Queens Business

You can tell a lot about a neighborhood by the jobs the residents hold. Where do they work? Do they have a big commute? Are the jobs coming to the neighborhood or leaving it? How much to people earn?

These are all good questions that help paint the picture of a neighborhood – or in this case, of Queens.

Browse through and see the flourishing industry that keeps Queens moving, growing and thriving.

Business Quick Facts

Though the Census only occurs once every 10 years, the data is constantly updated to reflect the most current changes in society. The Census may be best know for tracking the people of the country, but it also tracks where they work and how they lives.

Take a peek at some of the data compiled from the most recent numbers available:

Queens New York

Living in same house in 1995 and 2000, pct age 5+, 2000 61.8% 61.8%
High school graduates, percent of persons age 25+, 2000 74.4% 79.1%
Bachelor’s degree or higher, pct of persons age 25+, 2000 24.3% 27.4%
Mean travel time to work (minutes), workers age 16+, 2000 42.2 31.7
Housing units, 2004 827,259 7,819,359
Homeownership rate, 2000 42.8% 53.0%
Housing units in multi-unit structures, percent, 2000 69.1% 50.6%
Median value of owner-occupied housing units, 2000 $212,600 $148,700
Per capita money income, 1999 $19,222 $23,389
Median household income, 2003 $38,042 $44,139
Persons below poverty, percent, 2003 15.4% 14.3%
Private Businesses, 2003 39,418 502,948
Private Business Employment, 2003 473,450 7,416,680
Nonemployer establishments, 2003 164,912 1,361,705
Manufacturers shipments, 2002 ($1000) 6,092,932 147,317,463
Retail sales, 2002 ($1000) 11,226,779 178,067,530
Retail sales per capita, 2002 $5,008 $9,298
Minority-owned firms, percent of total, 1997 46.5% 19.6%
Women-owned firms, percent of total, 1997 23.9% 26.1%
Housing units authorized by building permits, 2004 6,853 53,497

Source: U.S. Census

This Main Street herb store does swift business. Tribune Photo by Ira Cohen

Queens At Work

Sure, almost all of us work – but what exactly are we doing? Who do we work for? Or, more simply put, what is our trade?

INDUSTRY No. Of Employees % Of Queens

Educational, health and social services 197,065 20.6
Finance, insurance, real estate, and rental and leasing 97,854 10.2
Retail trade 96,859 10.1
Professional, scientific, management, administrative, and
waste management services 96,231 10.1
Arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation and
food services 84,407 8.8
Transportation and warehousing, and utilities 79,700 8.3
Manufacturing 75,346 7.9
Other services (except public administration) 63,837 6.7
Construction 51,610 5.4
Public administration 41,372 4.3
Information 37,281 3.9
Wholesale trade 34,670 3.6
Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining 552 0.1

Source: U.S. Census

Restaurants

The diversity of the people of Queens is more evident in the borough’s restaurants than anywhere else in Queens. We have some of the best cuisine in the city – just ask Zagat, the award-winning international guide to dining. Though some 93 restaurants from Queens are listed in the Zagat guide, these are the Top 10 for Queens, in terms of clicks on Zagat’s Web site.

Agnanti
19-06 Ditmars Blvd.
(19th St.)
(718) 545-4554

Trattoria L’incontro
21-76 31st St.
(Ditmars Blvd.)
(718) 721-3532

Sripraphai
64-13 39th Ave.
(bet. 64th & 65th Sts.)
(718) 899-9599

Malagueta
25-35 36th Ave.
(28th St.)
(718) 937-4821

Water’s Edge
44th Dr. & East River
(Vernon Blvd.)
(718) 482-0033

Piccola Venezia
42-01 28th Ave.
(42nd St.)
(718) 721-8470

Park Side
107-01 Corona Ave.
(51st Ave.)
(718) 271-9321

Sapori D’Ischia
55-15 37th Ave.
(56th St.)
(718) 446-1500

Taverna Kyclades
33-07 Ditmars Blvd.
(bet. 33rd & 35th Sts.)
(718) 545-8666

718
35-01 Ditmars Blvd.
(35th St.)
(718) 204-5553

L’incontra is rated as one of Queens’ best restaurants. Tribune Photo by Ira Cohen

Top 10 Business

Areas

Queens has many diverse and bustling business districts, but some neighborhoods boast such dynamic expanses of business development that residents from all over Queens flock to visit their shops and boutiques. Here are the busiest of them all.

