By Jyoti Thottam
A Virginia-based Internet company plans to open a 300,000-square-foot facility in Long Island City, bringing 450 jobs to the area, city and company officials said Monday.
PSINet, which provides Internet services to other companies, has not signed a lease but has its eye on a property in Long Island City. The company plans to spend $250 million to renovate the site when it opens later this year.
“This is great news for the Queens community,” Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said during a news conference at Queens Borough Hall on Monday. “The company's decision to start up a major operation in Queens underscores the importance of boroughs other than Manhattan as important venues for high-tech companies in their continued success and growth.”
PSINet will receive about $60 million in tax breaks from the city over the next 15 years, according to Michael Carey, chairman of the city's Economic Development Corporation.
“The most important thing is that this is happening in Queens,” Carey said. “Silicon Alley's boundaries are now expanding beyond Manhattan.”
William Schrader, PSINet's chairman and chief executive officer, said the company has been working with the city on the new facility since November. Schrader said the company has grown primarily through clients in Silicon Alley, the Internet business district in downtown Manhattan.
“We raised the money here in New York, and we're bringing it home,” Schrader said.
Queens Borough President Claire Shulman praised Giuliani for the performance of the city's economy during his seven-year tenure as mayor.
“We want to thank Mayor Giuliani for his invaluable assistance in this regard,” she said.
Dan Andrews, a spokesman for Shulman, said it was “too early” for Shulman to consider endorsing Giuliani in his expected run for U.S. Senate.
Neither company officials nor EDC officials would reveal the address of the property where PSINet plans to open its new facility, citing the ongoing lease negotiations.
Asked why the city decided to announce the project anyway, Carey said “it's a great day to do it.”
The New York Times had run an article Monday about the booming Silicon Alley business district, and Carey said the announcement was an effort to emphasize that message. The news conference also came one day after Hillary Rodham Clinton formally announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate from New York.
Giuliani spent most of the remainder of the 45-minute press conference berating the reporters gathered there for failing to pursue a story about “Captain Jack,” a Billy Joel song with lyrics apparently about drug or alcohol use that was played during Clinton's campaign event on Sunday. Giuliani said members of the media were biased in their reporting and would have pursued such a story about himself or presidential candidate George W. Bush.
“This is relevant,” Giuliani said. “It's a very, very dangerous message. You have different rules for different people.”
