by Brianna Crandall — April 3, 2013—The $3 billion redevelopment of the junkyard-peppered Willets Point area in Queens, along New York’s waterfront, has passed a key milestone with a go-ahead from the New York City Planning Commission that begins a public review process on whether to give the developers a special permit to allow surface parking and temporary community facilities on the site, according to a recent article in CRAIN’s New York Business.
According to a previous press release from the developers, a joint venture between Sterling Equities, Inc., and Related Companies called the Queens Development Group, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Group announced the development plans in June 2012 for transforming “long-blighted” Willets Point into a dynamic mixed-use neighborhood and destination. The community-driven vision, approved by the New York City Council in 2008, is reportedly the culmination of more than 50 years of development efforts and has been more than a decade in the making.
The Queens Development Group will acquire an initial 23 acres in the Special Willets Point District to the east of Citi Field to begin build-out of Phase 1 and will create a transit-oriented retail and entertainment attraction to the west of Citi Field. Ultimately, the plan will unlock over 5 million square feet of new development in a unified district linking Flushing and Corona, transforming a contaminated area into a new neighborhood.
The Willets Point Development will include retail, hotel and commercial uses to complement a residential community of 2,500 housing units, of which 875 units will be affordable. Various components of the plan include a 200-room hotel, over 200 retail stores of all sizes, movie theaters, restaurants, entertainment venues, a parking structure and surface parking for 2,500 cars, and grand public spaces with year-round programming.
An interim 20-acre surface parking area will be converted to public recreational space while the Mets are gone; anticipated recreational uses (to be developed through community input) include modular athletic fields and community open space, with amenities such as soccer fields, basketball courts, ice skating, and a multisport bubble.
The expanded vision will reportedly infuse $3 billion of private investment into the local economy and create 7,100 permanent jobs and 12,000 direct construction jobs with Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) and local hiring goals of 25 percent. During construction, the project is expected to generate over $310 million in new tax revenue, and once operational to account for over $150 million in new annual tax revenue.
More details are available on the developers’ new Willets Point Development Web site.
