Looking at the real estate market in Long Island City right now, you’d never know the Queens neighborhood is just a few months post breakup with one of the most valuable tech companies in the world.

Back in November of last year, after a 14-month long courtship, the e-commerce giant Amazon had declared its love for Long Island City. The company named it as the location of its second headquarters, known as HQ2, a distinction it also bestowed upon Crystal City, Va. Amazon execs and New York politicians thought that bringing 25,000 high-paying jobs and billions of dollars in capital expenditure to the outer borough locale would make the proposed union a sure thing. But local residents, politicians, and activists fiercely protested the match, especially the $3 billion in tax incentives the city and state had agreed to give the e-commerce giant.

A few months and several disagreements later — on Valentine’s Day, no less — Amazon ended its engagement with the 170,000-person neighborhood and said it would not open its HQ2 in Long Island City after all. Supporters of the HQ2 deal, such as New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo, were distraught. Cuomo blamed politicians for causing “tremendous damage” and causing “lost economic opportunity.” Others worried about the speculative real estate bets placed after the original HQ2 announcement.

But a survey of real estate data, both commercial and residential, shows that Long Island City is enjoying a growth spell that predated its dalliance with Amazon, one that shows no signs of dissipating.

Long Island City leased more commercial property space in the first half of 2019 than it has in any year since major commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield started recording data on the relatively small New York business district in 2015. More than half of that space was leased in the second quarter — after Amazon pulled out. The space has been leased by existing businesses and newcomers alike.

In addition, Queens had its lowest unemployment rate on record in April — 3.2 percent — and this rate has been historically low for the last few years (the New York Labor Department doesn’t track neighborhood data).

A lot of demand for commercial space is coming from the life sciences sector, according to Elizabeth Lusskin, president of Long Island City Partnership, the area’s business development organization.

“In addition to all the demand already here, this sector is creating new demand and new energy,” she told Recode.