By Bill Parry
A sprawling modern industrial center will bring work space for 24 businesses and create 80 living wage jobs in Ozone Park. The city Economic Development Corporation announced last week that the 90,000-square-foot Ozone Park Industrial Center is the first project to win a $10 million grant through Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Industrial Developer Fund.
“Now more than ever, we must ensure that our economy is diverse, equitable, and provides opportunity for all New Yorkers. Supporting the industrial sector is critical to that effort,” EDC President Maria Torres-Springer said. “I’m proud to announce the first award of the city’s Industrial Developer Fund, which will create affordable space for small industrial businesses so that they can create good paying jobs in neighborhoods across the city.”
Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center will redevelop property that is expected to cost $37 million and to open in 2018.
“GMDC is a great model for how to better assist smaller manufacturing companies and keep those jobs in New York,” Borough President Melinda Katz said. “GMDC’s first-class industrial space in Ozone Park will create dozens of living wage jobs right here in Queens.”
Since 1992, GMDC has rehabilitated seven industrial buildings in New York City to provide affordable, flexible production space for small and medium-sized manufacturers ranging from custom woodworkers, set builders and metal workers to home goods manufacturers. The new space will support around 80 workers, each making an estimated average of $51, 500 per year, consistent with tenants in other GMDC-developed sites.
“I am delighted that Ozone Park will have a new industrial space, which will support 24 local businesses and create 80 good-paying jobs,” U.S. Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (D-Jamaica) said. “Under GMDC’s proposal, Minority, Women and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises will be awarded a percentage of the contracts, showing that our city places importance — just as I do — in investing in local businesses. Queens’ economy will certainly benefit, as will those who have vocational training and are seeking employment locally.”
GMDC is a premier citywide non-profit industrial developer that owns and manages five properties that are occupied by more than 110 businesses employing more than 600 people.
“This is an important step forward for equitable economic development policy in New York City,” Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development Executive Director Benjamin Dulchin said. “GMDC is mission-driven to create the maximum public benefit for their community, and this new project will create new space to support good paying industrial jobs and long-term investment in the manufacturing sector.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparr
