QUESTION
What can the city do to motivate landlords warehousing their properties to start looking for tenants?
1:24:03
·
99 sec
The city aims to encourage landlords with vacant properties to open up those spaces for new uses with City of Yes.
- The city suggests allowing clean production spaces like life sciences and maker spaces in commercial districts where they are currently not permitted.
- These spaces would adhere to environmental regulations and could coexist with other commercial uses.
- The city hopes new permitted uses provide a vision for landlords to utilize their vacant properties.
- Continued community engagement and making landlords feel responsible as stakeholders is emphasized.
Oswald Feliz
1:24:03
But at the same time, we do have landlords of property owners that as my colleagues mentioned, literally just warehousing their properties.
1:24:10
So just so just curious, is there anything within our power that we can do to push that specific group of landlords.
1:24:17
I know the commercial vacancy, that's more of a state issue, but anything that any tools that we have within power as a city to, I guess, push landlords to look start looking for tenants?
Calvin Brown
1:24:27
I mean, hopefully, we can encourage them to open up those spaces with the city of yes and some of the additional opportunities that they will be able to, you know, put in those spaces like life sciences spaces, or a maker spaces that will be allowed to be in commercial districts where currently they're not allowed to be.
1:24:46
These are clean production spaces.
1:24:48
They have to adhere to all of the environment to review stuff so they can be adjacent to those other commercial uses.
1:24:55
So with these additional uses, maybe an opportunity for them to envision a different use for those spaces that they're leaving vacant.
Tian Weinberg
1:25:04
And I would add on top of that, I think continued engagement on this topic is just so important.
1:25:08
In our testimony, we highlighted the central Astoria, LDC, which is doing a walk and tour with the Queen's Economic Development Corporation, really working to engage the landlords and property owners and bring them in on the shared community vision.
1:25:26
Right?
1:25:27
Help them understand the impact that it's having in the community make them feel responsible as a stakeholder for it.
1:25:34
And so, you know, that's the type of work that we hope to be able to continue and we'll continue through our NDD work.
1:25:42
Thank you.
