What Amazon May Mean for Queens: Gentrification and (More) Packed Trains

NEW YORK — Is Amazon ready for the New York City subway?

In the neighborhood where the company reportedly wants to set up shop, the train routinely arrives full: cars packed so tightly with commuters rumbling into Long Island City from eastern Queens that waiting riders often have to watch several trains pass before they can get on.

Now add up to 25,000 workers from Amazon.

The influx would strain New York’s delay-plagued system, which reached a crisis point last year with constant disruptions, a series of derailments and on-time performance that still hovers around 68 percent. It would put particular pressure on the 7 line, which stretches from the West Side of Manhattan into Queens and is the main artery into Long Island City.

Yet Amazon is apparently undaunted. The company is nearing a deal to locate a major headquarters — one of two planned — in the sprawling, semi-industrial neighborhood, according to people briefed on the negotiations.

The precise location in Long Island City has yet to be announced, and it is not clear whether the headquarters would be a single building or several. The company could also change direction and choose a different site altogether. One person with knowledge of the discussions said Amazon executives were referring to the New York location as a “campus.”

About 10 million square feet of potential office space was identified in the area, according to a second person briefed on the discussions. The people who spoke about the plans declined to be identified because the deal has not been publicly announced.

“New York, more than any other city in the country, can actually absorb something like this without it completely wiping it out,” said Tom Wright, president of the Regional Plan Association, an urban research and advocacy group. “We have more capacity than anywhere else.”

But that does not mean there will not be challenges.

The neighborhood, separated from Brooklyn to the south by the Newtown Creek, runs along the East River and is home to an expanding skyline that is crisscrossed by cranes and new construction. About 57,000 people live in the neighborhood, according to the city. The population is expected to rise sharply in the next two years, based on an analysis of new residential construction by the LIC Partnership, a local business group.

About 80,000 people work in the area, according to the city, at businesses that include JetBlue, Ralph Lauren and Silvercup Studios, where television shows and movies are shot. Uber and Lyft have offices in a building that also houses the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

While most of the neighborhood’s workers also live in Queens, about 8,500 travel from Long Island and roughly the same number commute from Manhattan. Aside from the 7 train, subway riders can access parts of the neighborhood via several other lines. One of those who commutes from Manhattan to Long Island City is Andrew Litavis, 27, who works at JetBlue and takes the W train.

“The upside is lots of open seats, but the downside is sometimes 10-minute gaps between trains at rush hour,” Litavis said.

The neighborhood also has two commuter ferry stops and numerous stations for the city’s bike-share program, as well as two stops on the Long Island Rail Road. And there has long been discussion about adding another station in nearby Sunnyside.

Jon Weinstein, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the subway and the LIRR, declined to comment about Amazon’s plans or its effect on transportation.

The company’s anticipated arrival has jump-started some ambitious, albeit unlikely, ideas about how to improve the city’s transit system.

Wright of the Regional Plan Association pointed to the idea of extending a proposed new rail tunnel under the Hudson River from New Jersey, not just to Manhattan, but through the borough, under the East River and into Queens. That would link commuter rails in New Jersey and Long Island and extend the places where future employees of Amazon, or other businesses in Queens, could live and have a relatively tolerable commute.

A new Amazon headquarters also sparked hope that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s vision of a streetcar running along the waterfront between Brooklyn and Queens, known as the BQX, could finally be realized.

“The campus would only reach its full potential with the BQX,” said Jessica Schumer, executive director of the Friends of Brooklyn Queens Connector.

But not everyone was ready to roll out a welcome mat. Community groups said Amazon should pay a gentrification tax to offset the anticipated effect of the new workforce, whose annual salaries were expected to average $100,000, according to Amazon.

State and local leaders “should be extracting concessions that would benefit struggling residents in Queens,” said Jonathan Westin of New York Communities for Change, which advocates low-income housing.

Asked on Tuesday about the possibility of a deal, de Blasio summarized the argument made by city and state officials, even as he cautioned that Amazon had yet to make an official announcement.

“I can tell you that it’s been a long detailed process in which the City of New York has tried to make very clear the reasons why this is a great place for a company to be because we have the talent base here,” he told reporters. “I mean, number one reason.”

But de Blasio, whose administration has worked behind the scenes to encourage Amazon to relocate to the city, sought to distinguish himself from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has been so publicly effusive about the company that he joked that he would call himself “Amazon Cuomo” if that is what it took to lure the company.

“Amazon de Blasio?” a reporter called out as the mayor took questions in Brooklyn.

“No thanks,” the mayor replied. As for the 7 train, it is being upgraded with modern signals — the second subway line to get new signals after the L train — that will allow more trains to run and ease the overcrowding.

The new signal system, known as communications-based train control, is expected to be installed on the 7 line by the end of this year. The MTA said it would be able to add two or three additional trains each hour — up from the current 27 trains per hour.

Public transit has been one of New York’s greatest selling points, but the city is at a crossroads as it decides whether to invest billions to modernize the system, said John Raskin, executive director of the Riders Alliance, an advocacy group.

“The 7 train has been particularly miserable while they’ve been doing construction,” Raskin said, but once the new system is in place, “it should be one of the city’s best.”