[NYguy]

http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2010/12/09/queens/doc4d0148fe6a540566973664.txt

Ferreras, biz owners protest raid that shut down Willets Point

http://images.townnews.com/yournabe.com/content/articles/2010/12/09/queens/doc4d0148fe6a540566973664.jpg

By Connor Adams Sheets
December 9, 2010

City Councilwoman Julia Ferreras (D-East Elmhurst) is leading a charge to uncover the details behind an unannounced law enforcement raid on Willets Point Wednesday morning that ground business to a halt in the district. She held a protest in the neglected neighborhood Thursday morning to decry the raid, which crippled commerce there for the remainder of the day as most shops kept their doors closed until Thursday morning.

“These are businesses — these people need to keep their doors open. Willets Point was completely shut down yesterday because of fear,” Ferreras told a group of workers and tenants who joined her at Willets Point Boulevard and 37th Avenue to protest the raid. “Enough is enough. We’re here to say Willets Point is open for business.”

A multi-agency sweep of the pothole-ridden, bustling home of car repair shops, junkyards and bus lots in the shadow of Citi Field led to the arrests of at least 15 people, according to Marco Neira, a local shop owner and president of the Willets Point Defense Committee, a group of Willets Point tenants and workers. Ferreras said she was told that some of the arrested may have been customers passing through.

The raid, conducted by government agencies including the NYPD and the Buildings and Housing Preservation and Development departments, began about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, when an estimated 200 law enforcement officers in more than 50 vehicles arrived at the Iron Triangle, blocking several entrances and exits and stopping anyone from coming or going for more than six hours, Neira said. Ferreras said “dozens” of officers participated.

“I tried to drive up the street [into Willets Point] and the police said, ‘This is a secured area, you can’t come in.’ I said, ‘What do you mean? I live here,’” the Iron Triangle’s only resident, Joseph Ardizzone, recounted Thursday. “I was running up and down the streets telling everyone to close up since they were coming through to ticket everyone.”

The officers proceeded to arrest six people for dismantling cars without a license, four people for falsifying business documents, two people for illegal possession of a forged instrument, two for having a suspended license, one for interfering with the investigation of an officer, and one for bribing authority, according an official report obtained by the El Diario newspaper. As many as 100 vehicles were confiscated for having no registrations or plates, including a broken-down ice cream truck, according to Ardizzone.

The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday, and Ferreras said even she had not been able to get the police to fill her in on the specifics of the raid as of Thursday afternoon.

Many workers and local landlords believe the raid was directly related to the fact that the city plans to build a multibillion-dollar development project at Willets Point. The city wants to relocate existing businesses and maybe even use eminent domain to clear the land in pursuit of its development goals, which area tenants and landlords say leaves them up against a wall.

“They were harassing us. I have no intention of selling or giving anything to Economic Development [Corporation],” Ardizonne said. “I think it’s wrong. I don’t think this is a democracy anymore, I think it’s a dictatorship.”

EDC Spokeswoman Julie Wood vehemently disagreed with the insinuation that the EDC’s plans to redevelop the area had anything to do with the raid.

“The allegation that this raid is in any way related to the development is absolutely false, and that is not the way the city does business,” she said.

Ferreras said she had been told that the raid was aimed at cleaning up auto theft and “chop shops” in the area, a goal she applauded but that she believed was pursued in the wrong manner, as the sweep mostly led to minor arrests, some of which could cause major headaches for the heavily immigrant workforce.

“No one is surprised that Willets Point has those who are undocumented here, and the fact that you arrest them on something that should have been a desk appearance, and now they may very well be facing deportation — that’s not what this city is about,” Ferreras said. “If there is any impropriety in Willets Point, we applaud the fact that they’re focusing on auto theft here in Willets Point. However, there should be a tactic that is smarter, a tactic that is timed properly.”

Julia Sandoval, owner of WJ Auto Repair on 127th Street in the Iron Triangle, said the simple fact that she had to close for the day had an impact on her bottom line.

“We need to support our families. I’m a single mother and I have to support four children, but they came yesterday and shut everything down,” said. “All we ask is for someplace to be relocated so we can keep working.”

[Dac150]

They never make this easy do they….

[NYguy]

They never make this easy do they….

Nope, it's always messy. Just look at Atlantic Yards and even Coney Island. In every inch of the City, every development must be fought with blood on both sides.

[BiggieSmalls]

the city does this every 6 months or so..

[Dac150]

These are necessary developments for the sake of revitalization; so whatever it takes.

[NYguy]

ny1


fDOMSlD7BNQ

[BiggieSmalls]

this is great news.

Notice how it was announced at the same time as MLB announcing the 2013 All Star Game coming to CityField.

[NYguy]

this is great news.

Notice how it was announced at the same time as MLB announcing the 2013 All Star Game coming to CityField.

The Yankees had it a few years ago at the old stadium. This would be the first time one of the new stadiums hosted the All Star game. But if anything, the area around the stadium, particularly phase one will be cleaned up - or cleared up may be the proper term.

[NYguy]

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2011/02/14/2011-02-14_biz_owners_keep_battling_edc_plan_kicks_off_but_willets_pt_holds_out.html?r=ny_local&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nydnrss%2Fny_local+%28NY+Local%29

Biz owners keep battling
EDC plan kicks off, but Willets Pt. holds out

BY Mark Morales
February 14th 2011


THE CITY'S attempt to create a blank canvas for its sweeping Willets Point mega-development is set to kick off this week.

But holdout landlords and business owners in the gritty industrial zone are vowing not to go without a fight.

The Economic Development Corp. is scheduled to send out notices in the mail this week for a March 2 public hearing that officially begins the process of acquiring land in Willets Point through eminent domain.

Some lawmakers have already picked sides.

"To take these businesses and give it to a private developer who's going to make millions of dollars - that is simply un-American," state Sen. Tony Avella said at a rally Thursday with Willets Point business owners.