Flushing
Jamaica
Jackson Heights
Astoria/Long Island City
Forest Hills
Kew Gardens
Richmond Hill
Bayside
Maspeth
College Point

Source: Surveyed by the Queens Tribune

Privately owned retail business, like Bloomie Hair and Nails in Forest Hills, make up 10% of the borough’s businesses.

The Biggest Private Firms

There is plenty of money to be made in Queens, and 16 of the borough’s businesses performed so well in 2005 that they made Crain’s New York Business’ annual list of the New York Metropolitan Area’s 200 largest privately held companies.

It should be noted that No. 1 on the list overall was our very own Queens-born billionaire’s company – the Trump Organization which had revenue exceeding $10 billion, employed 22,500 people and develops real estate, hotels, casinos and golf courses.

Business Name Location Crain’s 2005 Employees Industry

Rank Revenue

Kinray Inc Whitestone 7 $3.6B 1,000 Pharmacy

National Envelope Corp LIC 39 $650M 3,700 Manufacturing

Jetro Cash & Carry Enterprises College Point 5 $447M n/a Grocery

Leviton Manufacturing Co Little Neck 61 $410M 4,000 Manufacturing

E. Gluck Corp LIC 91 $277M 475 Watchmaker

Personal-Touch Home Care Inc Bayside 99 $230M 12,000 Health Care

M.A. Angeliades Inc LIC 125 $165M 15 Construction

Fresh Direct LIC 137 $150M 1,500 Grocery

Judlau Contracting Inc College Point 138 $150M 110 Construction

Levine Builders Douglaston 141 $145M 75 Construction

ABCO Refrigeration Supply Corp LIC 146 $130M 250 Refrigeration

Beyer Farms Inc Jamaica 151 $125 180 Dairy Products

Dial-A-Mattress Operating Corp LIC 161 $110M 315 Retail

Davis & Warshow Inc Maspeth 165 $100M 275 Distributor

Bartlett Dairy Inc Jamaica 175 $94M 155 Distributor

Richter+Ratner Contracting Corp Maspeth 178 $92M 130 Gen. Contracting

Source: Crain’s New York Business

The Citigroup building led the way for a wave of East River towers. Tribune Photos by Ira Cohen

In The Public Sector

For the publicly held companies, of which there are considerably more, Crain’s complied a list of the top 300. Queens, of course, had its fair share:

Business Name Location Crain’s Rank 2004 Revenue Employees Industry

JetBlue Airways Forest Hills 97 $1.26B 73,990 Airline

Standard Motor Products LIC 124 $824M 4,100 Vehicle Parts

Major Automotive LIC 174 380M 518 Auto Dealers

Steve Madden Ltd. LIC 178 $345M 1,510 Footwear

Flushing Financial Corp. Fluhsing 245 $124M 250 Banking

Pacific CMA Inc. Jamaica 268 99.6M 193 Logistics/Freight

DualStar Technologies Corp. LIC 295 $71.2M n/a Comm. Services

Source: Crain’s New York Business

Queens Place now stands where Macy’s used to be in Elmhurst, part of the area’s revitalization.

Getting Help

Every year, consumers throughout the borough get the short end of the stick in some business deals – whether it is getting short-changed at the grocery store, stuck with a bad roofing job or having suspicions about a mechanic.

And every year, the city responds to consumer complaints, investigating and fighting for the little guy. Here’s an idea of how the little guy’s been doing:

Resolved Consumer Complaints

FY03 FY04 FY05 FY06

CB1 167 169 158 167

CB2 69 49 64 77

CB3 67 49 59 76

CB4 60 73 73 115

CB5 60 48 73 81

CB6 41 42 68 64

CB7 111 127 107 154

CB8 50 34 64 50

CB9 53 53 67 76

CB10 57 34 61 89

CB11 52 44 63 63

CB12 164 108 176 190

CB13 88 57 61 82

CB14 14 10 10 16

Source: 2006 Mayor’s Management Report