Citicorp Leads Queens To The Skies

By Azi Paybarah and David Oats

Queens entered the 1990s with its first skyscraper. 

The 50-story Citicorp building in Long Island City spearheaded efforts to redevelop the borough’s Hudson waterfront.  Trib reports at the time said, “It was designed as a possible anchor for a business district of the future” with the possibility of it being “a major component in extending Manhattan’s prosperity into the outer borough’s of the city.”

Facing the crowded Manhattan skyline, Citicorp stood virtually isolated in the Hunter’s Point region of Long Island City, historically a light industry area.  The building added 1.4 million square feet of executive office space, and was surrounded by stocky two and three story warehouse buildings left over from the industrial era. 

The building is an extension of Citicorp’s world headquarters complex across the Hudson in Manhattan on 53rd Street.  It was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and can accommodate 3,500 executives and staff members. 

To help those new executives and staff members get to their offices, new train lines were also opened.  New E, F, and G subway lines connecting Hunter’s Point to the rest of Manhattan and the city helped populate not only the Citicorp building, but it fueled the already developing waterfront in Hunter’s Point. 

That development included a 42-story luxury residential building called Citylights which opened in 1997.  At the time, one published report put the price of an apartment at Citylights around $12,000, with a monthly maintenance fee of approximately $680.  Currently, prices for apartments there range from $20,000 to $150,000.  A percentage of that price is calculated for the monthly maintenance fee.

Residents at the 521-unit building, originally selected from a lottery drawing, enjoy 24-hour doorman service, on-sight tennis courts, and a health club complete with aerobics classes and a sauna.  Included in the list of amenities at Citylights is “easy access to Manhattan across the Triboro Bridge, or via the No. 7 subway.”

In 1998, Gantry Park opened, with plans to extend the green space along the entire waterfront.  Paying homage to the one-time industrial neighborhood, the park was named after the piece of machinery used to load and unload railcars and rail ships.

On Dec. 14, 2000 ground broke on the first of three additional luxury buildings in Hunter’s Point.  The Virginia-based Avalon Bay Communities Company estimated the cost of the 74-acre, 372-unit project at $2.3 billion.  At the ceremony, Governor George  Pataki said, “The future has never looked brighter for the Borough of Queens.”

The Queens West Development Corporation, a subsidiary of New York’s Empire State Development, oversees development in the Hunter’s Point region of Queens.  Other developments in the region include the addition of film studios, retail and residential space in 6.5 acres near the Queensboro Plaza.  The sight, owned by the owners of Silvercup Studios, will be developed by Lord Richard Rogers, who previously advised the Mayor of London on Urban development.

Prior to Citicorp’s 1990 debut in Queens, the highest point in the borough was the 32-story Northshore Towers building in Glen Oaks.