Now, a corner of the borough is trying to find a new way to compete, vertically: giant, glowing signs visible across the East River.
In response to a push from the airline JetBlue, which opened a new headquarters in Long Island City this month, proposed zoning changes are moving forward to allow the company and its neighbors to shout their identities from huge rooftop signs that could be seen from Manhattan.
On Tuesday, a City Council subcommittee unanimously approved the changes to permit such signs on nonresidential buildings along 14 block fronts between 23rd Street and the Sunnyside railroad yards.
It is one of the last steps in the approval process that the airline embarked on more than a year ago and that has been slowed by red tape and community opposition. The full Council is expected to vote on Monday to approve the amendments, which will pave the way for the four-and-a-half-story-high sign, and perhaps others.
The proposed JetBlue sign, seven steel-and-acrylic LED-lighted letters, the tallest of which is 25 feet, would be blue during the day and glow white at night, according to information provided by the airline. It would be mounted on the top of the airline’s headquarters in the Brewster Building, at 27-01 Queens Plaza North, in a manner that imitates the iconic Silvercup Studios sign in Long Island City and the waterfront Pepsi-Cola sign. The Queens-based airline began flying out of John F. Kennedy International Airport in 2000. Last April, after threatening to move its headquarters to Orlando, Fla., it consolidated several offices to set up a new 1,000-employee operation in a stately office building in the area known as Queensboro Plaza, receiving nearly $30 million dollars in city and state tax breaks and other incentives.
“I think it’s a way of expressing that we are here and we are proud to be here and be a part of the community,” Allison Steinberg, a spokeswoman for JetBlue, said.
A decade ago, a citywide change to the zoning rules restricted such signs in certain areas from rising above 40 feet from curb level. They have largely been welcomed, but with caveats. One local community board unanimously disapproved of the zoning change unless there is “community input and comment,” according to a letter sent to the City Planning Commission.
Nevertheless, the commission approved the amendment, with restrictions to limit eligibility to businesses that take up at least 20 percent of a given building’s floor space, or a minimum of 50,000 square feet, among other requirements.
“Without that, it’s possible theoretically for someone to rent a closet and say, ‘I’m paying rent here so I can put a sign up,’ ” says Lucille Hartman, the district manager for Community Board 1, which suggested the restrictions.
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, a Democrat who represents the area, supported the change in the regulations to accommodate his district’s newest and perhaps flashiest resident. The sign, he said, was “a recognition of the significance of a world-class airline and a major, major, American company choosing Queens Plaza as its world headquarters.”
If the Council does open the door to the sign, as it is expected to do, Alan Suna will welcome it. The signs provide a visible marker of life to the revitalizing area, according to Mr. Suna, the chief executive of Silvercup Studios, a movie production house that has one of the existing signs.
“JetBlue, like us, is a Queens-grown business,” he said, “And they are just putting up their hand and saying, ‘Recognize us, we’re here and look how good we’ve done.’ ”
