TF Cornerstone exec: How I got over Amazon dumping LIC

"The patient was sick, and then he was dead"

Developer TF Cornerstone was to play a major role in the Amazon HQ2 project that died on this day a year ago. The Valentine’s Day dumping broke the hearts of many Long Island City businesses and property owners. But Tom Elghanayan, TF Cornerstone’s chairman, isn’t showing any scars.

“We never expected Amazon,” he said in an interview with The Real Deal at the Real Estate Board of New York’s annual gala last month. “And as abruptly as they came, they left abruptly too … The patient was sick, and then he was dead.”

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But there is a second reason Elghanayan has been able to move on: The saga had a silver lining for Long Island City. Click on the video above to hear the New York City real estate veteran explain.

Video by Caroline Mariko Stuckey. Interview by E.B. Solomont.

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