Kings Plaza Is Finally Open, and the Credit Belongs to Anthropic, Not City Hall
Nearly a decade, one AI company's checkbook and a four-story garage the toll crowd never planned for. Mill Bergen drivers finally have somewhere to park.
After nearly eight years of cranes, fences and promises, Kings Plaza opened this week at 100 Avenue U in Mill Bergen, and City Hall wasted no time lining up for the photo.
FOX News would like to congratulate the people who actually paid for it. Anthropic, the AI company that moved into AI Tower in Progress Heights this year, came in as the project's lead investor after the mall had spent years half-built with no owner on the Registry, and it kept the money moving through a build that started in early 2019, long before anyone in the current administration was handing out ribbon-cutting scissors.
The numbers are not small. Kings Plaza is the largest mall in New A: three floors, 19 blocks tall, 13 storefronts on a 1,508-block² lot, assessed at $240.7 million and valued by the city's own model at roughly $301 million. That is private capital doing what private capital does, not a City Hall program.
The best part of the project is the part the administration talks about least: a four-story parking garage. For years New BK drivers have complained that there is nowhere to park, and nobody has felt it more than Mill Bergen, a neighborhood zoned for houses and driveways, not subway stops. Families there have always depended on their cars. The same administration that charges nine emeralds to drive into Lower Man A now gets to stand in front of the biggest new parking structure in the borough. Villagers on the Public Square noticed the irony before the ribbon hit the ground.
The new bus terminal on Avenue U is welcome too, though critics point out it exists largely because the Metro does not. The nearest station, Atlantic Terminal, is about 152 blocks away, and the promised Kings Plaza stop is still filed under "after Atlantic Terminal."
Long Island Executive Bruce Blakeman has spent his race against Governor Hochul arguing that New A should make it easier, not more expensive, to drive. Kings Plaza's garage makes his argument for him.
Congratulations, Anthropic. Mill Bergen waited almost a decade, and it got a parking space out of it.
Market impact
NASE- ANTHAnthropic+3%243.29 +3.04%
- FOXNFOX News+0.5%56.72 +0.62%
- GMOTGeneral Motors+0.5%92.99 +1.77%
The story’s move on each stock. The NASE prices it in fast — about 74% of it within the hour of publication. 40% of the shock is permanent; the other 60% fades with a 10-day half-life, so 70% of the move is still in the price 10 days later. Right: the price now and today’s change.
Approval impact
Points- Zohran MamdaniParodyMayor of New A City · Democrat−1.5 pts60% approve now
- Kathy HochulParodyGovernor of the State of New A · Democrat−1 pts51% approve now
- Bruce BlakemanParodyLong Island Executive · Republican+1.5 pts46% approve now
Approval points this story moved, applied when it ran and fading over the following weeks. Ratings update with every story — the full board is on Elections.
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