Arlinda Dine, executive vice president of new developments with the Long Island City-based marketing and brokerage firm Modern Spaces.Modern Spaces
The rise of Long Island City is receiving global attention, but few know that its sales are largely secured by one particularly tenacious broker.
Arlinda Dine, executive vice president of new developments with the marketing and brokerage firm Modern Spaces, has worked on more than 30 projects in the western-Queens hotspot, totaling 13 million square feet and $5 billion in profits. Her company, meanwhile, has represented 80% of new development listings in the area.
Among the 35 additional projects in Dine’s pipeline is the Skyline Tower, a 67-story, 802-unit building going up across the street from the Citigroup Building at One Court Square, where Amazon is slated to plant its east-coast home-base, HQ2.
I caught up with Dine to ask about her path to success in LIC, along with her predictions on how the internet giant’s move will affect the New York City borough overall.
What was your initial reaction to the news about Amazon?
I was very excited. I thought that was like the greatest news Long Island City could have gotten. It’s just such a positive thing that’s happening.
Did you think something like this would happen in Long Island City?
I really did see that Long Island City was due for something big just because it’s been such an exciting neighborhood. There are so many things going on that something major was bound to happen here. Obviously with Amazon, it was a surprise because there were so many other big cities that were bidding on it. I knew New York City would be a contender but I was extra excited that it is happening in Long Island City.
How will HQ2 affect residential real estate in the area?
We’ve already seen increasing prices in this neighborhood in the condo market just since the announcement. We’ve seen a 500% increase in weekly traffic in apartments, it’s been really crazy … we’ve seen a major change. We already have a lot of projects coming in Long Island City so I feel like we’re already pretty equipped for this influx of people. We’re working with [Skyline Tower], that’s 800 units in a very well-amenitized, beautiful building that’s going to be ready for move-in in two years. I think certain projects will make different accommodations for tech-related residents, but Long Island City is already there with the amenities in the buildings that it’s offering.
And commercial?
We’re going to see a huge demand for new businesses here, probably, with the influx of people that are going to be working here and a lot of them will be living here. Long Island City is going to see a huge growth in commercial real estate and I think [Amazon] is going to help the small businesses that are already existing. There are a lot of new developments that are being built and a lot of them do already have commercial spaces in them. And then who knows what’ll happen in the next couple of years, maybe other projects will want to devote a little more square footage to commercial space to service all the new people that are coming.
Some fear LIC’s rising housing prices will spread into other Queens neighborhoods. Should everyone in the borough worry about their rents?
I think that the [greater Queens] rental market is probably going to take a couple of years to start increasing because most of the people that are coming to work at Amazon are not going to be living here for another two years. It’s inevitable that prices are going to go up a little bit and people are going to spread out into the other neighborhoods of Queens, but luckily there’s so many other neighborhoods that even if people have to move, I just don’t think it would be a negative thing. I think overall change is hard and a lot of people in general have a hard time with it but I’m confident people are going to see the benefits of Amazon’s arrival here.
If I may change topics, how did you get started in real estate?
It was kind of by accident. When I was in college I was an administrative assistant part-time in a real estate brokerage, 425 Fifth Ave. was my first project ever. I started from the bottom, but I’ve done all the administrative parts of the job, and then I started as an assistant project manager and then project manager, so I really worked my way up. I did get my real estate license a few years later, but when I was working as an administrative assistant i didn’t have a license. One of the things that I found is always good for success, when you do all of the jobs, right from the bottom, you’re able to train people better, you’re able to manage your employees better. I’ve found that’s something to attribute my success to.
What has your experience been like at your current company?
Modern Spaces, we’re responsible for 70% of the market-share and I’ve been with them since 2012. Eric Benaim co-founded it, but when I started with Modern Spaces it was really just three of us in the new development division and we had four projects, and we now have 40-plus projects. I’ve been an instrumental part in the company’s evolution. We have a really good team, we’ve expanded to 10 people just on the employee side, with over 100 agents. We’re looking to expand more just with this Amazon news breaking. It’s a really nice working environment, we’re really proud of it.
The new development sector of real estate has been historically male-dominated, are you seeing more women in top positions in the industry?
Our team here is, on the new development side, pretty much all women. And what I’ve noticed, and I was saying this in the office the other day, is even on the development side, I’ve noticed a big shift. We actually have quite a few women on the development side that are working on these projects, and they have big positions, and that really makes me very excited.
What unique contributions do they bring to the field?
Personally, I think women are a lot more creative, I’m being very up-front about that. Women are very hard-working and dedicated, and I guess people have finally noticed that. And I personally really enjoy working with women.