Iron Triangle in Queens to Be Redeveloped

[Kris]

March 4, 2004

A Messy Business: Cleaning Up the Junk

By COREY KILGANNON

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/03/04/nyregion/JUNK.184.1.650.jpg
Hubcap purveyors are among the business owners on and around Willets Point Boulevard who complain of getting little in return for their tax dollars.

The Iron Triangle, a 13-block area between Shea Stadium and the Flushing River in Queens, is the largest single stretch of junkyards in New York City, with more than 100 auto salvage yards, repair garages and automotive shops. Wedged amid bustling commercial areas in Corona and Flushing, the triangle is an auto salvage theme park.

Here, business bustles against a backdrop of stacked, crumpled cars and a slum landscape. The streets are unpaved and lined with tire-change joints, hubcap purveyors, muffler shops, windshield installers and rim retailers. There are brake and transmission specialists, and auto body garages. The area goes back many decades, since parts purveyors first set up on these ash heaps that Fitzgerald mentioned in "The Great Gatsby."

But the Iron Triangle's days may soon be over. Under a plan to revitalize parts of downtown Flushing, the city plans to condemn the Iron Triangle and shut its junkyards. The land, bounded by 126th Street, Willets Point Boulevard and Northern Boulevard, would be bought for a fixed price under eminent domain laws.

One study projected it would cost an estimated $214 million to buy the land and clean up decades of leaked gas, oil and other contaminants. Yet the city has no specific plans for the cleaned site yet. Officials at the city's Economic Development Corporation say they have begun soliciting ideas from local groups. Informal suggestions for the area include parkland, a convention or cultural center, a retail-entertainment or office building complex, a new stadium for the Mets or the Jets, or an Olympic village if the city is selected as the host of the 2012 Games.

Politicians are on board and the plan has the widespread support of many business and community groups.

But like many business owners in the Iron Triangle, Danny Sambucci Jr., 46, of Sambucci Brothers Auto Salvage, complains that no politician, city official or civic leader has called or visited to brief them on what is going on.

"You got thousands of people here making a living and landowners who have paid taxes for decades, and we have to hear second-hand that we're going to have our land seized?" said Mr. Sambucci, whose father, Danny Sambucci Sr., 73, opened the business in 1951.

Mr. Sambucci strips cars for parts and sells what is left to scrap metal dealers for $2 for every 100 pounds, or about $70 per stripped car. The parts can be lucrative. A BMW transmission can bring $1,500, he said, and a Mercedes engine can sell for $2,700. A Nissan Maxima engine can go for $250. The engines are cleaned in a special washing machine that filters out the toxic runoff.

"People think its 'Sanford and Son' down here, but it's serious business," said Mr. Sambucci's cousin Sammy Sambucci, 34.

Danny Sambucci Jr. said that he pays $72,000 in property taxes each year on his 2.5 acres of land but gets little back in services. The city has let the area deteriorate, he said, by not paving the streets and failing to install or offer sewers, sidewalks, signage, street lights or proper garbage pickup.

"They never wanted us here, so they ignored us, to make it make it look like a jungle, like a blight," he said. "I can't relocate this business. Where am I going to go? Is there another community in Queens that will welcome us?"

The area is as thriving a business community as the garment or meatpacking districts in Manhattan or the Hunts Point market in the Bronx, he said. But city officials say the triangle has long been an eyesore and a waste of valuable property close to subway and bus lines, major highways and both La Guardia and Kennedy International Airports. The triangle is a lapse in proper civic planning, they say, and its demise is long overdue. They say the Flushing redevelopment plan will expand retail, office and residential space, improve transportation and recreation spaces and revitalize the Flushing Bay and Flushing River waterfront.

In a letter last month to the Empire State Development Corporation, the Queens borough president, Helen M. Marshall, wrote that the plan could "transform a vastly underutilized tract of land into a thriving commercial center."

Almost as long as the Iron Triangle has existed, business owners have heard rumblings about development. In the 1960's, business owners hired the young Queens lawyer Mario M. Cuomo, who successfully stopped Robert Moses from redeveloping the land. But there seems to be no such unity this time, and longtime politicians say the project has political and economic momentum.

Hiram Monserrate, the city councilman representing the area, said he recognizes the need to clear out the Iron Triangle.

"Clearly there is a better usage for that land, that would benefit the residents," he said. "No one would want to build anything that is going to overlook those junkyards."

But he also cautioned, "The city needs to be conscientious that workers will be displaced and that relocation is necessary."

City officials, including Mr. Monserrate and Councilman John C. Liu, say many Iron Triangle businesses have long been operating illegally and constantly violate city regulations. Business owners counter that this is an exaggeration and that many violations come from hard conditions the city imposes by neglecting the area.

Officials at the Economic Development Corporation say they want to help Iron Triangle companies find ways to stay in business. "We will be working with businesses there to identify relocation options," said Janel Patterson, a spokeswoman for the corporation.

In the Iron Triangle, everything is on display: chrome bumpers, rusted-out car chassis, tires, mirrors, windshields. Planes to La Guardia fly low overhead and collated car hoods cut jagged profiles against the sky. There is hot food at the small delis squeezed among the auto shops, and back behind the auto shops is a spice warehouse and a waste transfer station.

In the streets, there are junkyard dogs, and workers jousting for customers by aggressively flagging down cars. Mechanics in greasy jumpsuits enjoy lunchtime soccer games around crumpled cars and crater-size potholes.

The tremendous ethnic diversity in Queens is reflected in the names here: Zura's 1000's of Auto Parts, the Stubborn Tire Shop and 14 Stars Auto Glass. There is the Mexecu auto repair shop and El Salvador Auto Glass. New Pancho Auto Glass sits next door to New Pamir Auto Body. Nearby is Ebukune Transmissions and New Brother Auto Body.

High-end Korean auto body shops fix sports cars for well-to-do businessmen from Flushing. Young, hip Japanese men flock to certain Japanese shops to soup up their low-riding sports cars. Hindi- and Arab-speaking livery cabdrivers bring their black Town Cars to garages with Afghan, Middle Eastern or South Indian owners. A Spanish-speaking customer looking for window tinting might go Colombia Auto Glass, owned by Hector Ospina, 45, a Colombian immigrant from Woodside.

"For Spanish people from poor cities, this does not look so strange," he said recently, looking over Willets Point Boulevard. "The city does not care about this, but I'm worried because I have to support a lot of people."

Nearby at Aryana Auto Body, Salman Ali, 30, an auto body repairman, leaned on a Mitsubishi Galant with a bashed-in quarter panel.

"The only time the city comes down here is to ticket us; they take our taxes and don't fix anything," said Mr. Ali, an Afghan immigrant who supports his family in Flushing. "Now they say they're going to move us out? Where will they put us? We have no place to go. We're poor people. We're not rich."

At Sambucci Brothers, there are hundreds of totaled cars that are stacked, waiting to be stripped.

"I came down here as a barefoot kid collecting junk in a wagon," Danny Sambucci Sr. said.

He hoped his son Danny Jr. would become a doctor, but now Danny Jr. owns the business and plans on passing it to his son, also named Danny, who is 16.

"They took Manhattan from the Indians,'' Danny Sambucci Sr. said. "Now they want to take this from us."

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/packages/images/nyregion/20040228_JUNK_AUDIOSS/met_JUNK_promo_184a.jpg (http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2004/02/28/nyregion/20040228_JUNK_AUDIOSS.html)

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[billyblancoNYC]

It is a mess, the streets and all, but that is pretty much the city's fault.

I would love some great development there, but these businesses are actually pretty impressive in their own way. You can go down there and get almost anything for any car in that place.

I park my car at Sambucci for Mets games... close and free.

Maybe they could move all the shops en masse to some vacant industrial area to keep the "car bazaar" feel and functionality of it.

[Agglomeration]

I went there once when my friend wanted hubcaps for his car. It was maddening to have to chat with some Mexican who spoke no English! Eventually we got the hubcaps for $40, then he sold it a month later due to a stalling engine.

That place is a junkyard, literally, and I'm glad they're planning to tear that area down.

[Kris]

Photos:

http://www.satanslaundromat.com/sl/archives/000370.html
http://www.satanslaundromat.com/sl/archives/000371.html
http://www.satanslaundromat.com/sl/archives/000372.html
http://www.satanslaundromat.com/sl/archives/000373.html
http://www.satanslaundromat.com/sl/archives/000374.html
http://www.satanslaundromat.com/sl/archives/000375.html

[pianoman11686]

Ah, nothing like reviving an old thread:

PLAYING TOXIC GAMES

By SAM SMITH and ANGELA MONTEFINISE

June 19, 2005 -- The Willets Point section of Queens, awaiting a makeover through Mayor Bloomberg's new Olympics plan and local renovation efforts, is a "hell hole" of environmental problems that will cost millions to clean, an expert says.

According to government documents compiled for The Post by Toxic Targeting, an environmental-database firm that tracks more than 100,000 toxic sites in the city, the new home of Bloomberg's Olympic dreams has thousands of gallons of chemicals underground.

"This is going to require a massive cleanup," said Walter Hang, president of Toxic Targeting. "It's a hell hole. You'd be looking at removing literally millions of tons of contaminated soil."

According to the city Economic Development Corp., cleaning Willets Point will cost taxpayers $12.5 million. The city also expects to spend $39 million building roads and utility lines, $40 million building pilings and other "soil reinforcements," and $38 million on land acquisition and relocation of businesses.

The chemical soup there includes 40,000 gallons of waste oil, gas and antifreeze spilled in 2001 and not yet fully cleaned.

There are about 30 spills, some from leaky underground oil and gas tanks, that together account for thousands of gallons of gas and oil over the past dozen years and which do not meet state cleanup standards.

There are another 20 whose cleanup status is unknown.

While many spills and leaks released unknown quantities of pollutants, more than 80,000 gallons of chemicals have been dumped — accidentally and deliberately — into the ground in and around Willets Point over the past 20 years.

"There are definitely environmental issues there," said City Councilman Hiram Monserrate, whose district includes Willets Point. "If appropriate development is a catalyst for a cleanup, then that is a good thing."

With the collapse of his West Side stadium hopes, Bloomberg announced last week plans to help build a new Mets stadium, which would serve as the centerpiece of the Olympics should the city win the Games.

The new stadium would be built adjacent to Shea Stadium, and a media center and other Olympics facilities would be built at Willets Point, the so-called "iron triangle" that can be seen across the outfield parking lot.

Private developers have also drawn up 14 different development plans for the area, which include retail and housing.

Copyright 2005 The New York Post

[Ninjahedge]

Maybe we should start drilling there....


Or is is a Citi-Life Preserve......

[krulltime]

Developers flock to new Olympic site
Big names eye Willets Point; city plan for stadium would spur overhaul


By Anne Michaud
Published on June 20, 2005

Last week's 11th-hour plan to save the city's Olympics bid by building a new baseball stadium in Queens is transforming an obscure outer-borough neighborhood recovery project in Willets Point into a top development priority.

The city has received 13 proposals to redevelop the area, along the Flushing Bay waterfront. The applicants include prominent Brooklyn developer Forest City Ratner, the Queens Chamber of Commerce, Taiwan native Michael Lee--whose F&T International Group has offices in Flushing, Queens, and Shanghai--and Queens developer Jason Muss. Mall of America officials were scouting the Willets Point site but declined to make an offer, sources say.

The decision to build a new Mets Stadium, which would serve as New York's Olympic Stadium, has energized the effort to clean up Willets Point, known largely for its 48-acre junk-car haven nicknamed the "Iron Triangle."

The Economic Development Corp., which last fall requested expressions of interest, was scheduled this week to unveil at least 10 proposals that had made the first cut. But EDC pulled back from a public announcement in the glare of publicity focused on the project by City Hall's June 12 announcement that Shea Stadium was the new choice for the city's 2012 Summer Olympics bid. Willets Point would be the site of an international broadcast center if the Olympics come to New York in 2012.

The EDC instead has asked all applicants for silence about their proposals and assurances that they could incorporate Olympic needs into their plans.

For 40 years, community leaders have talked about cleaning up the area. Many envision creating a vibrant neighborhood like Baltimore's Inner Harbor, which was a slum of rotting piers and flophouses before it was redeveloped as a tourist hot-spot just a short walk from the Baltimore Orioles' baseball field.


Perfect confluence

"This unanticipated, but near-perfect confluence of events may make this happen after decades of wishful thinking," says Flushing City Councilman John Liu, who has seen the applications to EDC.

EDC officials, now interviewing applicants privately, hope to choose one or two developers to help them create a master plan, says a spokeswoman. The original timeline was to name a development partner by early 2006, but the spokeswoman says, "If anything, our decision process has been accelerated."


Desolate divider

Willets Point is a desolate 13-block peninsula dividing resurgent downtown Flushing from the area where Shea Stadium is located. The gritty Iron Triangle lacks sewers and roads, and prevents people from venturing to the waterfront along Flushing Bay.

"It's a psychological barrier," right in the heart of Queens, says William Egan, executive vice president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce.

But hurdles loom. Neighbors are raising concerns about traffic, and Flushing businesses are worried that a retail complex at Willets Point would compete with them.

Still, the Mets stadium plan appears to be winning political kudos across the city and even in Albany, where the two legislative leaders who killed the West Side football stadium have already given the Queens team their blessing. Plans for a new Yankee Stadium in the Bronx are being embraced as well. Part of it is loyalty, says Rep. Jose Serrano, who represents the Bronx.

"No one really, for the most part, is against getting new stadiums for these institutions of New York," he says of the Mets and Yankees. "No one could relate to the extravaganza on the West Side."


COPYRIGHT 2005 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC.

[pianoman11686]

Excellent news. I would love to see someone like Ratner come in and literally build a neighborhood from the ground up. Hearing about Mall of America was a bit of a turnoff. Too much traffic on weekends, too many parking spaces taking up good real estate. A good mixed use community is the way to go. Let's all keep our fingers crossed for a visionary master plan.

[mkeit]

But there is always a need for junkyards and used car parts. Willets Point is a lot more convinient than Bushwick.

Has Victoria Gotti commented on the planned reconstruction of the area? Her former husband-Agnello-was a major player in the area.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Gotham Gazette - http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/landuse/20060410/12/1815

Willets Point: A Defense

by Tom Angotti
10 Apr 2006

Here come the marshals again! After evicting 23 businesses in the Bronx Terminal Market to make way for a development deal with the Related Company, City Hall now wants to get rid of ten times that number in a Queens district. The city plans to use its power of eminent domain to foster what it calls economic development in the area around Willets Point. But it could instead mean economic disaster to the long-established business community that would be broken up and scattered. And while it proposes a multi-billion dollar project that would make Willets Point a “regional destination,” possibly with a hotel, convention center and retail space, the city’s planners appear to have little appreciation for businesses that already draw customers from all over the region.

Willets Point is a small triangle of land (often called “The Iron Triangle”) that sits near Corona and Flushing in the shadows of Shea Stadium. Indeed, the New York City Economic Development Corporation’s intense interest in Willets Point coincides with the announcement of the city’s latest stadium deal with the Mets.
225 Businesses (Not 80)

While the Economic Development Corporation claims there are 80 businesses in this 48-acre area, a recent survey I conducted through the Hunter College Center for Community Planning & Development instead found 225 businesses that provide an estimated 1,300 jobs. The business survey was part of a land use study, including maps prepared by the CUNY Mapping Service, commissioned by Council Member Hiram Monseratte, who has questioned the city’s plans to relocate area businesses from his district.

What accounts for the huge statistical oversight by the Economic Development Corporation? Were the small auto repair outfits run by recent Latino immigrants invisible to the agency’s planners? Perhaps we counted the ones they missed because our survey was conducted in both English and Spanish. Perhaps the fact that most businesses are renters and not owners, and many share precious high-rent building space, has made them invisible to city officials. At a time when elected officials are acknowledging the important role of immigrant labor in the city’s economy, it would appear that the city bureaucracy has failed to open its eyes to a thriving business district that serves as an entry point for immigrant workers and entrepreneurs.

While the largest number of businesses are involved in auto repair, there are also several large parts and salvage operations. The largest employer in Willets Point, however, is The House of Spices (India), Inc. According to Girdhar Assar of The House of Spices, they employ 100 full-time people and are “the largest distributor of Indian foods in the United States.” A significant portion of land is used for waste transfer and building materials storage. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority also has a large strip of land used for rail yards and parking.
The Image of Blight

Over the years, public officials who have coveted the area’s excellent location at a nexus of highway and train lines have played along with a negative public image of Willets Point as a junkyard, dangerous, and foreboding. The city government has helped foster this image by failing to put in sewers, pave public streets, and fix sidewalks. In other words, city officials helped create a condition of “urban blight” that they then propose to fix by evicting the existing businesses.

One Saturday last fall, along with a class of Hunter College students, I walked every block of Willets Point with Joe Ardezzone, a member of the Willets Point Business Association and life-long resident of the area (in fact, the only resident). We saw a thriving though sometimes chaotic and noisy business district. On Willets Point Avenue, a driver would stop and ask one of the workers where to get a new carburetor and a windshield. The curbside broker would direct him to one of the many specialized businesses. A wide variety of parts dealers and salvage yards were there to meet every need of people who came from as far as northern Bronx and eastern Long Island. Ardezzone complained that “people don’t realize there are hard-working people here just trying to make a living.”

What we saw on the ground was the kind of bustling business district that economic development experts across the country keep trying to re-create in giant development schemes, often with little success. The many specialized auto repair shops in Willets Point both compete and cooperate with one another, and the links between them make for a cooperative business community offering a wide array of services.
An Opportunity For Clean-Up

By focusing on Willets Point, city officials have an opportunity to help strengthen this network instead of destroying it. At the same time they could confront head on some of the city’s biggest environmental headaches. When auto repair facilities are concentrated, as they are in Willets Point, then City Hall has an opportunity to apply its pollution prevention programs and deal with the critical issues of waste and emissions. If these activities are dispersed, mechanics are less likely to use cleaner and more efficient technologies. More mechanics would end up working on residential blocks and dumping crank case oil down the city’s storm drains, and it will be more difficult to regulate these businesses.

As for the waste transfer stations that occupy a big chunk of land in Willets Point, there are precious few alternative locations for them in Queens. By paving the streets and enforcing environmental regulations in Willets Point, city officials could help make these waste facilities a model of sustainable management. The dust and debris that workers and business owners have to deal with would diminish. And since Willets Point is right in the flight path for LaGuardia Airport, something needs to be done about the deafening roar of planes no matter what happens to the area!
Rich In Potential

The economic potential of Willets Point businesses can be linked to the growing recycling industry as well as auto repair. The proponents of redevelopment who are quick to call the Iron Triangle a big junkyard might have missed the recent front page article in The Wall Street Journal (March 21, 2006) that hails auto scrap yards as a big source of “healthy profits.”

Contrary to the impression that The Iron Triangle is worthless, the total assessed value of property comes to some $181 million. Property values and the number of jobs per square foot are roughly comparable to those in other areas zoned for heavy industry in the city, and so are tax revenues.

Even after planning for an improved auto repair and recycling district, it would still be possible to allow for some limited redevelopment for new industrial, commercial and recreational facilities. But this should be determined through open and transparent public planning, not a developer-driven process.
Developer-Driven Planning

Over the last three decades, Willets Point has been a favorite target for grandiose development plans, all of which failed when businesses refused to be displaced. When the city’s development czar Robert Moses wanted to get rid of the local businesses, the Willets Point businessmen hired a young attorney named Mario Cuomo and beat Moses. A 1991 rezoning plan also went nowhere.