EDC officials said they have reached a deal with nearly 90% of the landowners in the area designated for the first phase of the project. There are nine holdouts. "As we seek to reach agreements with the nine remaining businesses, we will also begin the legal process that gives us the option to condemn these properties if needed," said EDC spokeswoman Julie Wood.

The plans envision transforming Willets Point from a maze of auto body shops into a bustling development of condos, affordable housing and retail stores.

The plan is split into three phases, with the first expected to include infrastructure work as well as 1.3 million square feet of housing, retail, a hotel and open space. The EDC is set to issue a request for proposals in April, with infrastructure work beginning later this year.

But the holdout landlords and business owners vowed to keep fighting.

Jairo Martinez, 58, a tow truck driver who does business with the auto shops at Willets Point, said the city will be taking away his livelihood.

"They're taking the bread right out of our mouths," he said.

Marco Neira, a shop owner and a local organizer, said he also was scared his business would go under if forced to move. Because he doesn't own the land that his shop sits on, the city has offered no deal to relocate, he said.

"I spent my whole life building my business in this area, now they want me to leave empty-handed. It's not right," Neira said.

Andros Chardidemou, 60, who owns the Shea Truck and Auto Repairs and the land it sits on, said he objects to being forced to move for "some millionaire developer."

"We created a business and all of a sudden they want to take it away," Chardidemou said.

The EDC's public hearing starts at 4 p.m. at the Queens Library on Main St. in Flushing.

[NYguy]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20110220/REAL_ESTATE/302209983#

Holdouts dig in at Willets Point
Businesses fight eminent domain, but city goes ahead with development plan
By Hilary Potkewitz
February 20, 2011

The battle of Willets Point ain't over, according to a dwindling group of local business owners in the western Queens neighborhood who are fighting city efforts to turn the 62-acre area into a mixed-use development.

As the city's Economic Development Corp. sent out notices last week for a March 2 hearing that is the first formal step to “buying” the land through eminent domain, the business owners said they were preparing a lawsuit to block that action.

“We're going to challenge them, and they're going to challenge us,” said Jerry Antonacci, owner of Crown Container, one of the largest of the 20 or so holdouts banded together as Willets Point United. “We have lots of outside supporters who feel very strongly about this eminent domain thing.”

Maybe so, but thus far, the battle has largely gone the city's way. Four years ago, when the EDC unveiled its plans to build 5,500 residential units, 500,000 square feet of office space, a hotel, parks and 1.7 million square feet of retail space at Willets Point, opposition was widespread. Most of the 70 or so businesses—a mixture of small car-repair shops and a few larger manufacturers set up along the cratered, unpaved roads—were quick to condemn the effort.

The original opposition group, the Willets Point Industry and Realty Association, was quickly formed by a block of the 10 largest business owners in the area. But in November 2008, the three biggest companies all negotiated agreements with the city that their properties would not be part of the 20-acre first phase of development. Instead, they would be allowed to operate as usual for at least three more years, and would have the opportunity to sell their properties under more favorable zoning.

A united front

Three other large outfits subsequently cut deals with the EDC to move to city-owned land in neighboring College Point.

In the wake of those defections, the WPIRA went quiet. In early 2009, a group of smaller business owners—trash haulers, sawdust makers and auto shops—formed Willets Point United, which to date has lived up to its name.

“There are certain people who the city has made extraordinary deals to accommodate,” said Mr. Antonacci, who described the city's offer for his 2,300-square-foot property as insulting. “Then there are certain people who the city treats .”

[b]At this point, the EDC says it has deals with 90% of landowners in the area designated for the first phase of the project and is seeking agreements with nine holdouts. Opponents of the city's plan are largely pinning their hopes on opposition to eminent domain. Its use to seize land for private development has been a lightning rod since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of New London, Conn., doing just that for a project that never materialized.

WPU hired lobbyist Richard Lipsky, who helped kill the huge Kingsbridge Armory development in the Bronx last year. The group has also hired Washington law firm Arnold & Porter. In the past two weeks, the group has fired off letters to city officials and held a press conference keynoted by state Sen. Tony Avella, D-Queens, a longtime opponent of the project.

In the near term, the group is focusing on the EDC's failure to gain approval for a key ingredient of the project—access ramps for the Van Wyck Expressway—as the weak point in its armor.

Ramps first

“The city represented to the court in a sworn affidavit that it would not take my clients' property by eminent domain until it had received approval for ramps for the Van Wyck,” said Mike Gerrard, senior counsel with Arnold & Porter.

The EDC points out that its latest plan envisions building the project in phases, and that the first of those does not require new ramps. In the meantime, it is proceeding as if the ramp approval were a formality. It plans to issue a request for proposals in April to select a developer.

“As we seek to reach agreements with the nine remaining businesses, we will also begin the legal process that gives us the option to condemn these properties,” the agency said in a statement.

Maybe so, but Mr. Antonacci is hunkered down for a legal siege. “This fight is going to go on for years, and the city knows it,” he said.

[BiggieSmalls]

EDPL Meeting this Wednesday.. Only issues brought up at THIS meeting can be used in future ED challenges to the project..



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

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

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.

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.”

[Obey]

I would have to agree with Mr. Eduardo Giraldo that Willets Point is currently a dump. Seems like a great reason to develop.

[NYguy]

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.

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.

Ready to see the finer details of that first phase.

[BiggieSmalls]

im interested to see how this phase one is going to generate the 170,000 ADDITIONAL DAILY car trips that the opposition claims.

ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY THOUSAND PER DAY??

[Obey]

:previous: That is pretty impressive.

Ready to see the finer details of that first phase.

As do I.

[BStyles]

Sounds a bit exaggerated to me. I expect to see at least 10,000 cars in the first few weeks, and about 50,000 pedestrians traveling by train.

During the baseball season the estimated number should triple.

I understand people have jobs at Willets Point, but they have to take a look around them. It's a run-down neighborhood with unpaved streets and industrial garbage. I've never gone to the area for anything in particular, except maybe passing by it on the train.

