New York Times leases land to company’s development partner
Recent real estate transactions and lobbying data suggest that an Amazon distribution center may be coming to College Point.
According to city records, The New York Times recently leased a significant portion of its property in College Point — the site of the paper’s distribution center — to Wildflower Industrial LTD, an infrastructure firm with a focus on green development.
According to its website, the firm is Amazon’s “most active E-commerce developer in New York City.” Wildflower is also responsible for the upcoming film studio in Astoria, a project backed by Robert De Niro.
The company’s website shows plans for a “logistics center,” which is slated to take up nearly 250,000 square feet at the site, just off the Whitestone Expressway, next to Mill Creek. (The Times’ printing plant is more than 300,000 square feet.) A promotional video for the facility, which is slated for a 2023 opening, touts its proximity to all five boroughs, several truck routes and both of the city’s major airports, with LaGuardia just three miles away. The plan also allocates ample room for trucks and loading docks.
On top of that, Wildflower has also been working with Mercury Public Affairs, a company that has lobbied on Amazon’s behalf on numerous occasions, to improve roadway access for a “new distribution center,” state lobbying data shows.
A spokesperson for The Times confirmed the deal for the four-acre parcel — which CEO and President Meredith Kopit Levien has said will give the paper a $34 million gain next quarter — and added that the parties also agreed to close the sale in 2025. She referred the Chronicle to Wildflower for comment on whether Amazon was involved.
Wildflower partners Adam Gordon and Matthew Dicker declined to comment on whether the site will be an Amazon facility.
Asked if Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (R-Whitestone) knew whether the site would house an Amazon facility, Nicole Kiprolov, her chief of staff, said, “Not for sure.”
“The councilmember believes that it is certainly an interesting idea and she is open to working with Amazon,” Kiprolov said in a statement. “However, projects like this have a lot of complexities and she would like to fully examine the impacts to the surrounding area, as well as gather community input.”