Shop owner proposes L.I.C. artisan district

[Erik Sine]

Shop owner proposes L.I.C. artisan district

by Paul Leonard, Assistant Editor

QUEENS CHRONICLE

10/09/2008

Krypton Neon owner Kenny Greenberg at his

L.I.C. shop. (photo by Michael O’Kane)

It seems like a losing battle.

With national chain stores now stringing Bedford Avenue’s once-thriving mom-and-pop shopping corridor in Brooklyn, many in Long Island City wonder if their neighborhood’s historically light-industrial area is next.

“Nobody knows exactly what’s going to happen — but this corner in all likelihood will become a Starbucks or a Gap,” said Matthew Reich, chief operating officer at Tom Cat Bakery on 10th Street and 43rd Avenue. The firm makes and delivers bread products to upscale restaurants in the city.

But Kenny Greenberg, owner of L.I.C. lighting store Krypton Neon, is trying to change the course of the neighborhood’s development, breaking a pattern of arts and trade districts like Williamsburg and Soho turning into high-priced residential enclaves.

In a letter last week to the Daily News, Greenberg outlined a proposal to turn a portion of the neighborhood into an artisanal district, banding together thousands of tradespeople to hold the line on city zoning, and to give room for small businesses like Krypton Neon and Tom Cat Bakery to expand.

The implications for the borough’s economy could not be greater. Tom Cat Bakery, which has been in the neighborhood for 21 years, employs around 300 workers — most of whom live in the city.

And Reich is almost certain that the business will have to move once the eight years left on its lease is up. “We are going to have to look to places outside the city, like New Jersey,” Reich said.

Greenberg sees a future artisanal district as a cultural, commercial and environmental destination, with the neighborhood’s light-industrial past carried on into the future.

But Reich, one of the potential beneficiaries of the artisanal district plan, isn’t sold on the idea just yet. “If the land is worth millions of dollars, then maybe they should develop it,” he said. “That might be what’s best for the whole city’s economy.”