[NYguy]

http://mycrains.crainsnewyork.com/greg_david_on_new_york/2011/03/important-truths-about-willets-point.php

Important truths about Willets Point

By Greg David
March 1, 2011

It may appear Wednesday at a public hearing that there is considerable opposition to the Bloomberg administration's plan to clean up and redevelop the hazard waste site known as Willets Point, Queens. Don't be deceived. Tomorrow is the end game of a decades-long effort to make Willets Point a generator of jobs and business activity. Also don't forget that the last-ditch efforts of the few holdout businesses have extracted a steep cost: preventing the city's economy from being as prosperous as it could be.

Willets Point, located next to the new Citi Field and near thriving Flushing, has been a problem for decades. It's basically a collection of relatively small industrial businesses in an area with no sewers that pollutes not only the land it sits on but the nearby bay. Robert Moses tried to use park money to clean up the site but was blocked by local business owners. Gov. Mario Cuomo tried to do the same by building a domed football stadium. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani made a run at the problem, too. Only Mayor Michael Bloomberg has gotten this far, which says a lot about the backbone of this administration.

The Willets Point plan originated on the watch of the Bloomberg administration's first deputy mayor for economic development, Dan Doctoroff. The formal approval process kicked off in 2007. It took until the end of 2008 for Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber to win final City Council approval. Now, more than three years later, the next step begins under Deputy Mayor Robert Steel. To say this project has been given all possible consideration would be an understatement.

The opposition has been greatly overstated. In a 2007 survey, Hunter College researchers found exactly one resident in the area. At the time, there were 225 businesses, mostly auto parts and repair business. They employed 1,300 people. Most of the major businesses in the area have reached agreements with the city to relocate elsewhere, mostly to nearby College Point. The numbers of remaining businesses and workers is much smaller today.

Meanwhile, opponents keep inventing strategies to derail the city. For a while, it was the idea that planned highway ramps somehow violated the environmental impact statement. A judge dismissed the claim summarily. Another complaint is that eminent domain is being wrongly applied. New York's highest court has rejected that line of reasoning at both Atlantic Yards and Columbia University's West Harlem plan, and the U.S. Supreme has refused to consider the cases. Case closed.

There are questions about Willets Point--how much can the financially strapped city invest in the cleanup, and what will the interest of private sector developers be in building the housing and commercial space the city envisions? But those are not reasons to give up and leave Willets Point as it is. Whatever happens will be better than what exists today and will create jobs and help diversify the economy.

[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.

[NYguy]

http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2011/03/17/queens/qns_wp_rfp_20110317.txt

City accepting proposals to build Willets Point sewers

By Connor Adams Sheets
March 17, 2011



Sewers are finally coming to Willets Point, though many business owners there will have little opportunity to use them as they will be the first construction work on the city’s $3 billion redevelopment plan for the neglected area.

The denizens of the 62-acre Iron Triangle have worked there for decades without sewer service, sidewalks, reliable streetlights or other basic city services, but now the city is looking to begin work on two sewer projects to make way for its development plans.

Hunter Roberts Construction Group, the city’s construction manager for off-site Willets Point infrastructure work, issued a request for proposals March 9 calling for qualified builders to bid on the reconstruction of a storm sewer and outfall located within 126th Street and the construction of a sanitary sewer main. The work is expected to cost about $20 million to complete.

“When this work is completed, Willets Point will finally have the infrastructure it needs to prevent further environmental contamination and allow new development to take place. These badly needed infrastructure improvements are a key part of the project that was overwhelmingly approved by the City Council and taken on at the behest of central Queens residents,” city Economic Development Corp. President Seth Pinsky said in a statement. “In addition to improving the neighborhood’s basic infrastructure, remediating decades of environmental damage and creating a new sustainable development, this project will generate thousands of new, quality jobs.”

The storm sewer will convey stormwater north toward Flushing Bay, and the sanitary sewer main will convey wastewater from Willets Point to an existing pump station near the intersection of 114th Street and 37th Avenue. The city expects each project to cost at least $10 million and to be complete within two years.

Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) conveyed the feelings of many Willets Point property owners regarding infrastructure improvements during the city’s eminent domain hearing March 2. He said the city should have built sewers and made other improvements while the taxpaying businesses were not facing eminent domain and that it is unfair to only do so now that a massive development is on the horizon there.

“You can’t go to businesses and refuse to put sewer lines in. You can’t go to businesses and refuse to pave their roads. You can’t go to businesses and refuse to send snowplows down their roads and then tell them [Willets Point] is underutilized and underdeveloped,” he said.

EDC spokeswoman Julie Wood said Tuesday she did not believe the city had received any proposals yet by that point.

[NYguy]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110329/FREE/110329848&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+crainsnewyork%2Freal_estate+%28Everything+Real+Estate+-+CrainsNewYork.com%29

City's Willets Point plans hit legal pothole
Judge asks authorities why she shouldn't reverse her earlier dismissal of lawsuit to block the redevelopment after city skirts restrictions.

By Erik Engquist
March 29, 2011

The city's bid to redevelop Willets Point, Queens, hit a pothole Tuesday when a judge ordered the Bloomberg administration to show why she shouldn't revoke the go-ahead she granted last summer.

State Supreme Court Judge Joan Madden had ruled that the project could proceed because the city promised not to condemn any land until it had approval for new Van Wyck Expressway ramps, which it had deemed essential to the project. But when state and federal approval of the ramps proved elusive, the city split the project into two phases and moved ahead with condemnations, arguing that the ramps were not required for Phase I.

But the administration failed to make that argument to the judge.

According to Michael Gerrard, the attorney for Willets Point property owners who object to the city's plan, the judge signed an order directing the city to explain why her order dismissing his lawsuit should not be vacated.

City lawyers will prepare a brief, the property owners will write a response, and the judge will hear oral argument in open court July 20. Mr. Gerrard and his clients are asking that she reopen the case. But because they did not ask for an injunction, the city can continue with its eminent domain proceeding, said Connie Pankratz, a spokeswoman for the city's corporation counsel.

