Ground was broke for Willets Point Development Project. I had no clue. Did you?

NYC EDC

This seems to have been done pretty quietly again. I didn't hear anything about this on the news or in any of the bigger newspapers. Unless I totally missed it. Metspolice.com and myself have been trying to keep up with this and my news alerts didn't go off. I had to search for this. I also know a lot of you keep tweeting at Steve Cohen to develop across 126th street. Hate to break it to you but the development rights didn't transfer over to him from the Wilpons with the sale of the team. Sterling Equities are still part of the development partners.

 From AMNY

The city on Wednesday, June 16, officially broke ground on the environmental cleanup needed for the Willets Point redevelopment in Queens, where developers will eventually build 1,100 below-market-rate housing units and a school atop old industrial land next to Citi Field.

“For 1,100 families there’s going to be a home — 1,100 families are going to have a home here in Queens that they can depend on,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at the ground-breaking ceremony. “It means a family that for decades know a place to lay their head, a place to bring up their children, they’ll have peace, they’ll have security.”

 

“I’ve been looking out at this acreage for many many years, only hoping that there’d be a day like this that we could all celebrate the true start of this project,” said Sterling Equities partner Richard Browne.

Construction on the residential buildings and the schools won’t start until 2024, as the developers will have to first clean up the toxic soil from decades of pollution from the auto body shops that dominate the corner of land at the mouth of the Flushing Creek, starting this summer. 

Construction workers will then build new streets, sidewalks and utilities, such as a sewage system, which is slated to happen in 2022. EDC spokeswoman Shavone Williams declined to provide the cost of the project.

Under the agreement with EDC, out of the 1,100 homes, 220 of the units will be earmarked for seniors and another 99 will be for families who were formerly homeless transitioning out of the shelter system.

The remaining 781 units will be set aside for six different income groups ranging from 30-130% of the federally-designated Area Median Income (AMI), the Astoria Post reported. About 55% of units, including those for seniors, will be for those making less than 60 percent of the AMI, which in 2021 reflects a family of three making $64,440 a year.

Read more here. 

So there will be affordable housing units available but it will only 319 out of the 1100 units. I hope it works out for people who need fairer priced housing. 

Also phase one isn't even directly across from Citi Field. It is more off of Roosevelt Ave than it is 126th street. What's going on with the other lots?

 I noticed Sterling Equities didn't have a Wilpon quoted in this but a partner Richard Browne who said he kept looking out at the acreage for years. Does that mean he had an office in Citi Field?