In 2004, the city’s Economic Development Corporation issued a Request for Expressions of Interest to redevelop Willets Point, and recently selected several large companies to submit proposals. While development proposals may include only a portion of Willets Point rather than a blanket condemnation of the whole area, there are two problems with this piecemeal approach. First, it will pit property owners against each other, and can very well play into the hands of a small group of speculators that have started to move into the area. Secondly, it could pit the property owners against the large group of mostly Latino workers and business owners who rent (82 percent of the total) and who stand to lose everything. Even what might seem at first to be a generous relocation benefit could be worthless when it comes to finding comparable space in a city where low-cost industrially-zoned land is disappearing from sight.

If there were an open and transparent planning process incorporating all business owners and workers, and property owners and renters, the division of the territory in a redeveloped area might look quite different from the one that will be cooked up by the consultant firms hired by the big developers. The Economic Development Corporation appears to be open so long as they keep tight control over the process, but not open enough.
Spotlight On Shea Stadium

The proposed new Shea Stadium, which would go up in the huge parking lot bordering Willets Point, is likely to overshadow the Iron Triangle in more ways than one. Local community groups are likely to focus on Shea, which long has been a sore point for many of them, because -- like so many other urban stadiums -- it turns away from its neighbors in the interest of getting fans in and out as fast as possible. Since the new Shea will have more luxury boxes and fewer affordable seats, more fans are likely to drive in and out by car, never stopping for arroz con pollo in Corona or Kimchee in Flushing. And if City Hall has its way, fans won’t even be able to get a tire fixed in the neighborhood.
Tom Angotti is Professor of Urban Affairs and Planning at Hunter College, City University of NY, editor of Progressive Planning Magazine, and a member of the Task Force on Community-based Planning.

Gotham Gazette - http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/landuse/20060410/12/1815

[pianoman11686]

Home Is Where the Auto Parts Are

http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2006/09/17/nyregion/17willets.xlarge1.jpg
Joseph Ardizzone on Willets Point Boulevard in Queens. Mr. Ardizzone, Willets Point’s sole resident,
opposes a plan to raze the area to make way for an elaborate development.

By TERRY PRISTIN

Published: September 17, 2006

When Joseph Ardizzone makes the short drive to Flushing to cast his ballot at election time, he never has to wait his turn. “When I vote,” he says, “it’s the whole precinct voting.”

http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2006/09/17/nyregion/willets.large2.jpg
Many immigrants work at the 225 auto parts and repair businesses in Willets Point.

http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2006/09/17/nyregion/willetsg.jpg

Mr. Ardizzone, a wiry man who is still spry at 74, is the sole resident of Willets Point, an unsightly 75-acre enclave near Shea Stadium in northern Queens with a cluster of 225 auto parts and repair businesses, many of them operating out of tin or cinder-block sheds.

It is not hard to see why Mr. Ardizzone has no neighbors — unless you count Mario’s Auto Radio, Q. C. Iron Works and the homeless people who sleep in the junkyards.

The streets are pockmarked with holes big enough to store tires. Scarred chassis are stacked on top of one another or perched on mounds of garbage laced with spare parts. There are no sidewalks or sewers, and rainwater collects in deep puddles. In the summer, the stench from the Flushing Creek on the neighborhood’s eastern edge is so powerful that “it makes your eyes tear,” Mr. Ardizzone says.

For decades, political leaders have sought to rid the city of the place that Robert Moses, the master builder, described as an “eyesore and a disgrace to the borough of Queens.” According to the latest plan, the Bloomberg administration hopes to use eminent domain to transform Willets Point into a retailing-and-entertainment district with a hotel and convention center.

But what city officials see as a contaminated wasteland is the only home that Mr. Ardizzone has ever known. If the Bloomberg plan becomes a reality — which would likely take years — then Mr. Ardizzone’s home would be razed. It also dismays him that businesses that provide jobs for 1,200 people — according to the city’s count — would be displaced.

The Ardizzones were Willets Point pioneers, arriving a few years before the first junkyard. Joseph was born in 1932 in a squat brick house that his father built. Now the sign outside reads “1,000s Auto Parts.” Across a cluttered alley is a mustard-yellow and brown Tudor-style house with padlocked doors and windows and a sign saying “Express Deli and Grocery.” Mr. Ardizzone lives in five rooms on the top floor with a cat and her six kittens.

Today, Mr. Ardizzone is the only registered voter from Willets Point, according to John Ravitz, the executive director of the New York City Board of Elections. During a door-to-door survey of the neighborhood last fall, Tom Angotti, a Hunter College professor of urban planning, and his students counted 225 businesses, but he said they found no residents other than Mr. Ardizzone.

Not everyone in his family approves. “My sister — she lives in Florida — she says it’s disgusting,” he said. “She says, ‘How can you live with junkyards and junk cars?’ It don’t bother me. From when I was a kid, I’m used to them.”

But it does bother him that the city refuses to give Willets Point the services that other neighborhoods take for granted. “If they gave us the infrastructure,” he said, “it would be an entirely different place.”

A familiar figure in his old Mercury Marquis, Mr. Ardizzone has the run of most of the local businesses. When a fight breaks out among the mostly immigrant laborers, Mr. Ardizzone is happy to play mediator. When outsiders want to understand the neighborhood, which is flanked by the Grand Central Parkway and the Van Wyck Expressway and is only a few minutes from La Guardia Airport, he is the tour guide.

As he sees it, Willets Point provides a chance for people from other countries to apply the mechanical skills they learned at home. “Most of the people here are handicapped by not knowing the language, and not knowing how the system works,” he said. “But they have hands of gold.”

Mr. Ardizzone wanders freely among the bags of flour and vats of corn syrup at House of Fodera, a national distributor of baking ingredients that opened at Willets Point 33 years ago.

“He’s like the resident mayor,” said Anthony Fodera, an owner of the baking-goods distributor, one of several family-owned warehouse businesses in the neighborhood. “When we got here, he welcomed us and came in and met with us.”

Mr. Ardizzone, who owned a restaurant and a bar for two decades, now works as a security guard at a nursing home in Bayside. In his off hours, he is involved with the Willets Point Business Association’s efforts to prevent the neighborhood from being condemned as an urban renewal site.

The city Economic Development Corporation is now reviewing proposals submitted by developers in June, and a consultant is preparing an environmental impact statement, said Janel Patterson, a corporation spokeswoman.

The Bloomberg administration’s plan is only the latest in a series of proposals to threaten Willets Point. In the 1960’s, Mr. Moses tried to use park funds to clean up the site, but was beaten back by the business owners with the help of a young lawyer named Mario M. Cuomo.

In 1985, however, Mr. Cuomo, then the governor of New York, supported a plan to build a domed football stadium in Willets Point. The proposal died when no National Football League team would commit to playing there.

Other schemes for Willets Point — put forward by the Mets, the Queens borough president and Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani — also went nowhere.

After the West Side stadium proposal was defeated, Mayor Bloomberg talked about putting press and broadcast centers in Willets Point as part of the city’s last-minute plan to salvage its 2012 Olympic Games bid. But then London was chosen as the Olympics site.

To Mr. Ardizzone, taking property through eminent domain is simply wrong. “If you don’t have the right to own your own property, what rights do you have?” he said.

Willets Point seemed destined to thrive when Mr. Ardizzone’s father, who was in construction, decided to settle there in the 1930’s, along with family friends, who built the house next door. “They were supposed to become millionaires,” Mr. Ardizzone said.

Mr. Ardizzone and his brother, Anthony, of Flushing, have near-bucolic memories of their childhood home. Pheasants, rabbits and frogs were a common sight, and the family grew tomatoes and raised chickens and goats in the swampy backyard.

There were junkyards nearby, but “everybody kept everything clean and proper,” Anthony Ardizzone recalled.

Even then, Willets Point was an odd place in which to grow up. The brothers, who went to school in Flushing, played in an enormous ash pile at 38th Avenue and 126th Street, not far from their house. But it was made up of coal residue from a Con Edison plant that was used in roadbeds, not incinerated garbage like the one in nearby Flushing Meadows that was described in “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Mr. Ardizzone spent many years in the food business. He started with a coffee cart, then opened a coffee shop in the building where his family had lived. Later he added a bar, Joe’s Pit Stop, that catered to the area’s bricklayers, construction workers and other laborers.

Jack Bono, an owner of Bono Sawdust Supply Company, a third-generation business in Willets Point, said the bar drew customers from outside Willets Point. “Everybody used to go there after work, hang out, try to relax after work,” he said. “It was a nice place to be.”

But Mr. Ardizzone, who never married, eventually tired of the demanding schedule and leased out the restaurant space. The coffee shop became an auto parts store. The bar became a deli. Both spaces are vacant now.

Mr. Ardizzone said the city seemed determined to remake Willets Point, despite the failure of so many redevelopment proposals. “It seems they want this property in the worst way,” he said, “and only through condemnation.”

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

[JCMAN320]

http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2006/09/17/nyregion/willets.large2.jpg

GEEZZZ and people have the nerve to make fun of industrial parts of Jersey!! That looks worse than any place outside some factory in Jersey. I'm not a Mets fan so I've never been by there.

[Eugenious]

http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2006/09/17/nyregion/willets.large2.jpg

GEEZZZ and people have the nerve to make fun of industrial parts of Jersey!! That looks worse than any place outside some factory in Jersey. I'm not a Mets fan so I've never been by there.

It looks like some shanty town in africa

[NYguy]

http://www.amny.com/news/local/am-will0503,0,905794.story?coll=am-topheadlines

Mayor details Willets Point plan

By Karla Schuster
May 1, 2007

As the Mets' new stadium rises nearby, Mayor Michael Bloomberg Tuesday unveiled a proposed master plan for Willets Point that would transform the 60-acre swath of car repair shops and junkyards near Citi Field into a mixed-used development that officials envision becoming New York's version of the neighborhoods flanking Fenway Park in Boston or Camden Yards in Baltimore.

The single largest feature of the plan, outlined Tuesday at a news conference at the Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, is 1.7 million square feet of retail and entertainment space that would be built across the street from the new CitiField ballpark.

There would be few, if any, interior walkways and no big box stores -- a street-oriented design aimed at drawing fans before and after games, similar to Landsdowne Street outside Fenway Park or Baltimore's Inner Harbor neighborhood surrounding Camden Yards, according to officials from the city's Economic Development Corporation.

The plan also includes 5,500 units of mixed-income housing, some townhouses and some mid-rise apartment buildings of no more than eight stories; a 700-room hotel, a convention center, 500,000-square-feet of office space, a two-acre park and a new bridge into Flushing over Flushing Creek. Designers have also included plans for so-called "green roofs" on many of the buildings to create additional recreational space.

While the city has outlined its plans for redeveloping what is called the Iron Triangle before, Tuesday's announcement offers the most detailed vision for the site yet and kicks off the formal land-use review process necessary to rezone the area, acquire the property and re-locate the estimated 250 businesses there.

The area has no sidewalks or sewers, and is pockmarked by potholes and deep puddles. City officials acknowledge that an expensive environmental clean-up is necessary before the site can be developed. The city expects to choose a developer by next summer.

The plan, called bold and ambitious by some and criticized as needlessly uprooting viable businesses by others, must be approved by the city Planning Commission and the City Council. A public hearing on an upcoming environmental study of the site will be held Tuesday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Flushing library.

Businesses and property owners from the area have decried the city's plans, which include seizing the property through eminent domain if owners are unwilling to sell.

Approximately 1,300 workers would be displaced if the city's plans for redevelopment are approved. The city estimates the construction would generate 20,000 jobs, while the the project would create 6,100 permanent jobs at full build-out.

__________________________________________________ ___________

http://www.amny.com/news/local/am-willets-swap,0,7595461.storylink?coll=am-homepage-swapbox

Willets Point's last man standing defiantly

May 1, 2007

On the west side of 126th Street, the Mets are building themselves a new home, while three blocks away, in the rutted exhibit of planned urban neglect known as the Iron Triangle, Joe Ardizzone is just trying to save his old one.

The higher the concrete towers and steel framework of Citi Field rise, the lower the hopes of Ardizzone sink. But while Bruce Ratner has been successful in displacing - or, to use the preferred term of the real estate vulture, "relocating" - thousands of city residents to make way for the future home of the Brooklyn Nets, Ardizzone says there is no way the city or the Mets or any combination of the two will evict the one and only resident of Willets Point, N.Y.

"They'll have to kill me and drag me out of here first," he said. "This is my home. This is not democracy. This is not American. Why should I have to leave the place where I've lived my whole life so some billionaires can get richer?"

No one has yet told Ardizzone, who is 74 and more energetic than any man his age has any right to be, that he has to leave his two-story stucco and brick house, wedged between an ironworks and an auto parts dealer on Willets Point Boulevard, today, tomorrow or ever.

But then, no one has told Ardizzone or any of the 100 or so business owners in The Triangle anything.

"We don't know what they're going to do," Ardizzone said, although he has a pretty good idea. "Their goal is to take all this away from us, come hell or high water."

The high water already has come. In fact, it never leaves an area in which the only storm drain is used by Shea Stadium and where, although the area businesses pay as much as $75,000 a year in taxes, the city has never seen fit to install sewers or provide basic services such as snow removal or road repair. (By the way, the Mets don't pay a nickel in real estate taxes now, nor will they on their new ballpark.)

But now that Citi Field is rising, it suddenly has dawned on a lot of powerful people that Willets Point, for a half-century the most neglected sliver of land in the city, soon could be a slice of real estate as valuable as Sutter's Mill, circa 1849.

And whatever "they" are doing, the fear is that they are doing it in secret, the way they always do when there is a land grab of this magnitude in the works.

At first, the Willets Point community thought it needed to fear only the city, which would seek to condemn the land they live and work on as an environmental hazard, seize it under eminent domain and then sell it off to a real estate developer.

Now they realize their enemy is not only the city but the Mets.

"Since 1994, Fred Wilpon told us, 'We've co-existed with you for 40 years and we can continue to co-exist with you,' " said Richard Musick, the spokesman for the Willets Point Business Association. "But about two years ago, he stopped returning our phone calls."

Yesterday, the other shoe dropped. At a meeting with politicians at Tully Construction on Northern Boulevard, city councilman Thomas White Jr. passed along the bad news: Wilpon had changed his mind. "He said, 'The junkyards gotta go,' " White told the group.

The stereotype angered Ardizzone even more than the death sentence it carried.

"People from the outside, they come here and all they see is junkyards," he said. "This is a community, with hard-working people trying to make a living. These are human beings here."

It is a point that seems to be lost on the politicians, who see only dollar signs, and on sports fans, who don't care whom the bulldozers flatten in the rush to build their heroes a stadium, and by a lot of sportswriters, who become willing shills for the team just thinking about what a dump the Shea Stadium pressbox is.

None of them seems to realize that the only ones who will truly benefit from Citi Field are the Wilpons and the privileged few who are well-heeled or well-connected enough to score one of its 42,000 high-priced seats. The Mets did not return a phone call seeking comment yesterday.

Ardizzone, who never married and has lived in the house alone for the past 40 years, considers the people of Willets Point his family. One after another, they came up to him yesterday, most uttering a single word: "Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow" is today, when every man and woman working in Willets Point, along with as many family members, friends and supporters as they can rustle up, will gather at the Flushing branch of the Queens Public Library on Main Street to demonstrate against what they see as an invasion of their turf by the people who are supposed to protect it.

They seem to know it is a doomed battle - David hasn't beaten Goliath since the Old Testament - but one worth fighting nonetheless.

"Just because the big guy always wins," Joe Ardizzone said, "doesn't mean you have to roll over for him. What am I supposed to do, lay down and die?"

[clubBR]

Willets Point to be Ratnerized? (http://www.outerb.com/?p=415)

May 4th, 2007
There’s always two (or more) sides to every story. Earlier this week I posted a bit called “Extreme Makeover, Queens Edition: Big Changes Coming to Willets Point”, regarding the city’s 3-year plan to makeover the “Iron Triangle” at Willets Point. All sorts of great things have been promised - affordable housing, schools, green space, not to mention cleaning up all the toxic crap there. From my “outsider” perspective, it sounds good.
Joe Ardizzone, a local resident, has a different perspective, one that is influenced by the situation created by Bruce Ratner/Forest City Ratner at Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards. He doesn’t want to see the locals “relocated” or “displaced”, especially if that comes through eminent domain (ED), which I understand the city will use if they feel it necessary. ED is certainly, in my opinion, an unsavory path.
Part of the problem is that, even though Ardizzone hasn’t been told he has to move from his home of 40 years, he hasn’t been told anything. Neither have any of the other residents or business owners. Lack of communication with the people only brews fear and distrust, not to mention a big plate of contempt. The city should let the area locals what is going on with regard to their future in Willets Point. Soon.
As an aside: I find it annoying that the new stadium is going to be called “Citi Stadium” after a stupid bank. Ugh.


From http://www.outerb.com

[NIMBYkiller]

Is Shea really that run down or out of date that the Mets need a new stadium? I'm all for urban renewal, but this neighborhood has proved to be a vital part of Queens.

[Ninjahedge]

Yes.

[pianoman11686]

Willets Point rehab tab put at $3B-plus

BY FRANK LOMBARDI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Posted Thursday, June 14th 2007, 4:00 AM

The envisioned transformation of Willets Point from a scruffy haven for scrap yards and auto shops into a residential, retail and convention megadevelopment will cost "north of $3 billion," a city official said yesterday.

The estimate was given by Robert Lieber, president of the city's Economic Development Corp., which is gearing up to submit the Willets Point development plan to the governmental approval procedure known as ULURP - uniform land use review process.

"It will be a lot," Lieber said when asked about the costs during the City Council's first public hearing on the mammoth redevelopment plan announced May 1 by Mayor Bloomberg.

That drew laughs from a dozen Council members who participated in the hearing by the Council's Economic Development and Land Use committees and scores of spectators, most of them representing Willets Point's landowners, businesses, workers and Queens civic officials, including Borough President Helen Marshall and her predecessor, Claire Shulman.

Lieber added, "This is a big project, you know, you've got 60 acres of land to develop, with very large density of what we're going to do, but you know it's not unrealistic to think that this would be a project that is north of $3 billion ... in excess of $3 billion."

"That's a lot of money," said Councilman Thomas White (D-Queens), who put the cost question to Lieber as chairman of the Economic Development Committee.

Councilwoman Melinda Katz (D-Queens), who heads the Land Use Committee, asked Lieber who will be paying the costs, including extensive expenditures for site preparation and sewers, roads and other infrastructure.

Lieber said the developer, or team of developers, that will bid to build the Willets Point of the future will "bear the bulk of the costs for this."

"It's very early on in the process," Lieber added. "I don't think we've come up with a specific budget yet or figured out what the costs are - what the city is going to pay."

He ventured a "guesstimate" the public costs might be in the $100 million-to-$200 million range.

Lieber also fielded questions on the possible use of eminent domain if negotiated deals aren't reached with the property owners and businesses within the 62-acre tract.

He stressed that the city's goal is to reach deals with all those involved.

"We will do everything we can do to accommodate the needs of these businesses," he testified.