“Since its pending litigation now, we're not able to comment,” she said.

Last August, Ms. Madden ruled against the Willets Point group on all of its claims—which ranged from questioning the environmental review to contending the office of the deputy mayor for economic development did not have the authority to be the lead agency on the project.

The city's plan for the 62-acre site, a stone's throw from Citi Field, calls for 5,500 housing units, eight acres of open space, 500,000 square feet of office space, 1.7 million square feet of retail space, a school, a hotel and a convention center.

[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.

[NYguy]

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.

No one ever sees the handwriting on the wall.

[Obey]

Willets Point Officially Ready to Find Developer for Phase I
http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2011/05/09/willets_point_officially_ready_to_find_developer_for_phase_i.php

While everyone else was busy thinking about the traffic ramps at Willets Point—the environmental assessment for which was recently approved by the DOT and Federal Highway Administration but is still awaiting public review—the city was preparing its Request for Proposals for the first phase of the Willets Point redevelopment. Hey, that's one way to keep attention away from the Mets' season! The city's RFP is out today, following a 2009 Request for Qualifications that sparked interest from 29 developers, including some big names. According to a press release from the city, some of those 29 interested parties were invited to submit development plans based on the RFP. We don't know which of the developers were contacted, but we now know a little about what they're being asked to do.
The Request for Proposals includes this basic description of Phase I:

The plan for Phase 1 includes up to 680,000 square feet of retail space, up to 400 units of housing, 35 percent of which will be affordable, a hotel, two acres of open space, and parking. In addition to submitting proposals for the Phase 1 area, respondents to the RFP must also include a concept plan for the entire 62-acre district.

Developers have until August 12 to submit their plans. In the meantime, according to the press release, the city has obtained 90 percent of the land in Phase I. There are nine private owners still on their property, and we're guessing at least some of them will be speaking up at the next traffic ramp-related public hearing on June 8. Looks like it'll be quite the summer in the Iron Triangle.

[NYguy]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20111003/REAL_ESTATE/111009993

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.


http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/storyimage/CN/20111003/REAL_ESTATE/111009993/AR/Willets-Point.jpg&q=100&MaxW=800

At least three real estate firms have submitted proposals for the right to redevelop Willets Point.
Photo by Buck Ennis.


By Daniel Massey
October 3, 2011

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.

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 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.

[BiggieSmalls]

that's great news.. I also heard that Sterling has hooked up with other developers as well as Related..

Wilpon clearly wants a role in the development and with the Interest of the largest developers in NY we should see this project moving forward sooner than later.

[NYguy]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20111016/REAL_ESTATE/310169969

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/apps/pbcsi.dll/storyimage/CN/20111016/REAL_ESTATE/310169969/AR/Willets-Point.jpg&q=100&MaxW=800

By Daniel Massey
October 16, 2011

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. 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.

[NYguy]

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/mayor-michael-bloomberg-breaks-ground-willets-point-redevelopment-article-1.985433

Mayor Michael Bloomberg breaks ground on Willets Point redevelopment
But Willets Point United questions controversial multi-million-dollar project

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.985431.1322773633!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_485/image.jpg

Mayor Michael Bloomberg (center) was joined by dignitaries and local officials on Thursday to break ground
on the Willets Point redevelopment project, which starts with $50 million in infrastructure improvements.

BY Nicholas Hirshon
December 1, 2011

Mayor Bloomberg broke ground Thursday on a controversial redevelopment that he vowed will transform gritty Willets Point into “a major engine for economic growth.”

Bloomberg unearthed dirt with a slew of elected officials just steps from the mix of auto body shops and junkyards that abuts Citi Field.

“We are that much closer to the vibrant Willets Point of the future,” Bloomberg said at a news conference near the World’s Fair Marina along Flushing Bay.

The ceremony marked the start of a massive overhaul of the long-neglected “Iron Triangle,” infamous for deep potholes and grimy puddles.

The project will begin with the $50 million creation of a sewer system. Officials say the infrastructure improvements will provide more than 350 construction-related jobs.

[NYguy]

Images from the ceremony...nycmayorsoffice (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nycmayorsoffice/page2/)

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7145/6438357265_30044cb8e9_b.jpg



http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7144/6438354405_0730599d5a_b.jpg



http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7031/6438355285_83933269ff_b.jpg

[599GTO]

That's really NYC? Looks like some shanty town Guatemala. :sly:

[NYguy]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20120402/POLITICS/120409983/1033

Key approval is won for Willets Point project
The city has secured federal sign-off for new highway ramps crucial to its massive Willets Point redevelopment plan, officials revealed Monday evening.


By Daniel Massey
April 2, 2012


The Federal Highway Administration ruled that ramps proposed for the Van Wyck Expressway would have “no significant impact” on the surrounding area, according to a letter sent to the state Department of Transportation late last month and released Monday by city officials. “The findings and approval from the Federal Highway Administration for the Van Wyck Expressway ramps is a significant milestone for Willets Point, and the next step in realizing this ambitious project,” said a spokeswoman for the city's Economic Development Corp.

But opponents said the federal government relied on the assumption that the project was being built, instead of examining the ramps' impact without the redevelopment. They promised a lawsuit. “What the feds are saying is the project will be built and therefore the ramps are necessary,” said a spokesman for Willets Point United, a group of property owners that opposes the redevelopment. “They should not give a flying fig whether New York City builds a development at Willets Point. They should only evaluate the impact on the Van Wyck and Grand Central if the ramps are built and if they aren't built, and they're not doing that.”

The state Department of Transportation will need to approve design and construction of the ramps, but the federal approval was seen as the much bigger hurdle. Rep. Joseph Crowley played a key role in keeping the ramp issue high on the agenda of the Highway Administration and state Department of Transportation, a spokeswoman for the congressman said. Mr. Crowley stressed to them the job creating impact the project would have for Queens.

