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The planned rail link from Jamaica to Kennedy Airport has Carlisle Towery envisioning lots of possibilities.
About 7,000 people a day will pass through Jamaica Station to the E, J and Z subway lines or the Long Island Rail Road when the AirTrain arrives in 2003, according to Port Authority projections.
But Towery, executive director of the Greater Jamaica Development Corp., and other community leaders don't want them just passing through.
He wants them to spend a night or two-in a new 10-story, 250-bed hotel, with conference space and a restaurant, atop the station's AirTrain terminal.
He wants them to head across the street to two new high-rise buildings offering 500,000 square feet of office space. Or across another street to a six-story parking garage that would hold 1,200 vehicles.
"We want to make Jamaica a destination place," Towery said recently, "where it is easy to get to, and stay here and work here and sleep here, or go to a conference here, or whatever. If it's just a transfer, and there's no spin-off then it's-fine, it will work for the region and the guy from Hauppauge will have a better trip, right through Jamaica on the way to the airport. But it won't benefit this community."
Overcoming hurdles for such an ambitious project isn't stopping Greater Jamaica from actively touting the idea to developers and hotel operators, to local business and civic leaders and at community meetings.
Most leaders agree the AirTrain should spur economic development in Jamaica, with meaningful jobs...