The Brewster Building is a 400,000-square-foot (37,000 m2) building at 27-01 Queens Plaza North in Long Island City, New York that was once an assembly plant for Rolls Royce cars and Brewster cars and Brewster Buffalo airplanes and is now the corporate headquarters for JetBlue.
The building designed by Stephenson & Wheeler[1] opened in 1911 to handle the assembly of the chassis for the Brewster cars were being built since 1905 at 47th and Broadway in Times Square in New York City. In 1915 it began building the Brewster Knight. In 1925 the company was bought by Rolls-Royce of America which had been operating out of a plant in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1931 the Rolls Royce Springfield operation ended From 1931 to 1934 Rolls-Royce Phantom II chasis were shipped directly to the Long Island City plant when Rolls Royce terminated its United States assembly program.[2] Cole Porter in his song You're the Top mentioned the Brewster cars.[3]
From 1934 to 1936 under J. S. Inskip Brewster automobiles using Ford chassis were built at the plant. The Brewster operation ceased in 1936.[4]
The Brewster Aeronautical Corporation manufactured the Brewster F2A Buffalo during World War II at the plant
The building fell into disrepair following the war and its landmark clock tower was dismantled in 1950. A series of garment manufacturers occupied the building until 2003.[5]
In 2003 Brause Realty extensively remodeled the building and an adjoining 12-story tower and it became an operational center for Metropolitan Life Insurance with 1,500 employees.[6]
In 2010 JetBlue announced it combine its existing large Forest Hills, New York and 70-person Darien, Connecticut office staffs in the building bringing 1,000 employees to it. JetBlue is the only major airline headquartered in New York City.[7]
JetBlue in looking for a new corporate headquarters had also considered Orlando, Florida. As part of taking on the moniker of being the hometown airline of New York City, JetBlue announced it would be joint branding the I Love New York logo.[7]