The New York Times looks at area-wide development coming to Staten Island’s North Shore:
“We really believe that this is a transformational moment for the North Shore of Staten Island,” said Seth W. Pinsky, the president of the city’s Economic Development Corporation. “Staten Island is entering into a golden age.”
Read the full article and explore NYCEDC’s many projects on Staten Island, including the St. George Waterfront and New Stapleton Waterfront redevelopment projects.
Image credit: Concrete via NYTimes
Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg and NYCEDC announced the restoration of the long-abandoned Rockaway Courthouse, transforming a historic building into a new medical center. Built in ornate classical style in 1932, the 24,000-square-foot building has sat vacant for over 30 years, suffering significant neglect and deterioration. For over a decade, the City has been working with local stakeholders and developers to rehabilitate this historic building and restore it to an active use serving the local community.
NYCEDC has selected Harmony Group to renovate the building and establish a new medical center in the space featuring a multi-specialty ambulatory surgical center, which will provide new medical services for a community that recently saw the closure of a major hospital, Peninsula Hospital Center. Harmony will rehabilitate the entire building, which will house medical tenants providing medical and outpatient surgical services in specialties including ophthalmology, urology, obstetrics, gynecology, and orthopedics once construction is complete. The project is estimated to bring 64 construction and 45 permanent jobs to the Rockaways.
Read more on NYC.gov.
Photos from 8th Annual NYC Development Finance Conference
On April 16, NYCEDC hosted developers, not-for-profits, Community Development Entities, investors and others for a full day of programming on development finance tools and incentives. Find out more about the sold-out event.
New York’s tech dominance is growing. Deal volume and investments are up, outpacing growth in Massachusetts and California. Dig deeper into NYC’s VC trends and tech acquisitions of 2012; then learn how NYCEDC is a driving force behind NYC’s tech economy at nycedc.com/tech.
fDi Magazine ranks NYCEDC #1 for “Best Use of Social Media” and “Top City Digital Marketing” in its 2012 Digital Marketing Awards for investment promotion agencies around the world:
New York City’s economic development agency also performed well, not only coming second overall but also coming top for its use of social media, placing fourth for most innovative and ranking first among cities.
Read the full report in this PDF and learn more about NYCEDC’s social media program at NYCEDC.com/socialmedia.
New York invests heavily in STEM education for long-term competitiveness in global economy
In the New York Daily News:
The city has created 22 new technical education high schools, with seven more coming next year. There are hundreds of new STEM programs in public schools across the city at all levels.
Construction is about to start on a $2 billion Cornell genius school graduate program that’s designed to churn out the next generation of tech entrepreneurs, and the City University of New York has rolled out dozens of new STEM programs since 2005.
Photo: NYC Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert K. Steel. Credit: Kevin Hagen for New York Daily News
To celebrate the women and men behind this movement from coast to coast, I am proud to announce the launch of American Made, a new initiative that I am leading to salute creative entrepreneurs whose efforts are a powerful engine for economic development and growth….
I am joined in this effort by some of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time, including Calvin Klein, Diane Von Furstenberg, Mickey Drexler, Tory Burch, Bob Pittman and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Bloomberg has taken his entrepreneurial spirit into the public sector and is supporting creative business owners with remarkable programs such as the 12 incubators they’ve launched across the city that bring together public and private dollars and talent and provide individuals and companies with community-oriented work spaces and support to develop their enterprises….
I am proud to be a doer and part of this new revolution.
In Bedroom Community, Birth of a Tech Center
Roosevelt Island will be transformed by the coming Cornell NYC Tech campus, via The New York Times:
A canopy of solar cells, a nearly classroom-free academic center, cafes open to the public and even a hotel. The new campus of the Cornell University graduate school for technology is expected to transform Roosevelt Island from a sleepy bedroom community into a high-technology hothouse, and indeed, the plans to be formally unveiled for the campus on Monday bear little resemblance to anything that is there now.
The World’s Tallest Ferris Wheel Is Coming to Staten Island’s North Shore
Mayor Bloomberg today unveiled plans to transform Staten Island’s waterfront by building the world’s largest Ferris wheel along with a new retail complex and hotel on sites adjacent to Richmond County Bank Ballpark in St. George.
The New York Wheel will be built just to the north of the ballpark and be 625 feet tall – 84 feet higher than the Singapore Flyer, currently the tallest Ferris wheel in the world. It will also be taller than the planned ‘High Roller’ wheel for the Las Vegas Strip, which is set to rise to 550 feet. The New York Wheel will be comprised of 36 capsules, each able to carry up to 40 passengers with a max capacity of 1,440 people per ride. The wheel is expected to welcome as many as 30,000 riders per day during peak season and an estimated 4.5 million visitors per year.
The Mayor also announced plans by BFC Partners to construct Harbor Commons, a 350,000-square-foot retail complex featuring 100 designer outlet stores and a 120,000-square-foot hotel on the site to the south of the ballpark.
Together, the projects will generate a $480 million private investment, and create over 1,200 construction jobs and 1,100 permanent jobs. Find out more on NYC.gov.
