no particular order »