Tishman Speyers

It’s not every day that you hear New Yorkers complaining about the absence of a Starbucks or a Duane Reade, but the chains that are so often maligned in Manhattan lately are just the type of convenience that people working in Long Island City miss the most.

When Deborah, a Citigroup employee, learned that she was being transferred from Manhattan to Long Island City 10 years ago, she was less than enthusiastic about the move.

“When I first heard I thought, 'Ugh, Long Island City,' because I’d never heard about it,” said during a mid-Monday morning smoke break outside the neighborhood’s first high-rise, high-profile office building, Court Square One.  read more »

New York City Councilman and Peter Cooper Village resident Dan Garodnick helped Stuy Town (square) dance its way toward landmark designation on Saturday night, as tenants of the 110-building, World War II-era housing complex officially (re)launched their landmarks campaign.

We stopped by the party after 6 before any real dancing had begun, but the Gramercy Park church hall was already packed with mainly elderly residents decked out in denim, flannel, and other Western regalia, fuelling up on dinner before the main event.

Gaining protective status for Stuy Town is not a new idea. The Historic Districts Council first endorsed the proposal seven years ago and five years later told the Tenants Association that the complex was eligible for honorary state landmark status.

But the square dance was the first push to get the landmarking process off the ground since Tishman Speyer paid $5.4 billion for the planned community in 2006, though the tenants we spoke to Saturday night insisted the campaign is not related to their new landlord.  read more »