The city has divided the controversial redevelopment into phases. The 20-acre first phase includes commercial, residential and hotel development, as well as two acres of open space. The ramps are not needed for that initial phase. Officials are currently reviewing proposals from major development firms, including the Related Companies and Silverstein Properties. A winning bidder to develop the first phase is expected to be chosen this spring.

[Duck From NY]

I remember going to a game at Shea years ago with my friends. We bought some 40s ahead of time and decided to walk around Willet's Point to pre-game, as they say.

It ended up being a close call. A pack of 20 or so dogs (Doverman Pinchers I believe) were sitting by a gate to this chop shop and began barking, pointing their ears up, and a few of them approached us. Luckily they never attacked, but man... That neighborhood was such a disaster.

[jd3189]

That's really NYC? Looks like some shanty town Guatemala. :sly:

It stills surprises me why people would want to live in a place like this? It's just too mind boggling.

[Nexis4Jersey]

It stills surprises me why people would want to live in a place like this? It's just too mind boggling.

They don't live down there , its wear all the Autobody and chop shops are located....

[kingcity]

what a shithole

[NYguy]

http://www.observer.com/2012/05/related-and-wilpons-win-revised-willets-point-project-planning-mall/

Related and Wilpons Win Revised Willets Point Project, Planning Mall


http://www.observer.com/files/2012/05/81215345.jpg

By Matt Chaban
May 2, 2012

Today, City Hall took a step toward spiffing up the site, if not quite in the direction it had hoped. The administration withdrew its eminent domain case, known as a determination of findings, from the courts today, halting takeover proceedings against a handful of holdout property owners in the area. This paves the way for the project to move forward, albeit in an altered form from the 2008 rezoning, which called for a mixed-use development on the site.

According to people familiar with the situation, the city is close to reaching a deal with the Related Companies and Sterling Equities to build a mall on the site. The exact details are still being worked out, and an official announcement is expected in the coming weeks. It was not immediately clear if there would still be a residential or convention center component in the final plan, but the City Hall is looking favorably on the development.

Ms. Wood declined to discuss whether or not Related had won the bid, and Related declined to comment. Sterling Equities, which is run by Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, did not return a request for comment. Still, finally a win for those two. As for Related, is there a city-controlled project they can’t win?

[fimiak]

They could have made this a desert and it would be a significant improvement. I am happy its going to be a mall, even if its kitschy.

[NYguy]

Yeah, almost anything would be better than what is there now. Because the City and developers want to make changes to what was put in place to be developed, they have to go back through the approvals process, at least for the first phase so far.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304743704577380450946010824.html

Deal Is Near to Develop Willets Point

May 2, 2012
By ELIOT BROWN



The Bloomberg administration is nearing a deal with the Related Cos. and a real-estate firm controlled by owners of the New York Mets to build a retail and residential development on a gritty swath of Queens near Citi Field, according to people familiar with the matter. But the tentative deal to develop Willets Point isn't a home run. It would require significant revisions to a signature initiative of the Bloomberg administration: an ambitious $3 billion vision for the area that includes 5,000 apartments, stores and a hotel.

The idea was unveiled with great fanfare in 2007 and passed a complicated public-review process in 2008. But during recent negotiations, developers rejected the plan as financially impractical and called for some changes, the people said. Among the changes Related wants: more retail in the development's first phase, according to people familiar with the matter.

Additional details of the Related plan weren't available. The first phase of the city's plan called for 680,000 square feet of retail and a hotel on about 12 acres.

Related's partner in the deal, Sterling Equities, is run by Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, whose interest in the site is clear: Much of it is across the street from the team's stadium. The project attracted interest among other developers, including Silverstein Properties Inc., which is developing office buildings at the World Trade Center, and a partnership of retail specialists at Macerich Co. and the large housing company Avalon Bay Communities Inc. Still, other developers had similar concerns to Related. Macerich also wanted changes to the master plan that would have needed public review, people familiar with the matter said.

Should the Related deal be approved, it would put the Manhattan firm in charge of yet another of the largest development sites in the city.

[NYguy]

http://observer.com/2012/05/17/citi-fields-suicide-squeeze-redone-willets-point-will-bracket-stadium-with-malls/

Citi Field’s Suicide Squeeze! Redone Willets Point Will Bracket Stadium With Huge Malls

http://nyoobserver.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/screen-shot-2012-05-17-at-11-00-19-am.png?w=600&h=399
An 800,000 square-foot mall will be built on the Citi Field parking lot (right), followed by a 680,000 square-foot mall on the edge of Willets Point (left). Because who doesn’t want to go shopping after the Mets lose?

By Matt Chaban
5/17/12


It was revealed earlier this month that after a year of weighing competing proposals, the city had selected the Related Companies and Sterling Equities to redevelop the Iron Triangle, albeit in vastly revised form. Housing and other development would be put off in favor of a large mall.

Make that two malls, surrounding the new-ish throwback stadium, a veritable retail double play. According to both The Times and The Journal, before much gets built in Willets Point, the 62-acre swath of chop shops and heavy industries just east of Citi Field, a mall will be built on the west side, on the site of the current Mets parking lots.




http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303360504577408760413111818.html?mod=WSJ_NY_RealEstate_LEFTTopStories
Plan Upends Willets Vision

By ELIOT BROWN
5/16/12


New York City officials are shaking up one of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's key development priorities, putting off for years the creation of a new neighborhood in Queens' Willets Point and calling first for a large retail center next to Citi Field, said people familiar with the matter.

Instead of housing and retail, parking lots for Mets fans would initially replace dozens of businesses in an area known as the Iron Triangle to the east of Citi Field. The new neighborhood is still intended to be built on that 61-acre swath of land, but years later and only after a new shopping center is built on a parking lot to the west of the stadium.

The city had sought bids for the project, initially conceived in 2007 as another in a line of Bloomberg-backed housing developments on which construction would begin before the mayor left office. But people familiar with the matter said the housing and retail project has become unfeasible as once envisioned, as developers have been unwilling to fully commit given the site's challenges. The site—an industrial area full of car-repair shops that officials have sought to develop for decades—would cost tens of millions of dollars to clean up, and developers were concerned about being able to quickly lure residents and retailers to the unproven area.

