Blakeman expresses private desire to revive Amazon HQ2 project in Long Island City — and wants to make a waterfront rail yard owned by the MTA available for redevelopment.
The Long Island City rail yard is a low expanse of tracks along the East River, framed by the Manhattan skyline and the towers of Hunters Point. The Long Island Rail Road’s terminal and storage facility covers roughly 7.4 acres—far smaller than the West Side Yard now supporting Hudson Yards. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman has begun describing such MTA sites as underused public assets a future state government might unlock for development.
In private conversations about a possible gubernatorial run, Blakeman has pointed to the abandoned Amazon HQ2 proposal for Long Island City as both a cautionary tale and a project that could be revisited under different political conditions. He has expressed interest in partnering with Hirschfeld Properties on a platform over the yard while remaining open to proposals from Related Companies and the Durst Organization, or any other developer with a vision.
As of yet, there is no formal plan or public announcement.
At Hudson Yards densities, the 7.4-acre site could support roughly 3 to 5 million square feet of mixed-use development—potentially 1,500 to 3,500 apartments plus office space. That scale would not remake the city but could anchor a headquarters campus and generate construction jobs and tax revenue.
Amazon announced a multi-million-square-foot campus here in 2018 expected to employ tens of thousands, then withdrew in 2019 citing local opposition. It proceeded in Virginia, where hiring has recently slowed. The Adams administration is now seeking expressions of interest on nearby former Amazon-linked sites for commercial and community uses, while a broader Long Island City rezoning targets about 14,000 homes. Blakeman has described the 2019 outcome as a failure to pair private investment with adequate transit capacity. Any revival, he has suggested, would require a more favorable regulatory climate and the ability of the LIRR to carry substantially more workers from Long Island. An intermodal terminal at the yard could expand local capacity and connections, though system bottlenecks at the East River tunnels and Manhattan terminals would still need to be addressed.
Building over the active yard would be complex. The facility was not designed for overbuild. Columns would have to fit between live tracks, long-span structures would maintain clearances, and continuous ventilation and emergency access would be required. East River flood risk would demand resilient design, and construction would need to avoid prolonged disruption of LIRR operations. These constraints increased the cost of Hudson Yards. The smaller scale here could make the task more manageable than proposals for the much larger Sunnyside Yard, where platform costs have been estimated in the tens of billions and Amtrak is currently investing more than $1 billion in operational upgrades rather than decks.
Blakeman has cited Hirschfeld’s 1980s role, with the Trump Organization, in transforming the West Side yards into Riverside South. Hirschfeld has a record of large-scale land assembly and rail-adjacent conversion. Related, which leased West Side Yard air rights from the MTA for roughly $1 billion and delivered Hudson Yards, and Durst, a long-established Manhattan developer, would also be invited to compete. The structure of any deal remains unspecified.
Workforce access would remain central for a company the size of Amazon. Expanded LIRR service could enlarge the pool of technical workers from Long Island, though realizing that benefit would require upgrades beyond the yard. Critics of the original proposal raised concerns about displacement and infrastructure strain; a project that also delivered transit capacity and housing might address some objections, though Queens community groups have often opposed large waterfront developments.
More broadly, Blakeman has suggested treating MTA yards as a portfolio of development opportunities, with air-rights proceeds shared with the transit agency, as occurred on the West Side. Environmental review, community boards, and railroad requirements would apply. His record in Nassau—opposition to state housing mandates and emphasis on limited local production—adds tension when contemplating dense platforms in the city.
The gap between the existing tracks and a platform is visible and difficult to close. Blakeman’s interest remains, for now, more an illustration of the physical ambition he says New York has lacked than a fully specified proposal. For an employer of Amazon’s scale, the decisive questions would still concern permits, power, and access to a skilled workforce.
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