"But as the mayor said [at his announcement] on May 1, he's not going to let one person be the holdout for the good that's associated with so many other people."

flombardi@nydailynews.com

© Copyright 2007 NYDailyNews.com. (http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/queens/2007/06/14/2007-06-14_willets_point_rehab_tab_put_at_3bplus-3.html)

[brianac]

Against Council’s Wishes, City Pushing Ahead on Willets Point

byEliot Brown (http://www.observer.com/2007/author/eliot-brown) | April 18, 2008

http://observer.cast.advomatic.com/files/imagecache/article/files/stadiums.jpg Eliot Brown
The car-repair haven of Willets Point

The Bloomberg administration is plowing forward on its plan to redevelop the industrial area (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willets_Point,_Queens) next to Shea Stadium, as it intends to start the rezoning process on Monday despite objections from the City Council.
“We have asked them not to certify Monday,” said Melinda Katz (http://council.nyc.gov/d29/html/members/home.shtml), chairwoman of the City Council’s land use committee. “My feeling is that there are a lot of outstanding issues.”

The plan for the 61-acre site (http://www.nycedc.com/Web/AboutUs/OurProjects/CurrentProjects/WilletsPointDevelopmentDistrict.htm), Willets Point, calls for a large mixed-used community with up to 5,500 units of housing, up to 1.7 million square feet of retail, up to 700 hotel rooms, a public school, and possibly a modest convention center. The decision to jump into the seven-month approval process without the blessing of the Council suggests a rising anxiety among members of the Bloomberg administration, which has 18 months left in office and a slew of large development projects left to implement.

The vast majority of rezonings that start the approval process make it to the conclusion with approval from the Council, and should the city ultimately see defeat on its Willets Point plan, it would surely be a high-profile rejection.

Of course few of the major rezonings ever start with consensus, and virtually all see changes from the Council before the process is over.

More than perhaps any other major project in the pipeline, Willets Point has a long list of groups that are seeking concessions and threatening to hold up the process. Housing advocacy groups want a large proportion of the units to be affordable; labor groups want unionized hotel provisions and other wage guarantees; the landowners (http://wpira.com/) want good deals if they are forced to relocate; the workers and tenant-business owners want relocation assistance; and members of the Council want eminent domain taken off the table.

While many involved in talks report progress, none of these issues have yet been resolved, and no deals have been made with landowners, at least publicly. Thus the city seems to be of the mind that by pushing ahead, with a deadline of November before the City Council must approve or deny the plans, they can hasten a resolution of the outstanding issues.

“The administration has taken the position that they just want to start the clock and get the progress moving,” said Councilman Hiram Monserrate (http://council.nyc.gov/d21/html/members/home.shtml), who represents the area.

Both Mr. Monserrate and Ms. Katz have a long list of concerns with the plan as it stands right now, and neither professed confidence that they could all be resolved in the next seven months. Chief among them, in addition to the use of eminent domain, is affordable housing—the city has committed to mandate that 20 percent of the apartments be affordable, though the Council and advocates want more. Also at issue is the selection of a private developer—by rezoning the area first, the Council allows the city to select a developer of its choosing, without any oversight from the Council.

The site has long been eyed for redevelopment, yet has proved, decade after decade, to be surprisingly resistant (http://www.observer.com/2008/willets-point-development-waterloo), warding off attempts by numerous mayors and master builder Robert Moses.

In a statement, a city spokesman expressed confidence that the issues would be worked out in the coming months. "We look forward to working with its members and local elected officials on finalizing the best possible plan to make it happen during the upcoming public review process," said the spokesman, Andrew Brent.

Copyright 2008 The New York Observer.

[brianac]

A Possible Exit Strategy at Willets Point? City Studies Two-Phase Plan

by Eliot Brown (http://origin.observer.com/2007/author/eliot-brown) | April 24, 2008

http://origin.observer.com/files/imagecache/article/files/phased%20plan.jpg NYCEDC
The first phase would be on the western portion of the site

An alternative studied in the Willets Point environmental review suggests a possible compromise strategy for the Bloomberg administration in its contested effort to redevelop the 61-acre industrial area by Shea Stadium.

The proposed redevelopment has turned into a big political quagmire, with elected officials on the City Council jumping at the chance to bash the city about its proposal. While a group of current and former elected officials met at City Hall today (http://www.observer.com/2008/yet-another-rally-willets-point) to hail the plan, the project clearly will take some convincing in the Council.

The alternative plan, studied in the draft environmental impact statement, calls for acquiring the land and building the project, in two phases. The plan includes acquiring the land on the western portions of the site first, where most of the smaller automotive-related businesses are based, while the owner-occupied businesses on the eastern portion would have more time before they sell their land. The plan would be the same in size, though the first half would be done by 2013, according to the plan studied, while the second half would be done by 2017.

From the EIS [PDF] (http://www.nycedc.com/NR/rdonlyres/37D0A6BE-BFE7-4FF6-8C63-198A1A49BF69/0/24_Alternatives.pdf):

This would allow the City additional time to find suitable relocation sites for the District’s larger businesses which are concentrated in the eastern portion of the District and which have more specific relocation needs than the District’s smaller businesses. It would also spread the cost of property acquisition and infrastructure improvements over time.


For now, the city is intent upon proceeding with the initiative as planned, though it can’t go anywhere without support from Council, where some members seem to be reveling in the spotlight as they criticize.

http://origin.observer.com/2008/possible-exit-strategy-willets-point-city-studies-two-phase-plan

© 2008 Observer Media Group,

[antinimby]

There's a new blog created in support of the redevelopment plans: http://developwilletspoint.blogspot.com/ (http://developwilletspoint.blogspot.com/)

[brianac]

City Wants $389 M. for Willets Point

by Eliot Brown (http://origin.observer.com/2007/author/eliot-brown) | May 2, 2008

http://origin.observer.com/files/imagecache/article/files/stadiums_0.jpg Eliot Brown
Willets Point

The mayor’s executive budget (http://www.nyc.gov/html/omb/html/finplan05_08.html) released yesterday called for $389.7 million in city funding for the proposed Willets Point redevelopment, an amount that would be one of the largest direct city contributions for an economic development project during the Bloomberg administration.

[Summary of the executive budget here as a PDF (http://www.nyc.gov/html/omb/pdf/tech5_08.pdf)].

The money would be used for acquisition and infrastructure work, according to a city summary of the mayor’s budget plan, with the capital budget calling for the money to be spread over a 12-year period, with the bulk of it at the start.

The city’s plan to redevelop (http://www.nycedc.com/Web/AboutUs/OurProjects/CurrentProjects/WilletsPointDevelopmentDistrict.htm) Willets Point, a 61-acre industrial area next to Shea Stadium, has been criticized by numerous members (http://www.observer.com/2008/majority-council-jumps-anti-willets-point-bandwagon) of the City Council, including almost every member from Queens. The Council’s approval is needed for the city to proceed on its plan, and thus it seems unlikely to move ahead until the city addresses some of the Council’s criticisms, which include concerns over the use of eminent domain and treatment of existing landowners and workers.

As means of comparison, the city previously pledged $350 million for the expansion of the publicly owned Javits Center and $200 million for Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards development.


http://origin.observer.com/2008/city-wants-389m-willets-point

© 2008 Observer Media Group,

[NYC4Life]

From: NY Daily News

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2008/06/11/2008-06-11_eminent_domain_bid_seen_as_study_slams_w.html

Eminent domain bid seen as study slams Willets Pt.

BY JOHN LAUINGER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, June 11th 2008, 11:26 PM

http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2008/06/12/alg_willetspoint.jpg
Artist rendering of Iron Triangle in Queens project.



Riddled with crime and defiled by pollution, Willets Point (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Willets+Point) is a "burden on the health of the city's residents and economy," says a new report that could remake the future of the so-called Iron Triangle in Queens (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Queens+County). The study of the gritty industrial zone - a draft copy of which was obtained by the Daily News - signals the city is preparing to use eminent domain to transform Willets Point into a glitzy mega development, experts said. Such reports, commonly known as "blight studies," are typically the first step in condemnation proceedings, said Tom Angotti (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Tom+Angotti), a professor in urban affairs and planning at Hunter College (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Hunter+College).

"To establish an urban renewal area and take property through eminent domain there has to be a public purpose - and the public purpose is to eliminate blight," Angotti said. The 790-page report, which was done by an outside consultant, paints an unflattering picture of Willets Point. It documents how area businesses have been linked to crimes such as car theft, resale of stolen parts, insurance fraud and dumping of toxic chemicals into the soil and nearby Flushing River.

"The illegal activities and harmful environmental practices in the district have created a condition that is threatening to the environment and to the neighboring communities," the report notes. Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Robert+C.+Lieber) said the administration's Willets Point redevelopment plan, which has yet to come before the City Council for a vote, would have an "enormous" impact on the local and citywide economies. But Mark Gerrard (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Mark+Gerrard), an attorney suing the city on behalf of several Willets Point businesses, argued the city is attempting to profit from a problem it caused by "its refusal over decades to provide the community with the basic services."

[ZippyTheChimp]

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/nytlogo153x23.gif

November 13, 2008

Willets Point Project Foes Reach Deal With the City

By FERNANDA SANTOS

Two of the leading opponents of the Willets Point redevelopment project (http://www.nycedc.com/Web/AboutUs/OurProjects/CurrentProjects/WilletsPointDevelopmentDistrict.htm) in Queens came out in favor of the plan on Wednesday, after they reached a critical deal with the city over the number of homes for low-income families that will be built at the site.

The agreement calls for more than 800 homes for families earning less than $38,400 a year and essentially paves the way for the project’s approval by the City Council on Thursday. The agreement is a major political victory for one of the opponents, Councilman Hiram Monserrate, and for the Bloomberg administration, which spent considerable time and money in recent weeks to arrange support for the plan.

“This is a project for the people,” said Councilman Monserrate, who represents a district that includes Willets Point, a 62-acre expanse of auto body shops, junkyards and manufacturers on unpaved roads near Shea Stadium. “Everybody wins,” he said.

The deal requires that 35 percent of the project’s 5,500 housing units be set aside for families who make less than $99,840 a year, or 130 percent of the city’s median income of $76,800. The original plan reserved just 20 percent of the units for families of those income levels.

The agreement was announced on Wednesday at a news conference at City Hall that brought together what days ago would have been an improbable cast of allies.

On hand were Mr. Monserrate and Bertha Lewis, chief organizer of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or Acorn, which Mr. Monserrate had enlisted in opposing the project’s housing levels and the city’s plan to take over privately owned property by eminent domain. At their side were Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the city’s deputy mayor for economic development, Robert C. Lieber, who worked late into the night on Tuesday to arrange the deal.

“The truth of the matter is, we have worked well together over the years,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “We don’t always agree on everything, but people always want to paint these battles as personal battles, or if you’re not together on one thing, it means you can’t work together on others. This is as good an example as you could ever find.”

The mood was festive, with thank-yous and congratulations on both sides. The Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, declared her “enthusiastic support” for the project, proclaiming it “a major economic engine for the city just at a time when we need it most.”

Councilwoman Melinda R. Katz, who heads the Council’s Land Use Committee, which will hold one of three votes on Willets Point on Thursday, called it “a great project.”

“We’re creating jobs,” Ms. Katz said, “and we’re creating housing for folks who can least afford to live here.”

The city has agreements to acquire about 31 percent of the 48 acres of privately owned land at Willets Point and is close to sealing another deal, with Tully Construction and Tully Environmental, which owns the largest parcel at the site. Negotiations with landowners will continue after Thursday’s votes, the mayor said.

The proposed project includes a half-million square feet of office space, eight acres of parks, stores and a hotel and conference center. It is estimated to cost $3 billion and expected to be built over about 10 years, generating about 18,000 construction jobs and 5,000 permanent jobs, city officials said.

The future developer will have to abide by housing guidelines that will require the construction of 820 homes for families who make $38,400 a year or less, which is more housing for low-income families than was required in any of the city’s other recent redevelopment projects, including Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn and Hudson Yards, on the west side of Midtown.

The rest of the homes will be distributed as follows: about 330 for families earning $38,400 to $46,080; 770 for families earning $46,080 to $99,840; and the remaining 3,500 or so priced at market value.

“It actually makes homes affordable for the families that live in the area,” said Hannah Weinstock, an organizer with Queens for Affordable Housing, a coalition of community groups that pressured Mr. Monserrate and other legislators to push for a greater portion of homes for low- and moderate-income families.

The city has established job training programs that will be open to all of the approximately 1,700 people who currently work in the 260 or so businesses at Willets Point, including many illegal immigrants.

“We’re agnostic in terms of the immigration status of the people who are working there,” Mr. Lieber said. “We want to make sure that people have the jobs and have the opportunity and have the training so that we can keep them in New York City and we can give them an opportunity to grow their families and make a decent wage and benefits for them and their families.”


Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

[ZippyTheChimp]

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/nytlogo153x23.gif


November 13, 2008, 5:34 pm

Council Approves Queens Redevelopment Plans

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/11/13/nyregion/willetspoint-480.jpg


By Fernanda Santos

The Bloomberg administration won City Council approval for the redevelopment of Willets Point, in what is now a neglected industrial triangle near Shea Stadium. (Photo: Frank Franklin II/Associated Press)

The City Council overwhelmingly approved two redevelopment plans that together will provide thousands of new housing units for low- and moderate-income families and senior citizens in Queens. The projects – Willets Point, in what is now a neglected industrial triangle near Shea Stadium, and Hunters Point South, along the waterfront in Long Island City – will offer nearly 4,000 homes to families that make $99,800 a year or less, with 800 units in Willets Point reserved to families with an annual income of less than $38,000.

The Council voted in favor of the projects by a 42-to-2 margin, with one abstention.

The approval was no surprise. Hunters Point South was never truly a controversial project and Willets Point has seen considerable change and movement, especially in the past few days, as the city rushed to enter into as many agreements as possible with the property owners.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg first unveiled his plan to redevelop Willets Point in 2007, promising to transform a bedraggled 62-acre enclave lined with junkyards, auto body shops and manufacturers into a neighborhood filled with offices, stores, a hotel and convention center, parks and new homes. Getting it approved was far more complicated – and controversial – than it was to approve Hunters Point, largely because the city was seeking the right to take private land at the site by eminent domain.

By voting in favor of the project, the Council authorizes the city to do just that, but how much of it will be needed is still questionable. On Thursday morning, the city’s Economic Development Corporation reached an agreement to acquire the largest of the businesses there, Tully Construction, which, along with a partner company, Tully Environmental, occupies 10 acres of land at the site. The city also agreed to authorize two other businesses, Fodera Foods and House of Spices, to stay in Willets Point even as construction progresses and later sell their land to a developer.

“The end game here was always to ensure that we had a project and a plan that was fair to all parties,” said Councilman Hiram Monserrate, who represents a district that includes Willets Point and had been one of the project’s most vocal critics. “I think we’ve achieved that.”

The redevelopment of Willets Point, which is expected to be completed in about 10 years, will generate 18,000 construction jobs and about 5,000 permanent jobs, city officials said. Under an agreement with labor groups representing construction, building services and hospitality workers, those will be for the most part union jobs, with good wages and benefits.

Hunters Point South, for its part, will have 5,000 homes built on 30 acres on the edge of the East River, near Newtown Creek. Three thousand of the homes will be set aside for families whose annual income totals $126,000 or less, with 800 of them destined specifically to families who earn less than $61,400 a year. There will also be 300 units built for low-income senior citizens and at least 225 units devoted to a middle-class homeownership program.

“We’re creating a model,” said Councilman Eric N. Gioia, whose district includes the area where the project will be built. “We’re creating housing where all New Yorkers can live together, in the same neighborhood.”

* Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

[Ninjahedge]

Building is simple, but cleanup is going to be expensive. I really have not heard too much about city budget appropriation for site restoration forso many low to mid income housing units.

IOW, in this market, with those income restrictions, where is the money going to come from? And do we have a realistic estamate, or are we going to get another example of an overbudget parade.....?

[TREPYE]

This development cannot come soon enough! Shea was unceremoniuosly greeted with junkyards and slums after the game the fns had no other refuge besides the parking lot. I remember driving through there once from a game at night and with all the darkness, the dreary shop facades and the pot holes that were literally bigger than my car it looked like a 3rd world country in the middle of a war; it was awful.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3545/3413413598_ff4386df51_b.jpg



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v722/thrill5one6/Mets%20Pre%20Season%20Workout%20April%205%202009/CitiFieldPreSeasonWorkoutApril52-25.jpg


Hopefully they do this right and the street that faces citfield (Maybe they can rename it to Shea Street!!) will have bars, restaurants, shops, street vendors, etc. It was wonderful to go to Fenway and walk around Yawkey during a game, the ambiance was always so festive and fun. This takes the sting away from the Mets taking off 15,000 seats from the fans. At least the fans will have the option to go to a bar and hear the cacophonies of roar of the crowd (or a lamentful gasp) during the game and partake in the thrilling mass scale emotinal roller coaster with thousands of other fans while watching Ameica's Pastime. During great playoff victories, or [God willing] a WS it can serve as a staging point for fan celebrations.

I really look forward to this redevelopment of Willets Point and cannot wait to enjoy it.:)

[antinimby]

^ If you're looking for bars, shops and restaurants, shouldn't the new stadium have all that already?

[antinimby]

Because of the lack of images in this thread, I went looking for them and found this one from a NY Sun article (http://www.nysun.com/new-york/critics-supporters-of-willets-point-plan-to-meet/83771/) from last year:


http://www.nysun.com/pics/6958.jpg
126th Street view with Stadium. (New York City Economic Development Corporation)

[TREPYE]

^ If you're looking for bars, shops and restaurants, shouldn't the new stadium have all that already?

Per my statement...

...this takes the sting away from the Mets taking off 15,000 seats from the fans. At least the fans will have the option to go to a bar...

What good is any bars, rest., if they are inside the stadium and the game is sold out?

[antinimby]

Huh?

If you're at the stadium and you want to go to a bar, then you go to the bar at the stadium.

Am I missing something here?

[TREPYE]

Yes you are.

The benfit of having a bar OUTSIDE the stadium is that when the games are sold out -which are much more likely to happen when you have a 42,000 seat stadium as opposed to a 56,000 seat one- it would be nice to have the option of going to a bar next to the stadium. If you have ever been to Fenway park you'll know what I'm talking about.

[antinimby]

I see you edited your comment. You said before that if the fans were in the stadium and they wanted to go to the bar, which didn't make sense.

You need to be clearer in what you say. Writing skills...

Anyway, that's a problem the Mets should have considered in the design of the ballpark. That frontage area on 126 St. should be devoted to retail and restaurants that is accessible to patrons from the streetlevel that are not necessarily ticket holders.

Mind you, I am a supporter of the redevelopment of Willets Point but I find the reasons for your argument a little weak.

[TREPYE]

Ok so? If I ever paid any mind to your posts I would prob mildly agree with your as well...

Oh yeah and thanks for the heads up on my writing skills, antinimble, since you cannot comprehend while you read it must mean that whoever wrote it cannot write....:rolleyes:

[antinimby]

No, it isn't whoever. It is YOU. I don't have any problems with anyone else so obviously it is you.

Now that I think about it, it was you again in the Beekman thread that we had go through a bunch of back-and-forth posts just to clarify what you supposedly had or had not said.

Seems to me then the problem is not my understanding but your inability to express yourself clearly, TREP-ASS.

[Alonzo-ny]

You've got to love it when someone defending their writing skills comes out with completely nonsensical statements.