Now, Related and Sterling Equities—controlled by Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz—will take a shot with a revamped plan that delays the housing aspect and introduces a larger retail component next to a world-famous professional sports complex. The USTA National Tennis is also nearby.

The first step for the developers would be to take on a costly 20-acre environmental cleanup and build the new parking lots for the stadium, the people said. They would also be required to build a hotel and a small amount of retail just to the east of Citi Field. Then they would be able to build more than 800,000 square feet of retail on the parking lots to the west of the stadium. Only then would construction begin of the new neighborhood first envisioned by the Bloomberg administration, with the construction of the 400 apartments and 680,000 square feet of retail. That aspect of the project could grow, the people said.

The city believed the plan was the best of its options. The other three bids it received each called for greater levels of additional subsidy or a smaller amount of development, along with other risks, according to people briefed on the proposals. None fit the guidelines of what the city was seeking, and the Related-Sterling plan lays the ground for a larger overall development—sandwiching Citi Field—if completed.

[J. Will]

What a mess. After reading today's WSJ and NYT articles, it's obvious the original vision won't be realized for decades, if ever. And it sounds like they are going to replace the junkyards with "interim" surface parking lots.

[NYguy]

^ Only a portion. Keep in mind that the whole thing is to be done in stages over different parts. But yeah, part of the first phase involves creating new parking (supposedly topped by a park) and a cleanup of the land before they can build anything (like housing) on it. That area is such a mess that the City was having a hard time getting developers to commit to the cleanup. As it is, penalties will fall into pace if the timeframe isn't met. The temporary parking is to replace the parking lot west of CitiField where they are building a mall. Shopping malls may not sound attractive, but really, they can build a giant Ihop and Holiday Inn there, and it would still be better than the mess it currently is. Since the owners of the Mets are involved, it's also in their interests to get this done, and not keep the surrounding area of the stadium as a construction zone deterrent to fans.


http://observer.com/2012/05/17/the-real-problem-with-willets-point/
The Real Problem With Willets Point


http://nyoobserver.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/picture-7.png



By Matt Chaban 5/17


A reader sends along this thoughtful critique of the problems inherent in the latest plans for Willets Point: What a horrible idea. A parking lot and a mall? That neighborhood is a mess already, though. Just a few hundred feet from the bay in one direction and Flushing Meadows in the other, and they’re both nearly impossible to access. It should be a wonderful spot to hang out before a ballgame, and instead it’s just a tangle of highways. Thank you, Robert Moses.

It’s a very interesting point, and perhaps points to a better way forward for this forlorn corner of the city. After all, just look at this picture. A giant parking lot on one side, a giant (though very vibrant) pit on the other. All of it surrounded by a mess of highways, just beyond, lush lawns and open water. Indeed, this was the fine work of Robert Moses, master of the World(‘s Fair), so it makes sense that roads are bisecting and bifurcating everything, keeping the various masses, washed and unwashed, from crossing paths.

But this has been less the prerogative of this mayor, thankfully, which is why the decision to go all cars-n-malls—yes, even in Queens—makes so little sense. This is still a dense area, one well-served by mass-transit, one begging for improvement. The proposal for two huge malls actually makes the original plan conceived by the mayor five years ago, to build an actual neighborhood here, look even more impressive than it already did. Something new, with plenty of jobs and affordable housing, maybe even a convention center. Now, instead, Queens is getting more suburban development, when it deserves better. As our reader points out, wouldn’t it be nice to extend the park all the way up, doubling it in size? Here is a place where capping some railyards would make sense—push the development to the edges, and open up the rest. Madison Square Garden has no parking, and it gets along fine.

There is the added advantage that the expense of remediation and infrastructure to build up Willets Point to where it needs to be—it’s seven feet below the flood plane in some places—would be considerably cheaper were it to be turned into a park rather than streets and homes and shopping malls. Instead, we sell it off to the highest bidder, and do their bidding at that, so that the development might commence cost-free. We already know that is how the administration likes to do business.

[J. Will]

No reason the parking to the west of the stadium couldn't just be replaced with underground parking beneath the mall. I assume the mall would have parking anyways, so that can be the replacement for the surface parking they will be getting rid of to build the mall.

[NYguy]

I'm not sure what the particular issue is with the City regarding underground parking, but it's safe to assume that any parking on the mall site would be for peope driving to the mall itself, and not the stadium.

[J. Will]

I'm not sure what the particular issue is with the City regarding underground parking, but it's safe to assume that any parking on the mall site would be for peope driving to the mall itself, and not the stadium.

There's no reason it couldn't be used for both. Hell, build enough parking for both. You can even have seperate floors with seperate entrances if necessary. If there's a game on say a Sunday night, the mall stores would probably be closed before the game started anyways.

There's no reason to build acres of new surface parking in an area like this when structured parking would do. If it couldn't be underground, but an above-ground parking garage on top of the mall. There are numerous approaches that could be taken that would not necessitate devoting any new land to surface parking.

This is what the site to the east of the ballpark was supposed to get. And not maybe, some time many, many years in the future:

http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/18602/883309.jpg

[NYC4Life]

UPDATED 12:39 PM
City Strikes Deal On Willets Point Redevelopment Effort
By: NY1 News

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/163087/city-strikes-deal-on-willets-point-redevelopment-effort

The Bloomberg adminstration announced Thursday it has reached a deal to redevelop the Willets Point section of Queens near Citi Field.

The city says the Queens Development Group -- a joint venture of the Related Companies and Sterling Equities -- will acquire about 20 acres east of the stadium.

The plan calls for retail, hotel, and commercial space along with affordable housing units.

It also calls for a retail and entertainment attraction west of the stadium.

The Willets West part of the project will convert one of the stadium's parking lots into a one million square-foot retail and entertainment center with stores, movie theatres, and public spaces.

