http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100322/REAL_ESTATE/100329989
JetBlue Airways Corp. has decided to keep its headquarters in the Big Apple. It plans to relocate to Long Island City, Queens, from Forest Hills, Queens.
Last year, the company began a formal process to search for a new home as the 2012 expiration of its current lease neared. Jet Blue, which has been based in Forest Hills since 2000, will move to roughly 200,000 square feet at The MetLife Building located at 27-01 Queens Plaza North, between 27th and 28th streets. The company will be relocating 950 employees to the new office space by mid-2012. About 70 of those jobs will come from Connecticut, where JetBlue has been operating a satellite office.
In addition, JetBlue announces that it will be hiring 130 new employees. They will join the Long Island City office as well.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and JetBlue Chief Executive Dave Barger outlined the details of the airline's decision on Monday.
In a message to employees Monday morning, Mr. Barger wrote: “Both New York and Florida played to win and offered us strong and creative incentive packages. Ultimately, it would have been very expensive to move almost 1,000 jobs to Florida. In addition, we would have experienced a significant disruption to our culture and our business.”
New York fought hard to keep JetBlue happy.
“More than a year ago, JetBlue engaged cities around the country in a selection process to determine where to build a central corporate office and grow jobs over the long term,” said Mr. Bloomberg, in a statement. "New York City prevailed, and both our city and the airline are better off for it."
The Met Life building in Long Island City, Queens, will house JetBlue.
Last year, JetBlue said it had narrowed its search for a new home to Orlando and New York City. The airline currently occupies 12 floors at 118-29 Queens Blvd. in Forest Hills. JetBlue has invested a lot of money in New York. It recently built a new $734 million terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport, which opened two years ago.
JetBlue was considering a number of sites in Brooklyn and Queens, including spaces in Jamaica, Queens, and downtown Brooklyn. The airline's decision is a coup for the city.
“Long Island City is an up-and-coming neighborhood that is seeing a lot of change as it transitions from its industrial past to its mixed-use future,” Mr. Barger wrote in the memo. “It's an exciting neighborhood filled with new development and potential, not unlike JetBlue when we started 10 years ago. We want to be there and play a part in the evolution of a unique New York neighborhood.”
. Photos by Audrey Gottlieb.