[antinimby]

^ It takes some adjustments but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.

The trick is to treat it as if it's written by someone who's primary language isn't English.

;)

[Alonzo-ny]

or who is drunk!

[TREPYE]

Well all I tried to do is making a simple point about how this development is going to b great and here comes an antinimble and his sidekick alonzo[wannabe]newyorker with the petty little insults about my writing. What ever gets you through your days fellas; suit your petty selves.:rolleyes:

In the meantime I am gong to post the original post, as it keeps the thread on topic and off idiotic discussion topics..


This development cannot come soon enough! Shea was unceremoniuosly greeted with junkyards and slums after the game the fns had no other refuge besides the parking lot. I remember driving through there once from a game at night and with all the darkness, the dreary shop facades and the pot holes that were literally bigger than my car it looked like a 3rd world country in the middle of a war; it was awful.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3545/3413413598_ff4386df51_b.jpg



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v722/thrill5one6/Mets%20Pre%20Season%20Workout%20April%205%202009/CitiFieldPreSeasonWorkoutApril52-25.jpg


Hopefully they do this right and the street that faces citfield (Maybe they can rename it to Shea Street!!) will have bars, restaurants, shops, street vendors, etc. It was wonderful to go to Fenway and walk around Yawkey during a game, the ambiance was always so festive and fun. This takes the sting away from the Mets taking off 15,000 seats from the fans. At least the fans will have the option to go to a bar and hear the cacophonies of roar of the crowd (or a lamentful gasp) during the game and partake in the thrilling mass scale emotinal roller coaster with thousands of other fans while watching Ameica's Pastime. During great playoff victories, or [God willing] a WS it can serve as a staging point for fan celebrations.

I really look forward to this redevelopment of Willets Point and cannot wait to enjoy it.:)

[antinimby]

Right and look who started with the "petty insults" first.


Oh yeah and thanks for the heads up on my writing skills, antinimble,


here comes an antinimble and his sidekick alonzo[wannabe]newyorker with the petty little insults about my writing.

Looks like not only do you have trouble with your writing skills but also oblivious to the things you said.

[Alonzo-ny]

Petty and idiotic.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Anyway, that's a problem the Mets should have considered in the design of the ballpark. That frontage area on 126 St. should be devoted to retail and restaurants that is accessible to patrons from the streetlevel that are not necessarily ticket holders.Several problems with this.

A segregated bar crowd is a bad mix.

You'd basically have outside retail that's dependent on overflow from sold-out ballgames. Where's their income in the off-season?

[antinimby]

Several problems with this.

A segregated bar crowd is a bad mix.Who said anything about segregating anybody? Are you sure you know what I'm talking about? Let's not do a "TREPYE" until we are sure we know what each of us are talking about first.

I am saying that the Mets if they want places for people that may not be in the stadium, to shop and dine and drink at, then they could have built these places on the streetlevel of their stadium. In other words, for anyone who wants to go to these places even if they're not there for a ballgame.


You'd basically have outside retail that's dependent on overflow from sold-out ballgames. Where's their income in the off-season?Where's their income in the off-season for shops that are near the stadium? It's the same thing.

[ZippyTheChimp]

I am saying that the Mets if they want places for people that may not be in the stadium, to shop and dine and drink at, then they could have built these places on the streetlevel of their stadium. In other words, for anyone who wants to go to these places even if they're not there for a ballgame.You seem to be saying exactly what I'm talking about. If not, describe these establishments. Will they be accessible from both inside and outside the stadium? If so, ticket-holders will have to be separated from the general public. If they're only accessible from outside the stadium, then they're subject to the conditions in the neighborhood.


Where's their income in the off-season for shops that are near the stadium? It's the same thing.A viable neighborhood is the source of income during the off-season [Ttrepye's Fenway Park example]. Market forces adjust the rent and prices in these neighborhoods.

Retail attached to Citifield would command premium rent. Do you think the present Iron Triangle neighborhood would attract retail operators willing to pay that rent?

[JCMAN320]

^^^The Mets should of taken a cue from the Yankees with the Hard Rock Cafe at Gate 6 on the corner of 161st and River Ave; open all year round even when the season is over or games are sold out, you can walk in on street level and eat there IN the stadium.

I do agree also that the streets beyond the outfield walls of certain ballparks add to the atmosphere of the game day experience. Yawkey Way and the Citgo sign beyond the Green Monster at Fenway Park, River Ave. and the 4 train beyond the "gap" at Yankee Stadium, Waveland & Sheffield Aves. with the Wrigley Rooftops beyond the Ivy at Wrigley Field, make them just as much a part of the ballparks as anything in their physical structure. Plenty of people go to the bars on Yawkey Way and River Ave just to be get that game day experience and people on Waveland on the rooftop bleachers pay little and some get to barbecue as well.

The Mets should of taken that into consideration when building the ballpark. However the Wilpons did say that they told HOK, now Populous, to keep the ballpark open to right field somewhat because the city promised that the Iron Triangle would disappear.

[ZippyTheChimp]

The Mets should of taken that into consideration when building the ballpark. However the Wilpons did say that they told HOK, now Populous, to keep the ballpark open to right field somewhat because the city promised that the Iron Triangle would disappear.The "Bullpen Gate" photo was originally posted by Radiohead in the Citifield thread. I made that point in post #535.

[antinimby]

You seem to be saying exactly what I'm talking about. If not, describe these establishments. Will they be accessible from both inside and outside the stadium? If so, ticket-holders will have to be separated from the general public. If they're only accessible from outside the stadium, then they're subject to the conditions in the neighborhood.Arrangements can always be made to allow both groups to use the establishments. It all depends on how flexible they want to be. It's as easy as asking for ticket stubs to re-enter into the stadium for those that have tickets to the game. I don't see what the difficulty it would be in that.


A viable neighborhood is the source of income during the off-season [Ttrepye's Fenway Park example]. Market forces adjust the rent and prices in these neighborhoods.Just like Coney Island during the off-season, they can always close up shop when there's no baseball. They don't have to be exactly like "Ttrepey's Fenway Park."


Retail attached to Citifield would command premium rent. Do you think the present Iron Triangle neighborhood would attract retail operators willing to pay that rent?Again, this all depends on how badly the Mets want the retail businesses to be there. The rent is all up to them. They can lessen the rent as much as they want or even make it rent free in order to keep those businesses there. Remember, they are providing a service that the Mets want.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Arrangements can always be made to allow both groups to use the establishments.Almost anything can be done. Doesn't mean it's the smart move.


Just like Coney Island during the off-season, they can always close up shop when there's no baseball. They don't have to be exactly like "Ttrepey's Fenway Park."I thought the main problem with Coney Island was the off season.


Again, this all depends on how badly the Mets want the retail businesses to be there.I doubt that the Mets want to be involved in the retail business outside the confines of Citifield. Not until there's a real neighborhood outside.

[Ninjahedge]

The main problem with putting things like Hard Rock or Hooters into a park is space. When you only have a certain amount of space to deal with, you do not have much choice in the matter.

As people have been saying "but there are XX less seats!!!", removing space that is used for storage, maintainance, or internal ammenities will not do much to help the outside.

I DO agree they need a bit more storefront to help with this. Maybe some more souveneir shops and the like that could be kept open all year round once the neighborhood picks up a bit, but right now, the Iron Triangle is a cesspit whose exposure should be limited.

Hell, even demolishing the entire area and putting in GRASS would be better than what is there now!

[ZippyTheChimp]

The extra space for amenities (restaurants, restrooms, wider concourses) have little to do with the decrease number of seats. That space comes from the increased footprint of the entire complex. Yankee Stadium had the exact same field dimensions, but overall several acres larger.

Field dimensions largely determine the number of seats. All new ballparks have less seats, but that's because each seat takes up more room. 3 inches wider, 3 inches more legroom, and aisles a foot or two wider doesn't seem like much, but multiply it 50,000 times.

If the Iron Triangle develops, the area outside Citifield will become more lively. It doesn't usually happen the other way around.

[Ninjahedge]

The extra space for amenities (restaurants, restrooms, wider concourses) have little to do with the decrease number of seats. That space comes from the increased footprint of the entire complex. Yankee Stadium had the exact same field dimensions, but overall several acres larger.

Um, zip.....

They are related (partially). That little league field you see in the left field area is an "amenity". That could have been seats. There is also a walkway bridge between right field and the andmin building located behind Center Field that could have possibly held a few hundred more.

They also HAVE the admin building in the stadium, which is debatable. You really do not NEED to have that IN the stadium, but they still felt it was good to do so.


Field dimensions largely determine the number of seats. All new ballparks have less seats, but that's because each seat takes up more room. 3 inches wider, 3 inches more legroom, and aisles a foot or two wider doesn't seem like much, but multiply it 50,000 times.

Actually, it is the premier box seats that have more to do with the reduction in count than actual spacing. You are talking less than 10% increase in total footprint for the regular seats. On 60,000 seats that would have been no more than 6000 seats lost, not (what was it?) 10/12K.


If the Iron Triangle develops, the area outside Citifield will become more lively. It doesn't usually happen the other way around.

Well, they did a good job on CF, aside from the Bank logo on top (a bronze lighted plaque would have looked MUCH better and gave an even more classic look to the stadium... Right now it looks like there are plenty of ATM's available if you open your checking account with the Mets!).

I think there is more incentive now to improve the triangle. You cant do much with it, since the soil SUCKS (trust me on this). But low-rise developments (no more than about 4 stories) could probably be pretty easily managed.... Hopefully the stadium will prompt development, and the development will spur MORE development, and we can get that area cleaned up.

Question though, that area is FAR from dead. Where would that buisness go and who would it effect the most?

[ZippyTheChimp]

Actually, it is the premier box seats that have more to do with the reduction in count than actual spacing. You are talking less than 10% increase in total footprint for the regular seats. On 60,000 seats that would have been no more than 6000 seats lost, not (what was it?) 10/12K.I used Yankee Stadium as an example, since the field dimensions are exactly the same. The reduction in seating in the new stadium is about 4000, in line with your 10%.

You can't do that comparison with Shea and Citifield because the two layouts are different. Shea was too big. The upper deck was typical of cookie-cutter stadia, too far away. The place felt cavernous. From what I've heard from reporters, Citifield is a much better place to watch a ballgame.

Yankee Stadium is the only new park that seats over 50,000. Most are 40-45,000.



There are going to be problems in developing the Iron Triange. LAG precludes any high-rises. Coupled with that lower ROI per acre is the high cost of land prep. Besides the environmental cleanup, the area is a mud-flat. Lots of piles to be driven.

[Ninjahedge]

The soil sucks. You need deep piles for any sizable foundation. Piles (or rather, driving them) can get expensive.

That and there is very little utility service out there. I am not sure, but I do not think there is any sewer in the area, and all the power came from overhead lines string in from who-knows-where.

So, in order to develop this area, there are many things that need to be done both publicly and privately to make it possible.


It would be nice though!!!

[ZippyTheChimp]

I heard something like $200 million for cleanup and land purchase.

[TREPYE]

You can't do that comparison with Shea and Citifield because the two layouts are different. Shea was too big. The upper deck was typical of cookie-cutter stadia, too far away. The place felt cavernous. From what I've heard from reporters, Citifield is a much better place to watch a ballgame.

While I cannot minimize the impact of being at a live game because you are getting the best possible views of the game itself, something has to be said for being in the enironment of several thousand fans simultaneouolsy watching a game. Cheering or goraning together, the occasional comical comment by some wiseass or the simultaeous chant of "Let go Mets!" by thousands, the wave, or just enjoying the views from high up with a beer on hand and just chilling out. Sometime crappier upper level seats was fun all on to itself. Even tough the views were bad and probably you had to put tissues up your nose, you still felt like you was there.

This is what the Wilpons screwed us out of, not so much during the regular season -as I know that most of the time they wouldnt sell out- but durinng playoff games 15,000 less fans will not get the experience of being at the game. I am willing to bet that like the many who brought seats on the last row of the upper deck at shea they were willing to sacrifice viewing quality for the experience of being there.

This whole viewing experience thing was a guise to give the Wilpons an excuse to shrink the stadium.

[ZippyTheChimp]

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYM/attend.shtml

[BiggieSmalls]

http://irontriangletracker.com/2009/05/26/city-makes-first-willets-deals-since-city-council-vote/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NYC ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION REACHES NEGOTIATED PROPERTY ACQUISITION AGREEMENTS WITH TWO ADDITIONAL
WILLETS POINT BUSINESSES


City Now Controls Nearly 65% of Property in Willets Point


Creating Conditions to Build New Housing, Office Space and Parks, Provide New Jobs, and Fostering New York City’s Long-term Growth Is Part of the City’s Five Borough Economic Opportunity Plan




New York City, May 26, 2009 – New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) today announced it has signed property acquisition agreements with two additional property owners at Willets Point, Queens. The acquisitions announced today total 34,403 square feet, bringing the amount of land now controlled by the City to about 40 acres, or 1,742,400 square feet. The agreements are the ninth and tenth negotiated land acquisitions in Willets Point, also known as the Iron Triangle.

[meesalikeu]

a june '08 thread i made on shea/citi - including a tour of the iron triangle:

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,16528.0.html

[Edward]

My second blog post using the new Wired New York Wordpress platform - The Iron Triangle in Queens (http://wirednewyork.com/2009/08/iron-triangle-queens/)

You can make comments - just as you expect from a blog - although it's a different membership system from the forum.

[BiggieSmalls]

http://www.observer.com/2009/real-estate/city-closes-willets-point-land-opponents-que

Interesting tidbit regarding the Queens Chamber of Commerce eyeing the Lighthouse group as a potential developer.

http://www.newsday.com/sports/hockey/islanders/chamber-of-commerce-eyes-islanders-move-to-queens-1.1501382?localLinksEnabled=false

There would be great synergies to build out the "convention center" space as a multi use 20,000 seat arena.

The lighthouse project is dead in Hempstead and could easily be adapted to the 60 acre Iron Triangle to be a world class the housing, arena, entertainment, lifestyle district.

[BiggieSmalls]

I love it when a plan comes together.

http://www.fanfeedr.com/nhl/2009/10/26/wanted-a-developer-for-willets-pointrfp-officially-issued-go-for

October 26th, 2009
The Economic Development Corporation has issued a Request for Qualifications to interested developers. It reads: “The maximum development for this area includes 980,000 square feet of destination and entertainment retail; 2,000 units of mixed income housing; 500,000 square feet of office space; 400 hotel rooms; a school; and open space and parking.” Mr. Wang and Mr. Rechler, make your move.


I Suspect the issuance of the RFQ is directed squarely at Wang and the floundering Lighthouse Project.

Most Islander fans in that forum are absolutely giddy about a potential move to Queens. More constituents backing the development means full steam ahead..

Put pen to paper Wang and get it done.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Has the issue of territorial rights by the Rangers been resolved?

Haven't been following the Lighthouse project too closely, but I know that...

1. Rangers blocked the Devils move to AY in Brooklyn.

2. Design of AY arena is too narrow for NHL.

3. Islanders lose about $20 million a year.

4. Suffolk County (Brentwood site?) has expressed interest.

5. Several other cities have expressed interest.


Assuming the NHL gets involved and brokers a deal with the Rangers (I doubt they would put any pressure on the Rangers given other cities wanting a team), would there be some sort of yearly royalty? The Dolans would love that.

[BiggieSmalls]

I read the Islanders paid a territorial fee to the Rangers / NHL in 1972 when they came into the league and no other fees would be required.

With the economic climate int he NHL and the Islanders mounting losses I would think Bettman would intervene and support the Islanders move west a few miles .

I was not aware of the rangers blocking a devils move to AY. Ironic that "The Rock" is arguably closer to MSG than AY and an similar trip on the train.

Im not an Islanders fan and have followed the LHP tangentially in the past few months -- its a fascinating project really and is MUCH larger is scale than what would be proposed in WP but includes many of the same elements as what was submitted in the FGEIS and rezoning.

I understand Kansas City had a desire for the Islanders franchise. That would have to involve Wang selling as he is a "NY/LI guy" who bought the team for its local flavor. Suffolk? umm.. OK.. that would serve to alienate more of the Westchester, NYC, NJ Islander fans who are crowing about the trip to Nassau for games. Canada is always an option i guess.

true that the current AY design is too small for hockey and doesnt seem to be an option right now.

I think the major stumbling block here is can the area support another arena in terms of events ON TOP of Barclays.?

[ZippyTheChimp]

I read the Islanders paid a territorial fee to the Rangers / NHL in 1972 when they came into the league and no other fees would be required.The Devils had to pay a territorial fee to the Rangers (and I think also to the Islanders) when they moved from KC. At the time, much of that had to do with TV, most of which was air waves, not cable.

Can't find any definite rulings, but it may come down to political boundaries. Article 4.1 of the NHL charter: "each member shall have exclusive territorial rights in the city in which it is located and within 50 miles of that city’s corporate limits."

In the NFL, when the Raiders moved to LA, the (then LA) Rams demanded territorial compensation. The Raiders challenged in court, and won. However, I don't think there was a territorial provision in the NFL charter.

There is a case in Canada involving the Maple Leafs that's headed to court.
http://fans.mapleleafs.nhl.com/topic/51739/t/REPORT-MAPLE-LEAFS-NHL-AT-ODDS-OVER-TERRITORIAL-RIGHTS.html

[ZippyTheChimp]

10.28.2009


The Iron Trapezoid


City takes phased approach to Willets Point redevelopment



http://www.archpaper.com/uploads/image/WP_aerial_CCNorth_Zoom.jpg
The city is moving forward with its redevelopment plan for Willets Point, albeit in a phased approach.
Courtesy NYC EDC


Despite the stagnant real estate market in New York City, the Bloomberg administration has decided to go ahead with plans for one of its landmark redevelopment projects, the transformation of Willets Point from a down-and-out mechanics row to a gleaming new community complete with a mid-size convention center. At the same time, because of the stagnant real estate market, the city is taking a different approach with its plans, having released on Monday a request for qualifications for the project that focuses on redeveloping an 18-acre swath of the 62-acre area that rezoned almost a year ago.

The RFQ (http://www.nycedc.com/ProjectsOpportunities/RFPsRFQsRFEIs/Pages/Opportunity74_PC.aspx) is seeking developers to build a retail and commercial hub along the western edge of Willets Point, known as “Area A.” This staged approach presents a number of potential advantages beyond its lesser cost compared to a wholesale redevelopment. Area A is on parcels bordering the new Mets Stadium as well as being the densest part of the development because it is outside the LaGuardia flight path, both of which make it more appealing for investment. Also, the city controls the most property out of the three areas, as it has been working to buy out the scrap yards, auto body shops, and factories that have dominated Willets Point for decades.



http://www.archpaper.com/uploads/WilletsPhases.jpg
A rendering showing the proposed phases of the project.



“Area A is envisioned to become an urban residential community with fantastic views and a dynamic skyline,” according to the RFQ. “Residential and commercial uses are stacked above retail to create an integrated (24/7) neighborhood.” The area would include 980,000 square feet of retail space, 500,000 square feet of office space, 430 hotel rooms, 2,100 residential units, and possibly a school. Building heights are planned to rise as high as 215 feet, providing quite the views over Citifield’s right field wall.