Mayor Bloomberg says the city is now set with about 95 percent of the land needed to go ahead with the project.

"All told, this will bring $3 billion of private investment to Queens, creating 12,000 union construction jobs, 7,100 permanent jobs, and generate $4.2 billion in economic activity over the next 30 years," Bloomberg said.

The city is kicking in about $100 million toward the project, which is expected to create thousands of jobs.

The proposal would still require City Council approval.




© 1999-2012 NY1 News and Time Warner Cable Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[401PAS]

Cannot believe that these buildings could be to tall seeing how the planes approaching LaGuaria bank left over the stadium just where this is going to be built. Hopefully they will have thick glass and good insulation to reduce the sound.

[NYguy]

^ I used to live right near JFK, u can live with it.


http://therealdeal.com/blog/2012/06/14/bloomberg-officially-unveils-related-sterlings-willets-point-plan/

Bloomberg officially unveils Related, Sterling’s Willets Point plan

http://therealdeal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/willets-devw.jpg


June 14, 2012


After spending two years cleaning up 23 acres of Willets Point, the Related Companies and Sterling Equities will start developing the site with a hotel and retail development just east of Citi Field on 126th Street, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced today...

The developers will start with $100 million in capital funds from the city to demolish faulty infrastructure, clean contaminated lands and build permanent improvements that form the groundwork of the project. Once complete, they’ll begin construction on a 200-room hotel and 30,000 square feet of retail and restaurants. After the first phase for the eastern portion of the site is finished, Related and Sterling will begin work on Willets West, which calls for the conversion of a stadium parking lot into one million square feet of retail and entertainment space, including 200 retail stories, movie theaters, restaurants and entertainment venus. Willets West also includes parking for 2,500 cars and public spaces.

Following Willets West, the developers will return to the east side of Citi Field and create 2,500 housing units, including 875 affordable ones, 280 more hotel rooms, 900,000 square feet of street-level retail space and 500,000 square feet of office space. Additional phases would progress has planned, and the full 62-acre Willets Point plan would allow for up to 5,500 units of housing, a convention center and an eight-acre park.




http://blog.archpaper.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/willets_west_02.jpg
http://blog.archpaper.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/willets_west_02.jpg



http://observer.com/2012/06/inside-metslandia-52-acres-of-fun-at-willets-point/#slide1

Inside Metslandia, 52-Acres of Fun at Willets Point


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http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/144497169/large.jpg

[NYguy]

Better renderings...



nycmayorsoffice (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nycmayorsoffice/7186832439/in/set-72157630064812607)


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8010/7186832439_1b8fb7b4cb_b.jpg



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[NYC4Life]

9:48 AM
Report: Walmart Takes Swing At Possible Spot Near Citi Field
By: NY1 News

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/165965/report--walmart-takes-swing-at-possible-spot-near-citi-field

Its plans to open up shop in Brooklyn have faced stiff opposition, but that's reportedly not stopping Walmart from hoping for a location near Citi Field.

According to the Daily News, the big box retailer is lobbying lawmakers to set up shop in the retail and entertainment complex that's planned as a central part of the area's redevelopment.

Walmart's other proposed site in East New York is on a site being developed by Related companies, which is also co-developing the site at Willets Point.

Most elected officials oppose Walmart's proposed store, citing the company's labor practices.




© 1999-2012 NY1 News and Time Warner Cable Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[NYguy]

^ The latest report from Related is that they're not in talks with Wal-Mart for the site.


http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-08-02/news/33005414_1_walmart-spokesman-steve-restivo-willets-point-retail-giant

No Walmart for Willets Point

CLARE TRAPASSO
August 02, 2012


The developers of a mall complex next to Citi Field have put the kibosh on Walmart’s behind-the-scenes effort to be included in the project.

The big box retailer has been quietly lobbying Queens officials, as the Daily News reported Wednesday, but the Queens Development Group broke its silence to dismiss the notion that Walmart might be included in the Willets Point West project.

“We have not had any talks with Walmart … and we have absolutely no intention of discussing this site with them,” the developers, a partnership between the Related Companies and Sterling Equities, said in a statement.

[NYguy]

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bettor_up_mets_eye_casino_at_citi_8zJCHiA7y4cJtLtuqgMmkK

Mets eye casino at Citi to help offset losses suffered in Bernie Madoff scandal

By RICH CALDER
February 5, 2013


It’s an Amazin’ gamble!

The Mets’ owners want to roll the dice on building a Las Vegas-style casino next to Citi Field to recoup some of the $162 million for which team brass are still on the hook following the Bernie Madoff Ponzi-scheme debacle, plans obtained by The Post reveal.

While team owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz are still having trouble opening their tight pockets for high-priced free agents, that didn’t stop their development arm, Sterling Equities, from betting on a proposal that called for bringing a massive casino with gaming tables and slots, a 500-room, full-service hotel, 1.8 million square feet of retail and other amenities to the Willets Point development site in Queens.

The Southampton-based Shinnecock Indian Nation signed on to operate the casino, and the Wilpons and partners even offered the city $100 million for the 62-acre site, according to the development team’s proposal, which was first obtained by project opponents Willets Point United and NYC Park Advocates.

“This will be a place about fun — for families, sports fans and thrill seekers alike,” the proposal says. “[It] will attract millions of visitors from the New York area and around the world and will serve as New York’s newest and most unique entertainment destination.”

The revelation that the Mets owners’ want a casino comes as the state Legislature is considering a constitutional amendment to allow Las Vegas-style table gaming. And Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has begun talking up a casino at Willets Point or Coney Island. Gov. Cuomo has so far said he’d support only three casinos “upstate” for the “foreseeable future” if the amendment passes.

