FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM NOVEMBER 16, 2017 • THE QUEENS COURIER 17
Plaxall family aims to revamp Long Island City’s
Anable Basin with ambitious 15-year project
BY ANGELA MATUA
amatua@qns.com / @AngelaMatua
Long Island City’s Anable Basin has
long been inaccessible to the public, but a
new multi-billion dollar plan announced
by the Plaxall family would transform
the portion of closed-off waterfront to
include a mix of housing, retail, manufacturing
and community facility space.
Plaxall, a plastics company founded by
architect and engineer Louis Pfohl, who
also happened to invent thermoforming,
has been located in the neighborhood for
more than 70 years.
Aft er relocating his business from
Flushing to Long Island City in the
1940s, Pfohl and his family began acquiring
properties along the waterfront and
leasing space out to manufacturing and
artist tenants. His grandchildren, Paula
Kirby, Tony Pfohl and Matthew Quigley,
continued that tradition as managing
directors of the company.
Aft er big manufacturers like Pepsi
and Hertz, who both leased space on
Plaxall property, began to move out of
the neighborhood – Quigley says the
infl ux of families with strollers and dogs
made the area less attractive to warehouse
users – the family began to lease
out their properties to smaller tenants.
“Th e tenant mix has very much
changed,” Kirby said. “We decided to
break it down into small spaces because
we noticed an infl ux of artists, an infl ux
of startups – just a really diff erent,
vibrant mix here.”
Th eir tenants include Tietz Baccon, a
digital fabrication fi rm; Krypton Neon,
a neon art and sign company; Rockaway
Brewing Company; and Th e Neustadt,
which holds the largest collection of
Tiff any glass.
While the family discussed rezoning
the area with the city in the early 2000s,
they could not come to an agreement
on how to move forward. But about two
and a half years ago, the groups decided
to create a special district that would
include all eight of the Plaxall buildings
that surround Anable Basin.
“We started talks again with the city
and with a diff erent concept which is
very much this idea of rather than being
a specifi c building zoning or project
rezoning we create a district,” Kirby said.
“We’re creating parameters which then
defi ne how developers can build in that
space.”
Th e family owns almost 1 million
square feet of space and hopes to turn
the mostly industrial area into a “very
vibrant live-work-play-create-make district,”
Kirby added.
Th e plan would create a 14.7-acre
Special Anable Basin Mixed-Use District
spanning from 44th Drive and 45th
Avenue to the north, Vernon Boulevard
to the east, 46th Road to the south and
the East River to the west. It will need
to go through the Uniform Land Use
Review Procedure and be approved by
Community Board 2, Queens Borough
President Melinda Katz, the City
The Plaxall family hopes to transform the Anable Basin in Long Island City to include housing, manufacturing, retail and commercial space.
Planning Commission and City Council.
In addition to Plaxall’s properties, the
district would include several sites along
Vernon Boulevard that, if developed by
anyone in the future, would have to
adhere to the newly created district’s
standards. Th e city requested these additions
to “keep a consistency,” according
to Kirby.
Th e plan is ambitious and the property
managers say it would be take about
15 years and $3 billion to complete. Th e
main attraction, according to President
Jonathan Drescher, is the 3.1-acre waterfront
esplanade that would provide
access and green space to residents.
Th e basin was named aft er Henry
Anable, who dug out the basin 150 years
ago to make it easier for barges to transport
oil to the area. Plaxall’s plan would
create a dual-level esplanade to make the
area resilient and keep it out of the range
of the fl ood zone.
Pedestrian-only lanes will be created
along the zone to give residents safe and
easy access to the waterfront.
When completed, the area would
include 4,995 housing units, of which
approximately 1,250 would be aff ordable
through the Mandatory Inclusionary
Housing program. Aff ordable housing
has become a concern of many longtime
residents, who argue that many developers
are only interested in attracting
high-income tenants.
“We think the plan provides for a lot
of public benefi ts,” Kirby said. “Many of
them are not typical of many developments
and part of the way you can provide
these benefi ts is that you have the
market rate housing there to help be the
economic driver. If a project isn’t economically
viable, it won’t get built. It is
a fi ne balance that we’ve studied for a
number of years so we think this could
be a really fabulous area.”
It would also add approximately
335,000 square feet of space for creative
production and light industrial uses.
Kirby said the company would like to
keep its existing tenants and attract other
manufacturing and tech clients that want
to call Long Island City home.
“We certainly love our tenants that we
have now and can see many of them fi tting
in very well in this framework and
this environment,” she said.
Th e neighborhood is oft en criticized
by existing tenants as being a bedroom
community. Many of the new developments
slated for construction include so
many amenities – a gym, laundry room,
restaurants – that residents don’t need to
leave their homes. But the Plaxall family
does not want to replicate that model.
“One of the things we hear in the community
is that the new developments are
sort of designed so that the tenants never
have to leave the building,” said Pfohl,
who lives in Long Island City for part of
the year. “I think we really want to create
a district where the tenants want to leave
the building and get out. Th ere will be
exciting retail and there will be vibrancy
outside.”
Th e ground fl oor of each building
will include a variety of retailers. Th e
plan also features approximately 30,000
square feet for community facility space
like a daycare center and an additional
40,000 square feet will be designated for
arts and cultural uses.
Buildings along Vernon Boulevard will
be capped at 350 feet to retain the area’s
character, and the largest tower along
the waterfront will rise 695 feet. Loft
style spaces will be located in the base
of each building to attract manufacturing
and industrial tenants who require
more space.
“We want to evoke the industrial heritage
of this area,” Kirby said. “We want
the structures to look unique, not to
make them your typical glass tower.”
Plaxall is also giving one of its buildings
on 11th Street to the School Construction
Authority to build an approximately
700-seat school.
Long Island City residents have witnessed
a great deal of change in the last
few years. Queens West brought Gantry
Plaza State Park, Hunters Point South
Park and thousands of new units to the
waterfront.
Recently, Mayor Bill de Blasio
announced a new project along 44th
Photo courtesy of WXY architecture + urban design
Drive that would transform two cityowned
lots into a 1.5-million-squarefoot
development with mixed-income
housing, offi ce and artist space and a
new school.
Th at plan has received pushback from
many residents who say the city should
have gathered more community input
before presenting the plan. It will have
to go through a public review process
before construction can begin.
Th e Plaxall family also anticipates that
there will be anger among some residents
but argues that they had extensive talks
with the city to refi ne the plan.
“We understand there will be some
concerns from the community, but at
the same time I think it’s probably very
unusual for private land to deliver as
many public benefi ts as we are,” Pfohl
said. “It’s a message we’re trying to get
across as people take a look at what we’re
hoping to achieve here. Th ey’ll understand
why it maybe has to be as big as
it is.”
Th e ULURP process is anticipated
to start in April and if the project is
approved, construction on the fi rst 500
housing units will begin in 2020. Plaxall
says approximately 2,200 to 2,600 permanent
jobs and 10,000 construction
jobs would be created as a result of the
project. Th ey also estimate that $450 million
per year would be generated.
Plaxall will host several “informal
drop-in sessions” to speak to their neighbors
about the plan. Some local community
leaders have already voiced their
support for the plan including Mitchell
Taylor, the founder of Urban Upbound,
Christopher Hanway, executive director
of Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood
Settlement, Kadie Black, chair of
Gantry Parent Association and Jukay
Hsu, founder and CEO of Coalition for
Queens.
“Th rough our plan, the new Anable
Basin would be a place where people live
and work in the same place – enhancing
quality of life, productivity and easing
the demands on transit and energy infrastructure
by placing workplaces close to
home,” Drescher said.