And while the convention center, seen as a lynchpin to the project’s success, will not likely be built in the first phase, its location has been determined as part of the RFQ. The city had been considering both the eastern and northern edges of the site, though the latter, now known as “Area C” won out. The eastern parcels of “Area B” will be dedicated to residential uses—roughly 3,000 units—and local retail.(Oddly enough, the alternative proposal is the one shown on the cover of the RFQ.)


A rendering showing the land-use ideas undergirding the project. (http://www.archpaper.com/uploads/WilletsLandUse.jpg)


The entire development is one of a handful being put forward by the city as pilot for the U.S. Green Building’s new LEED for Neighborhood Development program. As part of this effort, the city’s Economic Development Corporation, which is developing the project, is creating a special set of design guidelines with Beyer Blinder Belle. “Willets Point Design Guidelines are being developed to supplement the Special Zoning District and convey additional goals for urban design, pedestrian experience, streetscape, open space and architectural character,” according to the RFQ. The city expects to release those guidelines next year along with a more formal request for proposals, assuming the RFQ generates enough interest.

“The release of this Request for Qualifications once again moves the Willets Point project, one of the largest in our borough’s history, another step forward and closer to reality,” said Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, a long-standing proponent of the project. “Each step forward gives us a clearer vision of a plan that will redevelop Willets Point in way that will capitalize on the resources surrounding it, including recreational uses and a network of highways, while strengthening the entire region.



http://www.archpaper.com/uploads/WilletsToday.jpg
The city sees its plan as a more economically vigorous use for Willets Point, though the auto and industrial businesses
that populate the 62-acre Iron Triangle see themselves as victims of neglect.


The city is proceeding cautiously with its plan, but it makes clear in the RFQ that the project could change at any point, getting bigger or smaller as the market dictates. A big factor in its progress is the businesses that remain in Area A. As opposition to the rezoning of the area reached a groundswell last year, with local business contending the only blight in the area was caused by longstanding neglect from the city, the Economic Development Corporation began negotiating with landlords in the area in order to avoid eminent domain at the site.

The agency has paraded out announcements every few months or so, and ownership in Area A now stands at 70 percent. “We are in active discussions with several additional land owners within the first development stage and would like to acquire all the privately-held property by negotiated acquisition,” Janel Patterson, and EDC spokesperson, said in an email. She noted that the city also controls roughly 60 percent within the entire 62-acre district. Representatives for two local business groups did not return requests for comment.

One thing is clear, however. Despite the changing economy, the city has not drastically reconsidered its plans. While the RFQ notes that a 4-acre buffer zone would be created between Area A and the remaining businesses, Patterson said there was little chance those businesses might be allowed to stay for good. “Industrial users in the eastern portion will eventually have to be moved,” she said.

Matt Chaban

Copyright © 2003-2008 | The Architect's Newspaper, LLC

[BiggieSmalls]

I would imagine should Charles Wang get involved the configuration would change substantially.

Although the usage sq footages would remain the same to comply with the GEIS.

THere has been a ground swell of support from Islanders fans regarding the prospect of moving the team to Willets Point.

http://www.fanfeedr.com/nhl/2009/10/26/wanted-a-developer-for-willets-pointrfp-officially-issued-go-for

the fan comments in this forum above are almost unanimously for the relocation to Queens.

good stuff.

I have always been curious as to why the MTA parcel has been excluded from the plan

[ZippyTheChimp]

The MTA property would have to get the state and the EDC involved.

[BiggieSmalls]

NYC EDC is running the show now -- Pinsky and Leiber have been driving this whole project.. MTA needs the cash.. do you mean ESDC?

I read that MTA says they need the land and are out of the deal.. seems wierd to have a multi billion dollar development with an 11 acre undedeveloped tract right next to it.. MAYBE the MTA sells out after it is all built out for a multiple of what they would get now.

[dtolman]

What happens if a few parcel owners won't sell? Glass towers next to run down garages?

If they ever try to use eminent domain here, I smell some even bigger lawsuits - the property values are super-depressed mainly thanks to the city and state withholding basic services fo decades... like paving... and utilities.

I mean, where else in NY do they refuse to fix sewers? Seems no one gives a crap outside of the people who own businesses there.

[BiggieSmalls]

The EDPL Hearings (Eminent Domain Procedure Law) are right around the corner. Anyone who doesnt sell will end up with fair market value,.

This is a text book use of Eminent Domain. And the NY courts routinely support these takings.

Go to Howard Beach in Southern Queens. THey have the same issues with the lack of sewers in a flood plain. But Howard Beach doesnt look like little Beirut.

The property values are what they are.. People who bought there knew what they were buying.. property without access to city sewer services -- they use cesspools for sewage. They all have utilities of course and the roads were just paved in April.

Just becuase they dont have sewers doesnt mean they should be dumping anti freeze and used oil/hydraulic fluids in the soil -- along with many other environmental offenses -- for 70 years

[BiggieSmalls]

With the NY Courts affirmation of the Atlantic Yards Eminent Domain Procedure how long b4 they kick off EDPL hearings om Willets Pt?

I say shortly after the RFQs are due in Mid December.

Wanger.. you listening? Send something in.

[BiggieSmalls]

GREAT NEWS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/25/court-upholds-willets-point-redevelopment-plan/
Court Upholds Willets Point Redevelopment Plan




A federal judge on Wednesday upheld New York’s $3 billion redevelopment plan for Willets Point, an industrial section of Queens dominated by car-repair shops and waste-management businesses, finding that although the city had neglected the neighborhood’s infrastructure for decades, the constitutional rights of the businesses there — many of which will be forced to relocate under the plan — were not violated.
The plaintiffs, who organized themselves into an entity called the Willets Point Industry and Realty Association, and who “have established thriving businesses (notwithstanding the grossly inadequate infrastructure of the area)” and employ hundreds of people, “are understandably aggrieved by the fact that the plan that the city is in the process of implementing has no place for them,” the judge, Edward R. Korman (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/edward_r_korman/index.html?inline=nyt-per) of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, wrote. However, he ruled, it was not the place of federal judges to intervene in the dispute.
Judge Korman’s 22-page ruling did not dispute that the area has long suffered from neglect.
Originally a swamp, and later a dumping site for ash and garbage, Willets Points first underwent efforts at redevelopment in 1939, when part of the landfill was converted into fairgrounds for the World’s Fair, and machine shops and garages started to be built in the area. By 1950, Judge Korman wrote, small factories, auto-related shops and storage facilities “cemented the industrial character of the area.”
By some lights, however, Willets Point has made little progress from its swampy origins. It lacks a sanitary sewer system, its streets are unpaved or riddled with potholes and its curbs and sidewalks, if they can even be called that, have worn away. Broken fire hydrants and an absence of trash removal round out the picture of blight, Judge Korman wrote.
Robert Moses (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/robert_moses/index.html?inline=nyt-per), the development czar, contemplated turning Willets Point into parking for nearby Shea Stadium (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/shea_stadium/index.html?inline=nyt-org) (now replaced by Citi Field (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/citi_field/index.html)) and a fairground for the 1964 World’s Fair — a plan that Mario M. Cuomo (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/mario_m_cuomo/index.html?inline=nyt-per), then a young lawyer, helped frustrate. In 1991 and 1993, the Queens borough president, Claire Shulman (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/claire_shulman/index.html?inline=nyt-per), commissioned studies that confirmed that the deplorable infrastructure would hinder development.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/michael_r_bloomberg/index.html?inline=nyt-per)’s redevelopment plan was approved by the City Council, 42 to 2, last November. It calls for new sanitary and stormwater sewers, more power lines and new roadways and bicycle lanes. It also seeks new mixed-use development — including, possibly, a hotel and convention center — but envisions sweeping away the current industrial uses through eminent domain.
Judge Korman expressed sympathy for the plaintiffs whose property would be acquired by the government (with compensation) but found that they lacked a federal claim. “The timing of this lawsuit as well as plaintiffs’ own admissions at oral argument suggests,” he wrote, that the “real purpose of their lawsuit is to obstruct and forestall the implementation of the approved plan.”

[BiggieSmalls]

http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2009/12/17/queens/queenseyejfqf12162009.txt

Boro bikers go hog wild in Willets Point


Willets Point United member owning 4,000 sq feet of land on 34ave at 126th place actively looking to do land swap with EDC for a new MC Club..

Sounds good to me.. put the club in College Point

get it done.

[Merry]

Here Lies Willets Point

by David Vines

Daniel Sambucci opened up shop in Willets Point fifty-nine years ago. Across the street from him sat a pond where his kids would skate when it froze over in the winter. Now when Sambucci, 79, looks across the street from 126 36th Avenue, he finds himself under the ominous shadow of a gargantuan $900 million baseball stadium. He knows there is more development coming and his days in Willets Point are numbered.

"There is a lot of blood sweat and tears that went into this business," says Angela Sambucci, Daniel's daughter and now the self-described secretary of Sambucci Brothers Inc., an auto salvage company that has been in business since 1951. "But you can't beat $16 billion," Daniel chimes in, referring to Mayor Bloomberg's estimated net worth.

Daniel has a modest but cozy office tucked into the corner of his store. Just outside of it, his adult children and teenage grandchildren are busy answering phones and talking to customers. The wooden walls are painted a light mint-green, a six-foot Jesus statue, his head bowed and a look of peace on his face, stands in the back-left corner. On his desk sits a short stack of papers, a bottle of Purell, and a roll of paper towels. Three roles of fly tape hang from the ceiling, each having claimed its share of winged victims. The far-right corner features a wooden cross, a mini fridge, and a carefully crafted sculpture of the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, and a young Jesus.

After a beat of silence, Angela glances at the wall behind her. On that wall hangs a framed photo of Rocky Marciano's legendary punch that knocked out then-heavyweight champion Jersey Joe Walcott in the thirteenth round of their 1952 championship fight. Surrounding it are eight framed photos of young Sambuccis, all with glowing smiles on their faces. "My father is here, he doesn't want to give up his business. His sons are here, and their sons are here. You know, they don't want to give it up," she says.

***

Willets Point sprawls across sixty-two acres between the Flushing River and the New York Mets' Citi Field in Queens. It is filled almost exclusively with small auto repair shops and junkyards--although it would be excusable for one to mistake the entire area for a junkyard. Almost all of the shops in Willets Point are family owned. There is not an AutoZone in sight.

Since the 1960s there have been numerous proposals for the city to redevelop the "Iron Triangle," as the area is known among the locals. "In the 60s, under different administrations, they'd say 'Let's develop this area,'" Angela recalls. "Back then Mario Cuomo was just a young lawyer on the rise." "A good lawyer," her father adds. "So he took his case to fight it, and he won," Angela continues. "But now when they came in under Mayor Bloomberg, we sort of felt like this time, something's going to happen."

In May of 2007, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a plan for urban renewal in Willets Point. Two years later, the New York City Economic Development Corporation announced that it would invest $100 million into infrastructure projects in Queens, including development in Willets Point.

The NYCEDC aims to create more than 5,300 permanent jobs and 18,000 construction jobs with this project. Their vision of a new Willets Point includes a luxury hotel, a convention center, office space, and new parks and playgrounds, culminating in what they predict to be a $1.3 billion benefit to the city in thirty years. However, there is no easy solution regarding what to do with the current businesses in Willets Point, which are employing hundreds of workers.

The Sambuccis have been through a lot in their years in Willets Point, and they are proud to still be standing today. "Thirty years ago a group of Koreans came here and they wanted to build a church," Daniel recalls. "They offered me $3 million, but my son had quit college and he liked the yards so what was I going to do? I couldn't take it, and we're still here."

But this time, the future looks bleak. The Sambuccis feel that Mayor Bloomberg's plan might be the $100 million straw that finally breaks the camel's back. "Look across the street, look where we are," says Angela, one hand waving at the office window. Outside, a dismantled car seemingly glides through the air until seconds later, a yellow forklift is revealed, hauling the beat-up red sedan to the yard behind the building. As the forklift passes, that shiny new baseball stadium looms beyond the closed window. "They're building all these condos, do you think they're going to keep us here?" asks Angela. "They've already shown us plans where there are flower pots on our land, and I'm like 'Wait, isn't that my property?'"

***

The stench of gasoline and mud, with a hint of warm beer fills the cold winter air and mingles with merengue music blasting from every shop that has its radio on in Willets Point. There are no sidewalks in the entire neighborhood--most people prefer to drive anyhow. The streets are spotted with potholes that have filled up with the weekend's melted snow, creating an archipelago of pavement.

"It looks like Iraq out there," Daniel Sambucci says.

The Master Express Deli and Restaurant sits on the right side of the street on Willets Point Boulevard. Inside the deli, a man in his mid-30s sits at a small black table and chows down a chicken sandwich for lunch. Rucco trots over to the man enjoying his sandwich and looks up, eyeing his meal, before cocking his head to the right. After a minute, Rucco, no longer interested, saunters away.

Rucco is a rooster.

At the end of 127th street, near the intersection at 34th Avenue, a young black man wearing a Yankee hat stops his vehicle--a red Toyota Camry with four flame stickers, about the right size for a Matchbox car, haphazardly stuck on the rear passenger door. As he steps out, a man driving a white flatbed truck pulls up behind him and yells, "This is a street not a ****ing parking lot!" Startled, the 20-something hops back into his car and, avoiding confrontation, pulls it closer to the driveway of the adjacent muffler store. The flatbed speeds down the street while the silver Honda it's carrying experiences a violent piggyback ride, bouncing from side to side as the truck dips into each pothole.

Arias Auto Body is a small shop with a green and black awning located at the heart of Willets Point. Inside, a mechanic is sawing through metal car parts as a customer stands off to the side sipping coffee. "I have no idea what we can do to stop it, but these guys say we need to move," says a man named Jorge, who has worked for nine years at Arias Auto Body. He lives in Jackson Heights and, when not working in Willets Point, works a second job in a kitchen. "It's a tough choice for them," he says, speaking of the proposed development project. "I mean it is good for the city to develop, but it is going to be tough for us because so many people will lose their jobs." When asked what he thinks will happen to the shop he's known for almost a decade, he simply shrugs. "I have no idea."

Manny Cabrera has worked for six years at Muffler-Rims-Tires, a tiny shop with a steel roll-down gate spotted with inelegant graffiti. He echoes Jorge's concerns about the development project: "It is no good because everybody will lose their jobs and right now it's not easy to find jobs."

Then, he adds with a slight grin, "If you make a little money you can pay the rent. That's all I need."

A husky white man with a short grey beard sits behind the office desk at H+S Auto Wrecking. Two pieces of paper hang on the left wall, both reading "NO CASH REFOUNDS." The erroneous "o" on both signs has been crossed out with a thin black pen. As a Univision soap opera murmurs from the stout TV in the back corner, the man behind the desk briefly shares his thoughts on Bloomberg's plan for Willets Point. "I got nothing to say to you. It's no good. Bye."

Further south on Willets Point Boulevard, a tin trashcan filled with white cardboard burns in the street. As the flame begins to die down, a man named German chucks a few more sheets of cardboard inside, and a new match to boot. German has been working in Willets Point for twelve years and says that the area has hardly changed. Only difference is, "Now there are even more holes in the street than there were before," he says.

However, he has a surprisingly optimistic outlook for the future. "It's good.

We can survive. I don't know where we'd move, but we can survive."

***

"Any time you have eminent domain on the table, you're really negotiating with a gun to your head," says Richard Lipsky. Lipsky is a lobbyist for Willets Point United and the spokesman for the Neighborhood Retail Alliance, where he fights for small businesses and against large-scale developments in New York.

"The Willets Point businesses don't deserve to be thrown out on their behinds in a process that has been corrupted by political favoritism and the type of shenanigans that we've seen," Lipsky claims. The "shenanigans" of which he speaks involve the Flushing-Willets Point-Corona LDC (Local Development Corporation) whose acting President and CEO, Claire Shulman, registered her corporation with the IRS as one prohibited from lobbying. After Willets Point business owners complained, she was fined a record $59,000 last July for failing to register as a lobbyist.

"The city paid her good money and she, in turn, went to the City Council and other elected officials to try to get them to support this project," says Jerry Antonacci, the owner of Crown Container, a waste removal business that has been in Willets Point since 1959. "In essence, the city paid her to lobby themselves."

The Flushing-Willets Point-Corona LDC did not respond to numerous calls asking for comment.

But Lipsky's concerns do not end with the welfare of the area's small business owners. He worries that because of the troubling economic times, this project could end in a disaster for everybody. "The question that the city needs to ask is 'Okay, given the economic climate, how are we going to pay for all of this work and will there be a developer at the end of the process that will have the money to complete this work, or are we just going to be left with some kind of empty lot like they have in New London?'" he said, referring to the controversial 2005 Supreme Court decision, Kelo v. City of New London. In that case, the Connecticut property seized by eminent domain has yet to be developed, and the company that benefited from the ruling, Pfizer, has given up plans to develop the area altogether.

***

If everything goes according to plan, there are enticing economic and business benefits in Mayor Bloomberg's development proposal. Julia Vitullo-Martin, the director of the Center for Urban Innovation at the Tri-State Area's Regional Plan Association, doesn't like the idea of evicting the current Willets Point business owners and thinks that Bloomberg's proposal has "a ton of question marks attached to it." However, she believes that the environmental benefits are reason enough to support redevelopment in Willets Point.

"There are very serious environmental issues at Willets Point--laughably so, as a matter of fact. People have been dumping all sorts of bad stuff on the street for decades and this stuff goes right into the bay," says Martin. Although she thinks that a perfect plan has yet to be proposed, she insists, "It's pretty clear that the one thing that cannot happen is a continuance of the current situation."

Imposing stricter environmental standards on the established Willets Point businesses might be a quick way to patch up the current environmental problems, but Martin is convinced that can't be done. "I think it truly is impossible at this point," she says.

When asked about Lipsky's concern that developing the area would create 80,000 new vehicle trips in Flushing every weekday, therefore clogging traffic and increasing the city's carbon footprint, Martin chuckles. "I don't believe that's worthy of a response," she says.

However, State Senator Bill Perkins disagrees with Martin's claim that a cleanup of Willets Point is impossible. Perkins, representing New York's 30th Senatorial District, which covers Harlem and parts of the Upper West Side, is fighting for statewide eminent domain reform. In 2005, he joined then-State Senate Minority Leader David Paterson to call for a moratorium on eminent domain cases after the Kelo v. New London decision. Paterson said he was "offended" by the Supreme Court's ruling. "We are trying to create a fairer playing field for the local business owners," Perkins says.

Regarding Willets Point, Senator Perkins believes the city made its own bed and now has to lie in it. "We in government are partially to blame for the condition of that area. We did not live up to our responsibilities to provide them with the appropriate infrastructure and environmentally-friendly waste-management systems." While he is adamant that the polluting of the Flushing Bay needs to be stopped, he believes that the city does have the capability to improve this blighted area without kicking the current business owners off their property.

***

Back in the Sambuccis' office, Daniel and Angela mill around the room before Daniel takes a peek outside. He prides himself on keeping one of the neatest lots in Willets Point, and the city seems to be rewarding him for it.

It is offering to buy out his business and help move it to College Point in Queens, a more gentrified neighborhood north of the Flushing Bay. "They are making reasonable offers to us," says Angela.

However, Richard Lipsky believes that the city's relative generosity with the Sambuccis is not indicative of how they will treat other Willets Point property owners. "I think the city was eager to demonstrate some movement and so they looked to give the best deal possible for the high-end owners, the ones who own the most property," says Lipsky. "The rest of them won't have that luxury."

