The neighborhood has seen a swift rise in new building that began with a single high-rise office tower, opened in 1990 and belonging to Citigroup. If the name Long Island City once seemed aspirational, in recent years it has been more descriptive: Apartment towers now dot the skyline, crowding around the elevated No. 7 subway train.

There have been 41 new apartment buildings built there since 2010, according to an analysis by the city. Last year, more new apartments were built in Long Island City than in any other neighborhood in New York. The reasons, in large measure, are its proximity to Manhattan, its relatively low cost and the views.

“You can almost reach out from Hunters Point Park and feel like you’re going to touch 34th Street in Manhattan,” the local councilman, Jimmy Van Bramer, said of the proximity to Midtown Manhattan. There is also a collection of amenities tailor-made for technology employees: the MoMA PS1 contemporary art center, several breweries and a place where you can learn trapeze.

The northern part of the neighborhood is also home to the Queensbridge Houses, the largest public housing project in the country.

The proposed locations of any Amazon buildings within the neighborhood were not clear.

A person briefed on the discussions said city officials took Amazon executives looking for a new headquarters, known as HQ2, around the area three times, in April, July and September. In one instance, the person said, they toured on Citi Bikes, the local bike-share program; in another, they took a sunset ride on one of the city’s new fast ferries.