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....May 3, 2:35 PM |
| Developing Queens: Eminent Domain Battle Kicks Off As City Unveils Willets Point Plans
By MATT HAMPTON The race to determine the future of Willets Point has officially begun, with Mayor Bloomberg and the Economic Development Corporation firing the starting gun.
To Willets Point business owners, it felt more like standing in line before the firing squad. Bloomberg visited the Queens Museum of Art Tuesday to announce the official “Master Plan” for the redevelopment before members of the press and a few local community groups. As well, several business owners from Willets Point showed up, all very interested in what Mayor Bloomberg had to say about the future of their business community. “A little less than a mile from here is Willets Point, the bleakest part of Northern Queens, but also the area with the most promise,” Bloomberg said. “Willets Point was once used as an ash dump…but out of these ashes can rise New York City’s next great neighborhood.” As he spoke, business owners, including Yaron Rosenthal of the Parts Authority, Anthony Fodera of Fodera Foods, and Daniel Sambucci of Sambucci Bros. Salvage Yard, listened attentively. They were there, Rosenthal said, to let the Mayor say his peace, because before now, they had not heard any compelling or revealing details of a plan the city claims has been in motion for more than a decade. “Imagine someone bringing a broker into your dining room, taking measurements of your home, all while you’re sitting there,” Rosenthal said. Rosenthal and his fellow business owners were more than willing to hear the plan, but thought their treatment by the city had been anything but fair in recent years. “There are no sewers,” Rosenthal said. “We’re the only area in New York City with no sewers. They say it’s blighted, but they caused the blight.” Other business owners agreed, and were troubled by the actions of the city to announce this plan without bringing them in on the ground floor. “They haven’t even talked to us about it, this is the first we’ve heard of it,” said Jerry Antonacci, of Crown Containers in Willets Point. “Nobody came to our office. We feel like we’ve been sentenced to death.” The Plan Itself “Willets Point really is in the perfect situation for economic growth,” Bloomberg said. Current Willets Point businesses have good reason for trepidation. The Master Plan that Mayor Bloomberg unveiled is a total redesign of the Willets Point area, including a street remapping, a total rezoning of the area, and hundreds of millions of dollars of potential construction and development. The city itself doesn’t have an exact estimate for the cost of the project, nor has the financing been discussed, but the plan for the area stands to generate $1.5 billion in revenue over the next 30 years. The plan was helped, going forward, by the Mets decision to build Citifield, which made turning Willets Point into a destination area that much simpler. With the attraction of Mets games, New Yorkers from around the city will be pulled into the front yard of Willets Point. From there, the Mayor said, the objective is keeping them there, and spending. “While Mets games currently bring more than 3 million people a year to Queens, the games have never generated as much economic activity for the area as they should,” Bloomberg said. With that in mind, part of the Master Plan is to revitalize 126th Street as a retail paradise, a shopping destination opposite the ballpark. As well, the plan calls for hotel space and a convention center within walking distance of the new ballpark. The convention center, the first in New York City outside of Manhattan, would be designed as a gathering place for events in the borough, and for events that can’t find suitable space in the Javits Center or Madison Square Garden. The Mayor also promised that the estimated 5,500 units of housing on the site would include a substantial portion of affordable housing, as well as luxury and market-rate units. The city also apparently consulted with three urban design firms to find the consensus on the best use of the land and integrate it seamlessly into the area between Flushing and Corona. |
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