"We belong in College Point. We're neater than anyone in College Point," says Daniel. Even though he has been reluctant to negotiate with the city, he sees the writing on the wall. "When I was young I would have chained myself to the fence. But now, I'm old. I just don't have it in me."

All of this adds up to a bittersweet ending for the Sambucci Family. "I really don't want to give this up, but if the city is going to take care of me like they said they will, fine," says Daniel. But in the end, something about this process just doesn't sit right with him. "You might as well say my life was here. I'm 79, and I came down here as a kid," he continues. "What can you pay for a man's life?"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-vines/here-lies-willets-point_b_461647.html

[Ninjahedge]

The wooden walls are painted a light mint-green, a six-foot Jesus statue, his head bowed and a look of peace on his face, stands in the back-left corner. The far-right corner features a wooden cross, a mini fridge, and a carefully crafted sculpture of the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, and a young Jesus.

Hindu, perhaps?

[ForestHillsGardens]

I have always supported this project, I am sick and tired of the auto shops by Citi Field, the auto shop area is dirty, dusty and the view is terrible from the (7) EL Stand-Point. I really feel that this redevelopment will revitalize the area perhaps even beyond Main St. and Roosevelt Ave., it'll be a phase of rebuilding Queens, redefining Flushing and planning for a better Queens and perhaps build up the infrastructure of the future of the City of New York. I really feel the shops, eatery and recreational facilities would be a very good place to have a Girls Night Out, Shopping trip, Relaxation trip, Social time, Guys night at the bar and/or just to be active, it would really make New York residents have a 'Florida' close by home.

[BiggieSmalls]

this makes too much sense.. it has to come together


Mets Owners Working With Real Estate Firm on Queens Arena for Islanders



32Comments
Say Something » (http://nhl.fanhouse.com/2010/06/14/mets-owners-working-with-real-estate-firm-on-queens-arena-for-is/2#cmtForm)


6/14/2010 10:30 AM ET By Christopher Botta (http://www.fanhouse.com/staff/christopher-botta/)
Print (javascript:void(0))AText Size
Email (http://nhl.fanhouse.com/2010/06/14/mets-owners-working-with-real-estate-firm-on-queens-arena-for-is/2#)[/URL] (http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?pub=fanhouse&v=250&source=tbx-250&tt=0&s=facebook&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnhl.fanhouse.com%2F2010%2F06%2F14 %2Fmets-owners-working-with-real-estate-firm-on-queens-arena-for-is%2F&title=Mets%20Owners%20Working%20With%20Real%20Esta te%20Firm%20on%20Queens%20Arena%20for%20Islanders&content=&sms_ss=1&lng=en) (http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?pub=fanhouse&v=250&source=tbx-250&tt=0&s=aim&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnhl.fanhouse.com%2F2010%2F06%2F14 %2Fmets-owners-working-with-real-estate-firm-on-queens-arena-for-is%2F&title=Mets%20Owners%20Working%20With%20Real%20Esta te%20Firm%20on%20Queens%20Arena%20for%20Islanders&content=&sms_ss=1&lng=en)More (http://nhl.fanhouse.com/2010/06/14/mets-owners-working-with-real-estate-firm-on-queens-arena-for-is/2#)







Christopher Botta
Senior NHL Writer


http://www.blogcdn.com/nhl.fanhouse.com/media/2010/06/91378834.jpgThe owners of the New York Mets have begun discussions with a leading real estate firm to strategize for a potential arena in Queens that would house the NHL's New York Islanders, an industry source has told FanHouse.

Jones Lang LaSalle, the project management company for the upcoming $775-850 million renovation of Madison Square Garden, has begun work on a feasibility study for an Islanders arena at Willets Point -- the property surrounding Citi Field, the second-year home of the Mets.

"This is beyond the preliminary stage," said the source. "You don't bring in a big hitter like JLL unless you're serious. This tells me the Islanders and Mets have made progress in a partnership to take the hockey team to Queens. If Charles Wang and Nassau can't cut a deal, this will be a great option."

Efforts to obtain comment from Jones Lang LaSalle have been unsuccessful.

One month ago, Newsday reported on discussions between Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon and Wang, the owner of the Islanders, about building an arena adjacent to Citi Field for his hockey team.

Since purchasing the Islanders in April of 2000, Wang has made scant progress with area politicians on the development of the Lighthouse Project, his proposed "transformation" of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and surrounding 90 acres. Town of Hempstead supervisor Kate Murray has promised Wang her consultants' counter-proposal to his vision this month. Hempstead's push-back is expected to be less than 50 percent of the scope Wang's real estate team not only designed more than six years ago, but was approved by the former leadership of Nassau County in 2006.

After years of meetings and zoning hearings, the response of Hempstead community leaders can best be summed up by Town spokesman Michael Deery. "Unlike the five metropolitan area franchises that opened magnificent facilities in the last year," Deery said recently, "Mr. Wang has tied the Coliseum's future to the construction of a mini-city along Hempstead Turnpike."

As a result of getting no results, Wang has taken down the official website of the Lighthouse Project. Most marketing materials and signage promoting the benefits of the proposed development have been taken out of the Coliseum and the Islanders' practice facility in Syosset, N.Y. Many Lighthouse staffers have been re-assigned to the Islanders or other Wang-owned businesses. Wang's dream of a mixed-use "iconic destination point" for himself and Long Island -- complete with an athletic complex (with three rinks), a Sport Technology center, hotel, office space and housing -- is all but dead.


Share (http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fnhl.fanhouse.com%2F2010% 2F06%2F14%2Fmets-owners-working-with-real-estate-firm-on-queens-arena-for-is%2F2%23comments&t=Mets%20Owners%20Working%20With%20Real%20Estate%2 0Firm%20on%20Queens%20Arena%20for%20Islanders%20--%20NHL%20FanHouse&src=sp)
Although the Islanders' owner has repeatedly declared that his wish is to keep the team in Nassau County, it appears he has turned a serious eye towards Queens. When he was eight years old, Wang's family moved from China to Flushing.

Despite the big step forward in working with power brokers Jones Lang La Salle, it remains uncertain if Jeff Wilpon and his father Fred, the Mets' chairman of the board, are interested in buying the Islanders from Wang. In Newsday last month, Jeff Wilpon said, "We haven't really discussed ownership. It has been more of, 'Can we get something synergistic with Citi Field and a hockey arena? What can happen here?'"

That's where Jones Lang LaSalle comes in.

In April, Jones Lang LaSalle was honored by the New York Landmarks Conservancy with awards for its work in the $16 million restoration of Manhattan's Beacon Theatre and the $550 million capital improvement program for increased security, traffic flow and restoration of the art deco lobby and other principal spaces of the Empire State Building.

As the company serves for the Madison Square Garden renovation, Jones Lang LaSalle could be selected officially as the manager of the Willets Point arena development. If so, it would be involved in creating timelines and financial controls and oversee the selection of the architect and construction team.

Unless Wang gets something close to the answers he needs from the Town of Hempstead and Nassau County, Jones Lang LaSalle and the Mets are ready to pave the way for the Islanders' relocation to Queens.


[URL]http://nhl.fanhouse.com/2010/06/14/mets-owners-working-with-real-estate-firm-on-queens-arena-for-is/2#comments

[BiggieSmalls]

battingly propoganda in Willets POint...

The Times reports that EDC Emails are mocking the viability of the product -- EDC emails sent to the times by the project opponents.

Emails Show State Officials Skepticism About WP Project.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/nyregion/13willets.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Then The NYDN reports (via EDC press release) that four more properties totally 33,000 sq feet have been purchased bringing the total to 80%

City's Willets Point development plan gets more land


THE CITY HAS scooped up four more properties in Willets Point (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Willets+Point) in recent months, helping to pave the way for the first phase of its $3 billion mega-development plan.
The newly acquired 33,000 square feet gives the city about 80% control of the 22-acre southwest portion, where construction is slated to begin on the gritty 62-acre industrial area, officials said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2010/08/12/2010-08-12_citys_willets_point_development_plan_gets_more_ land.html?r=ny_local/queens#ixzz0wUGMINKm



Why isnt the Ramp Project a slam dunk approval with the Federal and State Officials?

[Merry]

Judge Rejects Challenge Against Willets Point Project

By JAMES BARRON

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg won a victory on Friday for his $3 billion blueprint for apartments, offices and stores in the shadow of Citi Field in Willets Point, Queens, when a judge rejected a challenge from opponents (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/nyregion/27willets.html?scp=1&sq=Willets%20Point&st=cse) in the area.

The judge, Justice Joan A. Madden of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, turned down their request for an injunction to keep the city from going ahead with the project. Seth W. Pinsky, the president of the city’s Economic Development Corporation, said that the city now controls “about 80 percent” of the land for what is planned as the first phase of development.

The opponents included a Willets Point homeowner, 18 businesses and a group formed to fight the project, Willets Point United Against Eminent Domain. They asked Justice Madden to throw out the city’s environmental review of the project and the approvals by the City Planning Commission and the City Council.

She rejected their arguments against the environmental review, particularly as it focused on proposed new ramps from the Van Wyck Expressway. She said enough information had been provided to make possible “informed consideration and comment” on how the project would affect traffic in the area.

Michael Gerrard, a lawyer for the opponents, called the decision a “two-edged sword for the city.”

In a statement posted on the Web site of Willets Point United, a group that is fighting the city, he noted that in dismissing the opponents’ case, Justice Madden concluded that the environmental impact statement had adequately covered the traffic issues.

“But in so doing,” he said, the decision “stressed the terrible traffic effects forecast by the environmental impact statement; the need for federal approval for the Van Wyck ramps; and the fact that if the ramps are not approved, the project cannot go forward.”

“The city can’t paint one picture to the court and a completely different picture to the federal government,” he said.

Mr. Pinsky said the decision “moves Willets Point one step closer to becoming New York’s next great neighborhood.”

He added, “Redeveloping Willets Point will allow us to revitalize a neighborhood that has suffered too long from environmental contamination.”

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/judge-rejects-challenge-against-willets-point-project/#more-212059

http://www.observer.com/2010/real-estate/city-wins-key-willets-point-court-case

[BiggieSmalls]

Interesting Court decision in teh East Harlem Eminent Domain case that WILL effect the Willets Point Redevelopment.

the lawsuit seeking to halt the development was dismissed even though it was one judge's opinion that "whatever blight exists is due to the actions of the City and/or is located far outside the project area."

The major contention of the WP defense group is that the Blight IN the area is "due to the actions of the City"/ And this decision squarely solidifies the opinion of "So What?"

[Merry]

City's Iron Triangle Takeover Mapped For Your Convenience!

October 27, 2010, by Sara Polsky

http://ny.curbed.com/uploads/willetspointmap_10_10.jpg

The city's redevelopment of chop shop central, aka Willets Point, has seen some tough moments, but now deals between the city and Iron Triangle businesses to clear land for the megaproject are starting to close. The city has about 80 percent of the 62-acre development area in contract. Thirty of those properties have closed so far—the latest deed, for two more parcels of land, was recorded this week for $12 million—and the folks at PropertyShark have handily mapped them (the city-owned land's in blue above). With that taken care of, there's now even less reason to visit Citi Field any time soon!

First Salvage Shop Set to Leave Queens' Iron Triangle (http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/10/22/first_salvage_shop_set_to_leave_queens_iron_triang le.php) [Curbed]

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/10/27/citys_iron_triangle_takeover_mapped_for_your_conve nience.php

[BiggieSmalls]

things have been quiet on this project publically..

there was some spin from the opponents that three of the companies who swapped their properties for land in College POint are flipping it to Wal MArt or some such big box store.. dont understand how that affects anything.. as they just basically sold out their business .. if what was reported as "word on the street" is true.. but as we read Sambucci is moving on a schedule.

this map doesnt seem accurate as a number of properties in city control arent colored right.. Feinstein Iron Works being one.. (the odd shaped property bordering WP Blvd and 37th ave)

Seperately.. dont undertand why the city doesnt buy the old brick bus company building on 126th between 34th and 35th.. they've had a big AVAILABLE sign out there for a year or so..perhaps the cant agree on price..
or they get more for the cell towers on top than the price of selling\\

11397

[Merry]

City to Seize Land in Queens

Eminent-Domain Proceedings Set for Property Holdouts at Willets Point Project

By ELIOT BROWN

http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-MI279_NYWILL_G_20110203111554.jpg
New York City is set to initiate the eminent-domain process on holdout owners in part of
Willets Point, Queens, a site near Citi Field slated for a massive real-estate development.

Seeking to kick-start a massive Queens real-estate development project conceived in the boom years, the Bloomberg administration is moving to seize a portion of the site from private property owners.

Next week, the city plans to initiate the eminent-domain process on holdout owners who own property in the first 20-acre phase of the 62-acre project. The city also is planning to solicit bids from developers in the spring, according to city officials.

Known as Willets Point, the development site by Citi Field is slated to ultimately contain more than eight million square feet, with more than 5,000 apartments, a hotel and more than 1.7 million square feet of retail space.

The site currently is filled with junkyards and auto-repair shops, along with some larger industrial properties. The City Council in 2008 approved the use of eminent domain to acquire parcels from holdouts.

The property owners are expected to litigate to block the city action, although New York state laws give the government broad powers to use eminent domain. Similar recent development projects, like the new basketball arena being built at Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, have survived court challenges.

Seth Pinsky, president of the city's Economic Development Corp., said in an interview Wednesday that the city has purchase agreements with property owners for 88% of the first phase of the site.

There are nine holdouts whose land the city would seek to acquire, and others whose land would be acquired in later phases.

"We just can't wait any longer and need to know that if we can't reach those agreements, that we can still move forward," he said.

Opponents of the project have argued that the city isn't permitted to construct entrance ramps to the Van Wyck Expressway nearby that are called for as part of the project. Richard Lipsky, a lobbyist who represents business owners at the site, says that the eminent domain action was "an absolute disgrace."

"The city is going ahead with a project that no one knows what it will cost, with a developer that no one knows who it will be, and with ramps that no one knows whether they can be built," Mr. Lipsky says.

Mr. Pinsky said the city's position is that it isn't required to build the ramps—which would mitigate traffic congestion on the local streets—until later phases of the project.

The action comes as the city administration is making a bet that the real-estate development industry—in hibernation since 2008—has warmed enough that landlords are willing to take risks on giant construction projects. In April, city officials said, they plan to solicit bids from a set of developers who have previously showed interested in the site, including Related Cos., Muss Development and Sterling Equities.

The first phase of Willets Point is expected to include as much as 1.3 million square feet of development with hundreds of apartments, retail space and maybe a hotel.

Success is by no means assured, given that the site is far from Manhattan and it requires extensive infrastructure work and a cleanup from years of industrial use. Among other things, the site needs to be raised by as much as 7 feet to meet flood-plain requirements.

Further, during a contentious fight for approval with the City Council, the Bloomberg administration agreed to a number of community givebacks that would likely inhibit developer interest, such as a requirement to reserve 35% of the housing for low- to middle-income residents.

Still, the project has remained a priority for the administration, as it hasn't cut back its budget of about $400 million in city money over multiple years even as other economic development and affordable-housing projects have been trimmed or cut.

The scope, however, has been scaled back and split into phases.

Mr. Pinsky said the city was moving forward now as construction costs have fallen, and it has received a warm reception from the interested developers in anticipation of the city's request for proposals.

"We feel confident that we're going to get a robust response" to the request for proposals from developers, he said.

The eminent-domain action will trigger a month-long public comment period.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703960804576120420455780068.html


http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2011/02/03/city_ready_to_drop_an_iron_fist_on_the_iron_triang le.php#more

[BiggieSmalls]

Awesome news!!!

Looks like phase one has a chance to be completed by the all star game in 2013

[BiggieSmalls]

another similar article after the WP press conference yesterday
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/51051/

City Prepares to Seize Willets Point Properties

NEW YORK—Small business owners and workers gathered in front of a gas station in Willets Point, Queens, scared to lose their property and feeling pushed to the periphery. They are facing an uncertain future.

The city's Economic Development Corporation (EDC) will move ahead with the first phase of the Willets Point redevelopment plan (http://www.nycedc.com/ProjectsOpportunities/CurrentProjects/Queens/WilletsPointDevelopmentDistrict/Pages/WilletsPointDevelopmentDistrict.aspx) in the coming weeks, forcing the remaining tenants to leave. Locals expressed their concern and fear in a frosty press conference on Thursday afternoon.

The gathered crowd comprised scrap yard owners and workers, humble shop keepers, and many who have worked in the same place for decades. Unsure about where they would go if the city begins taking over their property against their will—under the eminent domain law—some of them have scraped together meager funds to hire a lawyer and a lobbyist.

more at...
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/51051/

[Ninjahedge]

"Humble shop keepers".


Hmm. They are making that cesspool seem almost quaint.

[BBMW]

Does everything have to be residential/hotel/office? Maybe this would be a good place for an updated industrial park?

[Merry]

Concern for Underclass as the City Progresses on Its Willets Point Plan

By DAN BILEFSKY

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/02/28/nyregion/willets/willets-articleLarge.jpg
The city plans a $3 billion project of apartments, office buildings, stores, restaurants and
a hotel in Willets Point, a 61-acre expanse of junkyards and auto-repair shops.

Two years ago, as the mayor attended the Mets’ home opener at the new Citi Field, Adrien Nicolescue, an auto mechanic from Romania, joined a procession of honking garbage trucks to protest the city’s plans to condemn the nearby Willets Point area and build a $3 billion project of apartments, office buildings, stores, restaurants and a hotel.

But as his comrades geared up for another showdown with the mayor at a public hearing on the project scheduled for Wednesday, Mr. Nicolescue decided to pack up and leave. “I am going home, back to Romania,” he said, standing on the same pothole-pocked corner of Willets Point where he has been drawing in customers for windshield repairs for 36 years.

Willets Point, in Queens, is a 61-acre expanse of junkyards and auto-repair shops so squalid that local business owners compare it to Iraq. “I don’t want to leave,” Mr. Nicolescue said, “but I have nowhere to go. This may look like the third world, but it is my world.”

For half a century, Willets Point has proved remarkably intractable — Mayors Robert F. Wagner Jr. and Rudolph W. Giuliani were among those who failed in their attempts to give the area a facelift. But in the latest four-year skirmish, which has provoked heated debates on class and ethnicity, inspired furious lobbying on all sides and spawned allegations of conflicts of interest, the administration of Michael R. Bloomberg has gotten further than its predecessors, managing to persuade many of the larger businesses to sell out or relocate.

The city agency overseeing the project, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, hopes that at the hearing on Wednesday it can make the case that it is redeeming a hazardous industrial wasteland.

Seth W. Pinsky, president of the corporation, said in an interview that the project would create 5,300 new jobs, provide affordable housing and generate $25 billion in investment over the next 30 years. He said that 29 developers had already expressed interest, and that the city would choose finalists this spring.

But opponents of the Bloomberg plan counter that the project is speculative and environmentally unsound. They insist that the area, however bedraggled, has become an Ellis Island of sorts for a newly arriving underclass that depends on it to get by. They also complain bitterly that the city is shutting down thriving small businesses that have nowhere else to go.

The city will have 90 days to respond to concerns raised at the hearing on Wednesday. Officials said they planned to proceed with the project, including seizing property, if necessary, by the middle of 2012.