City officials pulled the casino from the Willets Point plan partly because they thought the government-approval process would take too long, sources said. However, a city spokesman declined to comment when asked if the city would push for a casino there if the state Legislature eventually backs it.



http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/148636687/large.jpg

[Busy Bee]

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080320053228/bttf/images/0/02/Biffs-panorama.jpg
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080320053228/bttf/images/0/02/Biffs-panorama.jpg

[NYguy]

^ LOL


http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/report-mets-want-casino-citi-field-parking-lot-165544562--mlb.html

http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/roDbkkPabaQRXVMPzFaCcg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en/blogs/sptusmlbexperts/mrmetwantstoseeyou020513.jpg


http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/sports/2013/02/7563540/when-casino-looked-mets-best-bet


The story is largely moot at this point, since the proposal was both submitted and rejected over a year ago. The idea is less an indication of ownership's current plans than it is a fascinating period piece which also happens to indicate something about the seriousness of the financial problems from which they've yet to liberate themselves.

Back in September 2011, when the casino proposal (part of a larger proposal including a shopping mall and hotel) was rejected, the Mets' owners, Fred Wilpon and his partners at Sterling Equities, had just publicly parted ways with a major potential investor, David Einhorn. The Wilpon group had agreed to sell a minority stake in the Mets to Einhorn, with the catch that if they couldn't Einhorn out within five years, he would have the right to purchase a majority interest in the team for a token amount.

That left Sterling with a major cash crunch to pay debts, one ultimately satisfied by a minority sale in the team primarily to themselves and to S.N.Y., in exchange for an extension of the television rights deal.

By contrast, the casino offered something over the longer term. If Sterling could hold onto the team, a casino could draw more people to the area in and around Citi Field. In essence, it was Sterling Equities taking the Mets from an entity that should have been making money in its own right, but wasn't, and using it as the center of a real estate venture that, theoretically, would.

[NYguy]

And just for the hell of it, a new NIMBY group...


http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/casino-bad-bet-willets-point-newly-formed-community-group-article-1.1257097

Casino a bad bet for Willets Point, says newly formed community group
Don’t Gamble on Our Community coalition joins business and civic leaders to reject any gaming in immigrant-heavy Queens area


http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1257096.1360185729!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/casino7q-1-web.jpg
Members of Don’t Gamble on our Community, a newly formed group that plans to protest any casino proposal in the Willets Point area.


By Irving Dejohn
February 6, 2013


A new group has formed to oppose any proposal to create a casino in the Willets Point area.

But their efforts may be moot considering that the site’s developer insists that wagers on gambling aren’t on the table, despite rumblings to the contrary.

Officials with Don’t Gamble on our Community, a coalition of business, civic and political groups, said Wednesday that they plan to collect 25,000 signatures against a gaming development in the largely immigrant neighborhood.

“This is true grassroots,” the group’s founder, Michael Olmeda, said at a senior center in Corona. “We don’t want it here.”

[Duck From NY]

I'm a die-hard Mets fan. The area has never had a likeable character. The chop shops were ugly, and I'm glad they're going away, but a casino and shopping center would make the area seem like it could be any other leisure/entertainment area within 500 miles.

If it makes good economic sense, they should do it anyway. Besides, Flushing can never be to CitiField what Flatbush was to Ebbets field.

[NYguy]

A mall is a mall, but I'm not a fan of parking lots. So anything they could build there is a plus for me, though I doubt a casino would go through.

[NYguy]

Bloomberg still hopes for that mid-sized convention center.


http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2013a%2Fpr063-13.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1

"At Willets Point - ignored by the City since Robert Moses failed to turn it into parkland - we'll work with Borough President Marshall to begin the process of cleaning it up and bringing jobs and open space to the community - and down the road, hopefully even a convention center.

[NYguy]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20130318/REAL_ESTATE/130319872

Key hurdle cleared in Willets Point redevelopment
A $3 billion makeover of the junk-yard-riddled Queens site can finally begin once developers pass a final public review process over, of all things, a parking lot.


By Annie Karni
March 18, 2013


The $3 billion redevelopment of Willets Point in Queens—a barren swath of land between Flushing and Corona best known for its junk yards—received a green light from the City Planning Commission Monday, setting off a long public review process that will give the developers a special permit to allow surface parking and temporary community facilities on the site.

In 2008, the city gained approval for 9 million square feet of land to be developed, before any developer was attached to the project. A joint venture between the Related Cos. and Sterling Equities was designated as the developer of a 23-acre parcel of the site.

But before the clean up and construction there can begin, the developers must pass another hurdle: They need the city to grant them the right to build an uncovered parking lot as an exchange for a lot on the west side of Citi Field, where the plan is to build an entertainment and retail center. Cleanup and redevelopment can't begin without the official approval.

The extra approval is needed because in 2008, the city did not anticipate any of the parking on Willets would be unenclosed. The developer now needs a waiver of that requirement. The progress may sound incremental but the city praised it as a major hurdle that has been overcome.

"This marks a critical step towards beginning the long-needed cleanup of toxic land in Willets Point that for years has damaged the waterfront and been a blight on the community," a spokesman for the city's Economic Development Corp. said in a statement.

The co-developers, the Related Cos. and Sterling Equities, also launched a new website today, NewWilletsPoint.com, which says the official land-use process will begin this spring. The plan now needs approval from the community board. Then the Queens borough president gives approval, before the City Planning Commission votes on the project and sends it before the City Council for final approval.



http://newwilletspointqueens.com/

[NYguy]

http://therealdeal.com/blog/2013/05/10/related-and-sterlings-willets-point-plans-voted-down-by-community-board-committee/

Related and Sterling’s Willets Point plans subject of Monday community board hearing

http://therealdeal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/willets-point-300x175.jpg

May 10, 2013


Queens Community Board 7 will hold a public hearing on Monday to discuss the Related Companies and Sterling Equities’ Willets Point and Willets West development plans, as part of the city’s public review process of the 62-acre Queens project, according to a blog operated by advocacy group Willets Point United.

The development includes a 200-room hotel and the conversion of a parking lot into 1 million square feet of entertainment and retail space, as previously reported. Plans also now call for nearly doubling the Willets Point site to 109 acres, according to the blog, which is run by a coalition of business and land owners that oppose the developers’ plans.