City officials estimate that Willets Point is home to 255 businesses, which employ about 1,700 people, some in sheds made of tin or cinder blocks. Of 74 property owners, 28 have agreed to sell their land or relocate, city officials say; the city already owns 90 percent of the property where the first five-year phase of development would go.

While opposition to the plans remains strong, people on both sides said that the city’s divide-and-conquer strategy seems to have worked, with many of the largest landowners conceding defeat and planning to depart, leaving the smaller shops and the immigrants who work there to fight a lonely battle.

“I’m not going to fight a man like Bloomberg: You know you aren’t going to win,” said Daniel Sambucci, 80, who said he had agreed to accept an offer of a “few million” dollars from the city for his 2.5 acres of land and to relocate his 61-year-old auto salvage company to a nearby neighborhood. “They treated us pretty good. But I am upset that I paid $50,000 a year in taxes for years for a place with no sewers. This place is worse than Iraq, and the city let it become this way.”

On a recent afternoon, as garbage cans burned, Mexican norteño music wailed from boom boxes on the hoods of cars. Large pools of swirling dirty water overwhelmed unpaved roads. Locals complained that the police handed out tickets for parking cars on the sidewalk, even though there were no sidewalks.

Whatever the challenges, some are determined to stay. Michael Rikon, a lawyer representing 82 businesses that have refused to leave, said that he was preparing to file a lawsuit against the city, claiming that the project flouted environmental laws. But he acknowledged that history and precedent were not on his side.

In November 2009, the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, ruled that the state could take businesses and private property for the $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. Legal experts said that decision reaffirmed New York’s right to use eminent domain even as many state legislatures have been moving in the opposite direction.

While some critics have portrayed the redevelopment of Willets Point as a class battle by a billionaire mayor intent on supplanting scrap metal with sushi, the Bloomberg administration has some unlikely allies in the project. “We see Willets Point as a form of modern-day slavery in which poor people are working in conditions worse than in their home countries,” said Eduardo Giraldo, head of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Queens. “It is better to shut it down.”

Mr. Pinsky, of the Economic Development Corporation, stressed that the first phase of the project would include 140 affordable housing units and noted that the city had offered free English language lessons and training for Willets Point’s dispossessed. But, Mr. Giraldo said, many of the immigrant workers could not take advantage of the classes because they were already working 12-hour days.

Meanwhile, some small business owners are frustrated that their neighbors are getting lucrative deals from the city and they are not. Ralph St. John, whose company has built apartment buildings and parks for the city for nearly 20 years, said he had been offered nothing, and that his 18 employees would lose their jobs if he were forced to leave.

City officials said that Mr. St. John’s land was not earmarked for development in the first phase, and that by the time the city was ready to make a deal with him, his land would probably have increased in value. But Mr. St. John, who is 77, does not want to live in limbo.

“If you want what I got, act like a man and come face me,” he said. “Don’t use eminent domain and steal from me.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/28/nyregion/28willets.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

[Ninjahedge]

The place is a poop-hole.

Trying to save the poop-hole by saying it is somehow the land of opportunity is BS. I feel for some of these guys, but at the same time it is not an obligation to keep a crappy area around IF a better use can be made of it.

There is no art, no culture, no charity there. It is just a junk slum where a bunch of people work, but nobody really lives.


Here's the question though. Although I may detest this area and otehrs like it, with their closure and "cleaning up", where do all of our industrial sites get pushed to?

You con't exactly say "New Jersey", they are doing the same and there is only so much room in Bayone...

How can the NYC area keep "gentrifying"? Where does its supporting industry go?

[BiggieSmalls]

there are plenty of locations in existing industrial areas that are vacant for example By Rikers Island or Parts of The Old Flushing Airport lcoation.. even by La Guardia or JFK Airport there are plots sufficient to support an "Auto Repair District" significantly larger than the existing WP site... The Bronx by the Sheridan Expressway has a bunch of such sites.

people think NYC is some completely developed place but there are literally acres of land that lay vacant.. just drive around the highways of NYC.

what we dont need is a highly toxic industrial waste land sandwiched between a shiny new stadium and the largest Park inthe city and a growing high population area across the flushing River

[futurecity]

Pardon my asking, but isn't it odd to have residential real-estate development so close to the final approach path to a busy airport? Noise concerns?

As we are talking about making this area nice, how about decking over some of the railyards and highways in the park nearby? There is a highway that splits the FM park which could be decked over like they are doing in L.A to create a continuity of parkland. The rail yards have a large amount of developable space that could hold retail, attractions, etc... right beside the baseball stadium.

[BiggieSmalls]

^ ever been to Howard Beach?

[futurecity]

Nope. I don't see a major new development there.

It seems odd that such a lavish development is being built at the end of a major runway.....I hope they insulate the buildings for noise.

Pretty good development, but the location leaves much to be desired for housing.

[BiggieSmalls]

your question was related to noise levels in a residential real estate development.

Almost 30,000 people live in Howard Beach Queens in the shadow of the main JFK runway.. it's a real nice middle class bedroom community with clean streets and very little crime.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=howard+beach+queens&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Howard+Beach,+Queens,+New+York&gl=us&ll=40.657462,-73.808212&spn=0.06941,0.130291&t=h&z=13

[futurecity]

I would have thought Howard beach was developed before JFK?

[JSsocal]

Old howard beach was built in the 30s, and new development more in the west was done in the mid 1960s.

[Ninjahedge]

FC, it really does not matter when it was built. If people still live there then the plane traffic is not a #1 concern.

Would people prefer it not to be there? Probably, but it alone is not a project killer.

[futurecity]

Oh, its you again. I'm surprised.

[Merry]

In Willets Point, Workers and a Resident Fight On

By DAN BILEFSKY

He came dressed as a revolutionary soldier, complete with tights and a cap reminiscent of George Washington’s.

But Joseph Ardizzone, 78, the last remaining resident of Willets Point, conceded on Wednesday that the fight against the Bloomberg administration for a bedraggled piece of real estate in the shadow of the Mets’ new stadium in Queens was not a battle for the faint-hearted.

“I’ve been in the same block for 78 years,” he said, accusing the mayor of a shameless land grab. “Where will I go? The city should be ashamed of what it is doing.”

Mr. Ardizzone was perhaps the most plucky among those, including dozens of immigrant workers and business owners, who showed up at a public hearing at the Flushing Public Library in Queens to protest plans by the mayor to overhaul Willets Point by making room for 5,500 apartments, parks, office buildings, stores, restaurants and a hotel.

At the emotional hearing, opponents of the city’s plans for the $3 billion development project vowed to try to kill it in court, while city officials said they would forge ahead with plans to rejuvenate Willets Point, a 61-acre expanse of junkyards and auto-repair shops — and one resident, Mr. Ardizzone — so blighted that locals refer to it as Iraq.

The four-hour hearing was the latest showdown in a four-year battle that has flared tempers and inspired furious lobbying. It was peppered by loud heckling from a crowd of Hispanic workers who say they stand to lose their jobs when the businesses at which they work are seized by the city for the project.

Proponents of the Bloomberg plan, including members of the hotel and construction industry, local politicians and immigration advocates, spoke zealously Wednesday of the project as a bold example of the mayor’s quest to redeem one of the city’s most blighted neighborhoods. But critics countered that the project amounted to gentrification by decree and accused the city of engaging in a grandiose and speculative scheme at a time when it was struggling to pay teachers and firemen.

Tom McKnight, Willets Point project manager at the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the agency overseeing the project, said at the hearing that the city was redeeming an environmentally contaminated area that had suffered from chronic neglect.

He said the city’s plans would create 5,300 new jobs; provide sewers, water lines and roads; and create a vibrant commercial hub that would generate billions in lost investment.

But opponents said Wednesday that they would fight on and that they planned to reopen a case against the city in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on the ground that the project breached environmental rules.

Michael B. Gerrard, a lawyer representing a group of small business owners, said his case rested on a seemingly arcane but decisive issue: two ramps that the city had pledged to build to connect Willets Point to the Van Wyck Expressway and help offset the up to 80,000 vehicle trips a day that experts say the entire development will generate.

Opponents of the development insist the city cannot use eminent domain unless the ramps are approved by the Federal Highway Administration and the State Transportation Department. In August, the State Supreme Court in Manhattan turned down a request for an injunction by Mr. Gerrard that focused on the two ramps. But Mr. Gerrard said Wednesday that the city had reneged on its promise to gain approval for the ramps, thereby breaching its assurances to the court.

City officials said that the city’s initial pledge to build the ramps had been based on development of all 62 acres of Willets Point and that subsequent environmental assessments undertaken by the city had determined that the traffic generated during the first five-year phase of development would not make construction of the ramps necessary in the short term.

“We are continuing to work toward the necessary regulatory approvals for the ramps and anticipate approval in the coming months,” Mr. McKnight said at the hearing.

For nearly 50 years, development and city officials have tried in vain to revitalize Willets Point, a neighborhood that the master planner Robert Moses once described as an “eyesore and a disgrace to the borough of Queens.”

In the 1960s, Mr. Moses tried to use park money to clean up the site, but was beaten back by business owners with the help of a young lawyer named Mario M. Cuomo.

The city has 90 days to respond to concerns raised at the hearing; officials say they plan to proceed with the plans, including seizing property, if necessary, by the middle of next year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/nyregion/03willets.html?ref=nyregion

[Ninjahedge]

Oh, its you again. I'm surprised.

Please try to stay On Topic FC.

[BiggieSmalls]

so the word on the street is the EDC is delaying the construction of the OFF ramps to the Van Wyck til at least 2017 as they said it's not necessary for phase one.. which will be predominantly retail/destination entertainment and a hotel with some modest housing..

the volume generation estimates looked way out of sorts.. and the objection to the ramps seems very sketchy..they comment that a left lane exit will throw a monkey wrench into the traffic flow.. i've seen plenty of these and it's really not an issue. but they arent doing the road work til plhase 2 is ready to go anyway..

the islanders have to find a new home by 2015. with any luck the wilpons will be out of the Mets way before then and hopefully some more well capitalized owner will seriously investigate the CitiField parking lot as an option... shouldnt take more than 2 years to build an arena.

[GordonGecko]

the islanders have to find a new home by 2015

Barclay Center

[BiggieSmalls]

^ Barclay's capacity configuration for ice hockey would be the lowest in the NHL and below the league's requirements.

http://www.netsdaily.com/2011/1/7/1920547/would-the-nets-share-barclays-with-isles
Would Nets Share Barclays Center With Islanders?

http://cdn3.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/806475/72824_islanders_flames_hockey.jpg
(http://www.netsdaily.com/photos/would-the-nets-share-barclays-with-isles) Jeff McIntosh - APMore photos » (http://www.netsdaily.com/photos/would-the-nets-share-barclays-with-isles)

Browse more photos » (http://www.netsdaily.com/photos/would-the-nets-share-barclays-with-isles)

There's new speculation that the Islanders might be considering a move to Barclays Center. The Daily News reports Brooklyn native Nelson Peltz, an investor on the board of Wendy's and Arby's, is "kicking the tires" on the Islanders who are stuck in the Nassau Coliseum, which now that the IZOD is empty, is viewed as the worst venue in sports.
Peltz's interest in buying the club from Charles Wang sparked speculation about the Islanders moving to his hometown borough and the Barclays Center, where the Nets (http://www.sbnation.com/nba/teams/new-jersey-nets) are set to play in 2012, according to the News. Barclays spokesman Barry Baum said the teams have not discussed sharing the arena.
The problem with moving a hockey team to Barclays is that it is such a tight basketball-centric bowl. Too many seats would have to be removed to accommodate a hockey pad and attendance would be limited to less than 15,000 and it's doubtful the NHL would approve an arena with that small a capacity.

[futurecity]

Major League Soccer also wants another team in NYC at some point. The parking lots are a good size for an MLS stadium. I don't think there would be room for both, but perhaps. Anyway, i think it would be best if Wang get's the stadium in LI done. I don't think Queens would be a big hockey market.

[BiggieSmalls]

if you have the time there's an interesting new document on the edc web site at:

http://www.nycedc.com/ProjectsOpportunities/CurrentProjects/Queens/WilletsPointDevelopmentDistrict/Documents/Willets_Point_Site_Conditions_Update.pdf

WP Neighborhood COnditions Sudy - Site Conditions Assessment Update.

It is a lot by lot evaluation of the conditions down there including the change from the last time the study was done in 2008.
It includes all building code violations, lot conditions and site utilizations in the project area during the past three years
Some sites have deteriored significantly and others have seem to have been abandoned or shut down.

OVer all it paints a shocking picture of the site conditions for those who dont care to brave little beirut.

[JCMAN320]

The NHL should just move the Islanders they are a worthless hockey team with an old ancient arena and they can they barely average 10,000 fans; they are like a minor league franchise. They can't compete with the Rangers and Devils period!

[BiggieSmalls]

Willets Point United stands by lobbyist Richard Lipsky despite Kruger bribery allegations

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/03/12/2011-03-12_willets_point_united_stands_by_lobbyist_richard _lipsky_despite_kruger_bribery_al.html

A group fighting a city redevelopment plan in Queens says it's standing by its lobbyist - despite charges he bribed state Sen. Carl Kruger.

Willets Point United, which is in a critical stage in its fight against the plan to develop the gritty industrial zone, is sticking with lobbyist Richard Lipsky.

Jerry Antonacci, head of the group and a property owner in the so-called Iron Triangle, said he won't make a move until all the facts are in.

"If he's ever proven guilty then we'll take the proper steps but right now these are just accusations," he said.

The feds have charged Lipsky with paying Kruger to grease the way for his clients in Albany.

Another Willets Point property owner Len Scarola, 34, said the charges against Lipsky do not affect their fight "in any way."

"He's the one person who stood by us, fighting for small business," he said.

Lipsky's client list has shrunk since prosecutors charged him Thursday.

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, the Committee to Save New York, and Forest City Ratner, the group developing the Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn, have all cut him loose.

Antonacci said his group will do the same if the allegations prove true.

"Lipsky's just the mouthpiece. We can hire another mouthpiece if we need to," he said. Lipsky declined comment. http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/images_pb/misc/progress.gif

[ZippyTheChimp]

Lobbyist Lipsky’s Blog: ‘We’re Certainly on Suspension.’


http://www.observer.com/files/article/lipsky222.jpg


March 11, 2011 | 12:33 PM | By Anna Sale

Richard Lipsky, the connected lobbyist who was charged in the federal corruption investigation that also ensnared two legislators, ran a blog for the Neighborhood Retail Alliance (http://momandpopnyc.blogspot.com/2011/03/cart-wheeling-and-dealing.html). A post on Wednesday morning about a Wall Street Journal article about food cart permits concluded, “This is an area that is replete with corruption.”

About twenty-four hours after that post went up, Lipsky was surrendering to the feds.

That post will be his last, for now. Reached by phone, Lipsky said he’s been advised by lawyers not to comment. But when asked about the future of his blog, he said, “I don’t know yet. We’re certainly on suspension.”

“Everything I post can be misinterpreted. Everything will be seen in light of what’s been happening,” he continued. “Right now, I have to be devoted to defending myself.”

Lipsky has been a player in many high-profile development fights, most recently in the campaign to keep Wal-Mart out of New York City. In 2008 New York Observer power ranking of the players in New York real estate, Lipsky came in at 80. “To many large developers, particularly those who build big-box retail, Mr. Lipsky is a pain in the ass,” his blurb began.

Along with the Neighborhood Retail Alliance, Lipsky’s clients (http://www.nyc.gov/lobbyistsearch/search?lobbyist=richard+lipsky&op=&pg_l=1) included Atlantic Yards Development Corporation and Forest City Ratner, Keep NYC Congestion Free, Willets Point United, and Tuck-It-Away, a self-storage company with an unfortunate name, given the current circumstances.

Source:http://empire.wnyc.org/2011/03/lobbyist-lipskys-blog-were-certainly-on-suspension/

[BiggieSmalls]

Another one bites the dust -- actually one of a handful of decently constructed buildings in the area.

http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2011/04/07/queens/qns_willets_fire_20110407.txt

Willets Point fire guts 5 businesses




By Connor Adams Sheets
Thursday, April 7, 2011 11:04 AM EDT

http://images.townnews.com/yournabe.com/art/tool_icons/icon-comment.gifComment (http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2011/04/07/queens/qns_willets_fire_20110407.txt#comment) (No comments posted.) http://www.yournabe.com/art/tool_icons/icon-email.gif
Email To a Friend (http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2011/04/07/queens/qns_willets_fire_20110407.eml)


http://images.townnews.com/yournabe.com/content/articles/2011/04/07/queens/qns_willets_fire_20110407.jpg (http://www.yournabe.com/content/articles/2011/04/07/queens/qns_willets_fire_20110407.jpg) The city Department of Buildings received complaints in 2008 about illegal gas pipes in a commercial building that was gutted by a fire in Willets Point last week. Photo by Connor Adams Sheets
A firefighter sustained a minor injury Friday evening after a three-alarm blaze tore through a two-story commercial building in Willets Point, gutting the property and sending black smoke billowing into the air, the FDNY said.

The property, which houses a number of businesses, was so badly damaged that the city Department of Buildings and Office of Emergency Management informed the FDNY Monday that they were boarding up the building at 126-12 34th Ave. and the city DOB issued a full vacate order on the property.

A call came in reporting the fire at 5:25 p.m. Friday, and it took a total of 138 firefighters from 33 units until 7:12 p.m. to get the blaze under control, according to FDNY spokesman John Ryan.

Ryan said Monday there has been no finding as to whether arson is suspected in the blaze.

“We don’t have any cause or determination yet. That will take a while,” Ryan said. “It’ll take a couple days or maybe a week.”

The brick building has five commercial units, according to property records. Businesses with their addresses listed as being housed in the building include Sotos Marble Granite and Tiles Corp., Dugout Grill and Silver Star Hand Car Wash.

In the winter of 2008, DOB inspectors visited the property twice to respond to a complaint about illegal or defective gas piping but were unable to gain access to the building, and no violation was issued, according to DOB records.

“Caller states illegal piping of gas line in commercial building/caller is paying and gas is going to everyone in building/caller has been smelling gas for the last week because of problem with the electr (sic),” the records said.

Fire marshals were still investigating Tuesday whether or not gas lines were a factor in the fire, according to the FDNY.

The city plans to undertake a $3 billion redevelopment of the 62-acre derelict Willets Point area. In the 20-acre first construction phase of its construction, the city Economic Development Corp. is moving forward with eminent domain proceedings against nine businesses which have not agreed to sell their land to the city to make way for the new development.


(http://adsys.townnews.com/c36275064/creative/yournabe.com/queens+instory/245131-1296507683.jpg?r=http://fideliscare.org/)
The EDC said the building is not located in the first phase of the proposed development’s construction area, and that as such the owners of the property and its tenants have not received eminent domain notices from the city. The EDC did not say whether or not the building’s owners have signed a relocation agreement with the city.

Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538

[Taz]

The NHL should just move the Islanders they are a worthless hockey team with an old ancient arena and they can they barely average 10,000 fans; they are like a minor league franchise. They can't compete with the Rangers and Devils period!

The NHL doesn't have the authority to move any team, since each team (ok, minus the Coyotes) is privately owned and the arenas aren't owned by the league either. The owner would have to pick up and move the franchise, or sell it to someone who wants to move, and then the NHL has to approve the sale AND the move, and neither will happen since apparently the Coyotes are headed back to Winnipeg, and supposedly the Thrashers are going to Quebec. Also, you're a damn devils fan living in NYC. If you beat us tomorrow we're gonna have problems :(

[BiggieSmalls]

Loos liek the NYS DOT is going to green light the Van Wyck ramps proposal.. great news for the development as that takes one hurdle away from the development foes.. And it affects the case in front of Judge Maddon who is awaiting a brief from teh NYC EDC on why she should no reopen the case brought by opponents based ont eh lack of ramp approval.. the EDC contended that they dont need the ramps for phase one. now that they are all but approved the case in front of Judge Maddon is moot.

[BiggieSmalls]

more good news

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20110505/REAL_ESTATE/110509928

City gets key Willets Point approval

State and federal officials allow for a public review of plans for two highway ramps essential to the 61-acre redevelopment project in Queens.


Late Wednesday, the Bloomberg administration took a significant step toward the redevelopment of Willets Point, Queens. The state Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration approved the Economic Development Corp.'s environmental assessment of off-ramps proposed for the Van Wyck Expressway. The city, which has called the ramps essential to the massive Queens project, can now go ahead with a required public review process.
A handful of Willets Point property owners have been trying to halt the 61-acre redevelopment by arguing that the city reneged on a promise not to condemn any land until state and federal officials approved the two ramps. A court hearing next month on that question now appears moot.
“Receiving this approval allows us to overcome a number of procedural hurdles that have threatened to delay this important, job-creating project,” an EDC spokeswoman said in a statement to Crain's. “Willets Point is now one step closer to becoming a center of economic growth and the site of a historic environmental cleanup.”
Once public comments are received, the city will resubmit its assessment for final state and federal approval.
In the meantime, the city said it will move ahead with the first phase of the project, which does not rely on the ramps. Splitting the project into two phases allowed the city to move ahead without acquiring the holdouts' private property or getting approval for the ramps, which had dragged on for many months. The Bloomberg administration has been pursuing a parallel course to acquire the property using the power of eminent domain.
On Wednesday, the city advanced its efforts to buy the land by issuing a “determination and findings” report, a procedural step required under state eminent domain law.
Opponents, whose properties sit on a swath of industrial land near Flushing, Queens, said they will continue to fight the city's plan both in and out of court.
“The current review process for the Van Wyck ramps has been tainted by deficient and fraudulent data that the regulatory authorities are well aware of,” said Jake Bono, a small business owner and member of the opposition group Willets Point United. “There is no way that the ramps can qualify and be approved under the Federal Highway Authority guidelines. We will be advancing this before any review panel and before the courts if it becomes necessary to expose any malfeasance.”
A Bloomberg administration official testified at a hearing in March that the plan is “aimed at transforming a largely underutilized, approximately 61-acre site with substandard conditions and substantial environmental degradation into a lively, mixed-use, sustainable community and regional destination.”
The 20-acre first phase includes commercial, residential and hotel development, as well as two acres of open space. The city said it expects to issue requests for proposals to developers interested in the project in the coming weeks. The city now controls nearly 90% of the property in the first-phase area, with nine private property owners remaining. It estimates that the first phase will yield 4,600 construction jobs and 1,800 permanent positions.

[GordonGecko]

http://www.queenscourier.com/articles/2011/10/05/news/top_stories/doc4e8cb65a58e92280038818.txt

Another step closer to the new Willets Point

The chop shop wasteland that is Willets Point continues to inch toward a rebirth.

According to published reports, major developers and the owners of the New York Mets are among the firms that submitted Requests for Proposal (RFP) for the right to develop the site adjacent to Citi Field in Flushing.

Sterling Equities, which is controlled by Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, teamed up with The Related Companies and submitted a proposal to develop phase one of the project, which covers 12.75 acres. Other bidders include Flushing-based TDC Development and Silverstein Properties – the latter of which is building three towers at the World Trade Center site.

Though the firms would not comment on the proposals, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC) said that it has received numerous proposals and that each one will get a fair review and equal consideration.

“After receiving numerous responses for the first phase of development, we are another step closer to the new Willets Point,” said EDC spokesperson Jennifer Friedberg. “This project will create thousands of jobs and allow an environmentally contaminated area to become a model center for economic growth for Queens and New York City. We are eager to continue examining the proposals and to create the blueprint for the future of Willets Point.”

The effort to redevelop Willets Point – dubbed “The Iron Triangle” – has been a long and arduous process and requires several steps before a shovel can be put in the ground. The site requires environmental remediation, infrastructure upgrades and land acquisition leading up to the project, which the city has split into three phases, covering 61.4 acres and approximately nine million square feet of development.

While the city controls a majority of the land, the remainder might have to be scooped up by Eminent Domain. The first phase, which includes housing and retail, is projected to be completed by 2016 and the entire Willets Point project is scheduled to be finished by 2022.

[Don31]

Bidders emerge for Willets Point megaproject

Two major developers, as well as the real estate firm of the New York Mets' owners, have submitted proposals to turn the Queens property into a modern venue of entertainment, retail, hospitality and housing.

Daniel Massey
October 3, 2011 12:44 p.m.

At least three real estate firms have submitted proposals for the right to redevelop Willets Point.
Also See


Two major developers and the Mets' owners' real estate firm are among the firms that submitted proposals for the right to redevelop Willets Point, sources said.

The Related Companies has teamed up with Sterling Equities, which is controlled by Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, to submit a proposal to redevelop the 12.75 acres included in the Queens project's first phase, the sources said. Silverstein Properties, which is building three towers at the World Trade Center site, also threw its hat into the ring.

None of the firms would comment. A real estate source said Sterling Equities had teamed up on bids with more than one firm.

The Queens-based Times Ledger reported last month that Flushing-based TDC Development also made a bid. Opponents of the development cried foul at TDC Development's proposal because the firm played a role in the Flushing Willets Point Corona Local Development Corp., a nonprofit organization of private and public sector stakeholders seeded partially with city funds that advocated for the redevelopment.

“The city was paying for private developers to lobby,” said a spokesman for Willets Point United.

TDC Development did not respond to a request for comment.

City officials would not say how many proposals they received by last month's deadline, but indicated they were satisfied with the quantity and quality of the submissions.

“After receiving multiple responses for the first phase of development, we are another step closer to the new Willets Point,” said a spokeswoman for the city's Economic Development Corp.

Twenty-nine firms were eligible to submit bids, based on an earlier qualifying round. Among those firms, the Albanese Organization, the Gotham Organization, the Westfield Group, the Richman Group of New York, Edward J. Minskoff Equities and Hamlin Ventures confirmed they did not submit bids. The other firms did not respond to requests for comment.

Queens leaders tried to get Islanders owner Charles Wang to team up with one of the qualified bidders, but he didn't bite, a borough source said.

The redevelopment of rundown Willets Point is a complicated endeavor, requiring environmental remediation, infrastructure upgrades and land acquisition. To speed things along, the city has split the controversial project, which covers 61.4 acres and calls for nearly 9 million square feet of development, into three phases. The first calls for up to 680,000-square-feet of retail space, as many as 400 units of mixed-income housing, up to 387 hotel rooms, and about two acres of open space.

The project overall calls for some 5,000 housing units, but observers questioned whether there are enough in the first phase to make residential development viable, and said responses are likely focused on entertainment, retail and hospitality.

“I agree with their theory—get a shovel in the ground before the mayor leaves office,” said Jack Friedman, executive director of the Queens Chamber of Commerce. “But it's got to have something behind it. The reason I heard most often from developers who decided not to bid was it wasn't substantial enough. It's such a small space.”

The city controls about 90% of the land in the phase one area, and has not ruled out using eminent domain to obtain the rest. A decision on a developer is expected by the spring. The first phase is projected to be completed by 2016, and the final project is scheduled to be finished by 2022.

Read more: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20111003/REAL_ESTATE/111009993#ixzz1a2nTpAAY

[lofter1]

The plan described at the NYCEDC website (http://www.nycedc.com/projectsopportunities/currentprojects/queens/willetspointdevelopmentdistrict/pages/willetspointdevelopmentdistrict.aspx) sounds dull as dishwater.

14194

The redevelopment plan will include:

Thousands of housing units serving a mix of incomes and demographics
Exciting new retail and entertainment amenities
A new, high-quality hotel
New York City’s first non-Manhattan convention center
Office space
Open space, parks, and playgrounds
A new public school to meet the needs of the growing community
LEED-certified green buildings and infrastructure
It overlooks the water for Gawd's Sake. Put a big sucker Ferris Wheel like the London Eye rising above the freeway interchange, overlooking the bay. Some sort of destination to get folks to travel there. But, no, we're going to get another "mixed use" development like something out of Any City USA.

[TREPYE]

It overlooks the water for Gawd's Sake. Put a big sucker Ferris Wheel like the London Eye rising above the freeway interchange, overlooking the bay. Some sort of destination to get folks to travel there. But, no, we're going to get another "mixed use" development like something out of Any City USA.

Um... there is a ballpark and a convention center. A little more enticing than a ferris wheel IMO (thats what Coney Island's for).

Great opportiunity for Citifield to get a nice right field skyline backdrop...

[ZippyTheChimp]

And the USTA. Lots of people go there.

Don't need no stinking ferris wheel.

[lofter1]

Both Mets & USTA are to the west of Willets. What is there to bring folks into the Triangle. OK. The convention center. But those folks go in and then leave (or at least they will here because there's nothing exciting for them to do). The description claims it will include "Exciting new retail and entertainment amenities" but I guess in this day and age that means movie multi-plexes and bowling alleys. No vision.

And the London Eye ain't no ordinary Coney Island Ferris Wheel.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Both Mets & USTA are to the west of Willets.Citifield is across the street. Bth the ballpark and USTA are near the subway and LIRR. If you're going to see a ballgame or tennis, that's how you'll get there.


What is there to bring folks into the Triangle.Why is necessary to bring people specifically into the Triangle? I thought they were building a neighborhood:

Thousands of housing units serving a mix of incomes and demographics.

Unless you're suggesting a large entertainment-zone (like Coney Island), how many people are going to schlepp out to Willets Point just to ride on a ferris wheel? Think about where in London the Eye is located.

The problem with the area is that no one lives there. Citifield should be in a neighborhood.

[Ninjahedge]

Meh, he just wants a Ferris Wheel. I see no real harm in it...

The thing is, what he is saying is right, to an extent. If you want the kind of development they seem to be describing, all you have to do is drive along the Hudson in NJ. Many of the low-lying areas along the Palisades have already done this "mixed use". You end up with condos and shopping malls.

[lofter1]

I'd rather see a Ferris Wheel at the west edge of Queens, at the mouth of Newton Creek, when they get that development going. Better views from up top.

Or at the edge of Hudson Yards overlooking the Hudson River. Or even out on one of piers in HRP.

Yep, me wants a big sucker Ferris Wheel.

[BiggieSmalls]

Developers put in plans to remake Willets Point At least four bidders are in line for phase one, including retail, housing, hotel rooms
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20111016/REAL_ESTATE/310169969 (http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20111016/REAL_ESTATE/310169969)

Almost five years after Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a sweeping plan to make over Willets Point, a 61-acre swath of pockmarked streets and auto shops in northeast Queens, the redevelopment is finally springing to life. At least four teams of bidders submitted proposals to build the project's first phase, and off-site infrastructure improvements will begin this fall in an area that has bedeviled politicians and planners since Robert Moses.
Crain's has identified four of the bidders, including The Related Companies and Silverstein Properties, though none of them would comment, citing a gag order imposed by the city.
“We are another step closer to the new Willets Point,” a spokeswoman for the city's Economic Development Corp. said. “This project will create thousands of jobs and allow an environmentally contaminated area to become a model center of economic growth for Queens and New York City.”
Back in 2007, Mr. Bloomberg called the future of Willets Point “very bright indeed,” but the path to that future quickly developed Willets Point-size potholes. The City Council approved the mayor's vision to turn the so-called Iron Triangle into a retail, residential and entertainment district in 2008, just as the economy tanked. And a gritty group of area business owners used legal maneuvers to throw the project off course. City officials found themselves without full control of the site, challenged in their quest for highway-ramp approvals and staring down a brutal financing environment.
Even as the project moves forward, questions remain. The redevelopment is complicated, requiring environmental remediation, infrastructure upgrades and land acquisition. The city controls 90% of the phase-one areas, but has not ruled out using eminent domain to secure the remaining parcels, which would create a storm of opposition.
Perhaps more significantly, the division of the project into three stages—intended to get it started faster—has raised doubts that it will work financially for developers. The first phase calls for up to 680,000 square feet of retail space, as many as 400 units of mixed-income housing, up to 387 hotel rooms and about two acres of open space. The city has also asked developers to propose a vision for future stages.
“It seems like there's more interest in getting something done in this administration than in getting the whole thing done,” said Jack Friedman, executive director of the Queens Chamber of Commerce. “When you start putting things into phase twos and threes, the likelihood of it ever happening gets slimmer and slimmer.”
However, L. Nicolas Ronderos, director of economic and community development at the Regional Plan Association, said the phasing has benefits, especially in a tough economic climate, because it allows infrastructure and acquisition costs to be spread out over time. The first phase could “catalyze development” of the future phases, he said.

The bidders, according to political and real estate sources, include:



World Trade Center developer Silverstein Properties, which has teamed up with Taubman Centers Inc., a Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based real estate investment trust that develops retail properties, and Canyon Johnson Urban Funds, a series of joint ventures between Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Canyon Capital Realty Advisors that focus on urban areas.

Hudson Yards developer The Related Companies, partnering with Sterling Equities, the real estate firm controlled by Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz. The development area is across the street from the Mets' ballpark, Citi Field.

TDC Development & Construction Corp., a Flushing, Queens-based firm that is developing Flushing Commons. It also has teamed up with Sterling.

Arlington, Va.-based mega-REIT AvalonBay Communities Inc., along with shopping center developer Macerich, the Dallas-based firm that developed the Queens Center Mall.


Some of the bids themselves have sparked controversy. United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500 said it will vigorously oppose Related's bid because the developer is considering leasing a Brooklyn site to Walmart. The union is trying to prevent the retail giant from entering New York City.
The TDC bid has also elicited howls from opponents of the project, led by the holdout property owners group Willets Point United. It argues that TDC should be barred from participating because it was part of the Flushing Willets Point Corona Local Development Corp., a nonprofit organization partially funded by the city that advocated for the redevelopment. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is investigating whether the LDC illegally lobbied for the project.
The biggest challenges, though, may lie in the impact that dividing the project into phases may have on the redevelopment's economics. The city won't reveal what the firms have proposed, but observers question whether the first phase has enough housing units to make residential development viable. Responses are likely focused on entertainment, retail and hospitality, they said. Because the project requires substantial remediation, is in a flood plain, and the first phase is just 12.75 acres, it will be hard for its developer to make the finances work.
The initial winning bidder will have first crack at future phases, but even though officials expect the entire project to be completed by 2022, the timing and location of future developments are not settled. And the city has not set aside money to acquire additional land outside the initial development area.
For now, baby steps are being taken, and there finally appears to be liftoff for a project that leaders like Mr. Moses, former Gov. Mario Cuomo and Mayors Robert Wagner, Ed Koch and Rudy Giuliani could never get off the ground.

[antinimby]

Please say no to Related Cos.


We don't want any more architecturally underwhelming large scale projects from them.


And Avalon? God, no!

[kyle]

F no to Avalon!

[lofter1]

No one should expect any architecture to take place here. We're going to get boxes in a row.

[BiggieSmalls]

this is strictly a low rise development.. I suspect the deal goes to Silverstein/Sterling..

there is talk of a Technology University .. not sure if or how it fits into the master plan

http:// www.timesledger.com/stories/2011/41/skandul_all_2011_10_13_q.html (http://%20www.timesledger.com/stories/2011/41/skandul_all_2011_10_13_q.html)
Willets Pt. must become East Coast Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is getting ready for its biggest competitor yet. Yes, that is right: New York City. In a plan that has stirred and awed much of the tech world, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has committed $100 million to establishing a top-tier, applied sciences university within the five boroughs.
The premise is simple: A tech university is the best way to draw talent — clusters of young developers and entrepreneurs — to the city to foster an industry that will provide the next wave of start-ups that could spin off revolutionary tech companies like Google or eBay.
The plan is the most far-reaching and innovative the city has seen in more than 100 years. Even former President Bill Clinton admired the mayor for undertaking such a pioneering project with vast economic benefits. Hundreds of start-ups and technology companies in the next decade could potentially generate tens of thousands of jobs here in the city and dramatically increase local economic activity and modernize our economy.
Yet as the mayor plays chief executive for this emerging tech industry, he has given short shrift to what is essential in creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem: the location. In the calculus of engineering this next industry, he has overlooked Queens.
The city has offered three locations in its request for proposals — Roosevelt Island, Governors Island, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard — but there are obvious issues with all three in their ability to cultivate a Silicon Valley, issues that would constrain the growth of a university and an industry.
The first two sites are naturally isolated and the last is in a painfully congested and equally inaccessible location in Brooklyn, partially resting on the East River. Even an additional billion-dollar bridge, a Venice-esque ferry service or an additional tram will not make these sites any more accessible.
Most importantly, and worst of all, the three locations encompass geographical areas that are prohibitively small — the Goldwater Hospital site on Roosevelt Island is only 9.9 acres in size and can barely be reached by car.
To reach the full potential of Applied Science NYC, the city will need to think bigger and more holistically. And to build an educational and robust commercial tech corridor capable of competing with Silicon Valley, the university will need more developable space and to be globally accessible. There is a location, though, that offers accessibility and expandability, and the opportunity to build not just another Silicon Alley or Square, but a Silicon City, and it is right here in our borough’s backyard: Willets Point.
Willets Point is uniquely suited to be the home of this city’s next new university. Given the area’s established transportation node — the Long Island Rail Road, the No. 7 train, 19 buses, four major highways, two bridges and two airports — and the 62 developable acres of land and thousands of feet of available commercial space, there is no other location in New York City with the global and regional accessibility, and comparable commercial and residential growth potential.
Yet Willets Point’s best feature is Queens’ distinguishing characteristic — that is, its local diversity. Economic developers and Silicon Valley tech enthusiasts will tell you it is the diversity of the goods and people that makes the northern California region so successful, not just the locale.
Today in Silicon Valley, more than half of all start-ups — 52 percent — are founded by immigrants, often Russian, Indian and Taiwanese immigrants with strong community ties and entrepreneurial appetites. In order to build an East Coast tech epicenter, we will need not only the physical but the human and cultural infrastructure. What better place to locate this university and industry than in the most diverse county in the country, where there are entrepreneurial, multicultural communities eager to do business?
As Queens residents, we are intimately aware of the chronicle of Willets Point. It is at once an area of modern urban blight but also of enormous economic potential. We have an opportunity before us to incorporate a university into the plans and accelerate the rebuilding of an area that continues to be stalled. It is an opportunity which, if located in Queens, has the promise of transforming not only this city’s economy, but as Clinton has made clear, the economy of the East Coast.
The Coalition for Queens has built broad community support for a university to be incorporated into the current plans for Willets Point and has received the support of local Queens elected officials, including the head of the Queens delegation, City Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans), seven Council members and several state senators and state Assembly members. The newest supporter of a potential Queens location is Borough President Helen Marshall.
Together with our community and local leaders, we are making sure that this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity does not pass our borough by. We are reimagining Willets Point as the Silicon City of tomorrow.
Emil Skandul
Member
Coalition for Queens
Flushing