: Redrawing Queens: Downtown Flushing’s Planned Growth Stays On Course

Last month’s stagehand strike cost the City tens of millions of dollars and left tourists in a lurch. Out-of-towners are here for the holidays, but they’re here year-round, quelling the once permeating notion that the attacks of Sept. 11 would forever discourage visitors.
Americans have displayed a heartening readiness to vacation in New York. And though they may be drawn to Ground Zero, there is rebuilding and construction throughout the City, especially here in Queens, where Flushing is experiencing a veritable development boom.
Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) represents Flushing in the City Council.

“I love every single minute of it,” Liu said of his time in office. “I would never deign to call this work…The last six years have been so much fun it’s hard to describe.”
Liu was not always so jovial.

“When I came to office I was fearful that there would be a huge recession after 9/11,” he said. “There were huge budget deficits that resulted in draconian cuts to services and significant increases in taxes when I came to office. I was very fearful of the exact opposite of what indeed transpired; in Flushing there has been sustained growth that reinvigorates the community and the economy.”
Flushing’s proximity to the 7 train, Long Island Rail Road and bus system caught the attention of developers. Although they’re in varying stages of development, Sky View Parc, Queens Crossing, RKO Plaza, Queens Commons and Willets Point are all poised to transform the Queens’ skyline.

Homes & Shops For All
The mixed-use model is gaining popularity in Flushing as several of the projects on the horizon will provide a combination of retail and residential space.
One such property is Flushing Town Center, recently renamed Sky View Parc. Muss Development LLC., based in Brooklyn, is responsible for this $1 billion project.
The structure, which will be 3.3 million square feet upon completion, is located at College Point Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue. In current plans are six residential towers and 800,000 square feet of retail space, which will include restaurants, a supermarket, Target, Home Depot and Best Buy.

According to Muss’ PR firm The Marino Organization, the undertaking is creating jobs.

“The data we have on job creation is that the project will create approximately 5,000 construction jobs and 2,000 permanent jobs,” Marino spokeswoman Julia Winkler said.
The 12-story Queens Crossing Mall is scheduled to officially open in February. Located at Main Street and 39th Avenue, among the most congested downtown intersections, the building was designed by Thorton Tomasetti Group and contains 110,000 square feet of retail space, 37,000 square feet of entertainment and dining areas, a full-floor community facility, and 144,000 square feet of office condominiums, all served by 86,000 square feet of valet parking. Several offices are already occupied.

Development on RKO Keith’s, however, has hit a roadblock. Boymelgreen Development, another Brooklyn-based firm, purchased the property at Northern Boulevard and Main Street in 2002. Boymelgreen had plans to build 15 stories which would include condominiums, retail space and a senior center while maintaining the original historic lobby.

“The board worked very hard on reaching agreement with developer that it would have 200 units of housing and 200 parking spots,” CB7 Chairwoman Marilyn Bitterman said.
But this fall the developer put the property up for sale. It stayed on the market for quite some time; some cited the Feng Shui at the intersection of Northern and Main as deterring some of the Asian developers that would have typically shown interest.

The development of Willets Point has also brought up challenges, especially over the issue of eminent domain.
“So many people have taken a crack at it over the last several decades and this administration is no different, but I have implored the mayor’s people to take it seriously to recognize that this is not just an effort that anybody can claim they are standing on pure merits,” Liu said. “The administration and everyone in involved should make it a priority to unite the community with the objective of building a new great neighborhood while respecting the rights of those who are there currently and not to invoke eminent domain as a first measure.”
With the addition of 5,500 residential housing units and 1.7 million square feet of retail space, those on the east side of Flushing can’t help but wonder about their economic fate.

“In Flushing there has been apprehension that development on the west side of the flushing river could displace economic activity from the east side of the river in downtown flushing,” Liu said. “That’s why the administration had promised early on that there would be a real connection both conceptually and physically.”
The 37th Avenue bridge would be accessible to both cars and pedestrians.

“The [Economic Development Corp] may have whittled that concept down to a rope bridge, which is a problem,” Liu said.

The development of Municipal Parking Lot 1 has also been put on hold.

“The plan is on life-support,” Liu said, adding that additional parking provided by the Wingate Hotel has become available.

Liu supported of the original plan, which proposed 500 residential units, 350,000 square feet of retail space, a 50,000-square-foot youth center and 2,000 below market rate parking spaces. Liu’s enthusiasm faded when it became clear that TDC Development and Construction Corp. and the Rockefeller Development Corp., were decreasing the number of parking spots.

“The developer came to be tossing out major promises made to the community,” Liu said.

No Queensite Left Behind
Willets Point, Sky View Parc and Queens Crossing will change the residential landscape of Flushing. As more and more “market-rate” residences become available State Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing) has grown concerned about the future of Queens’ middle-income people. She was scheduled to attend an affordable housing meeting with Gov. Eliot Spitzer Thursday.

“Affordable housing is one of the unmet needs that we have,” Stavisky said. “It’s a particularly disturbing trend today because of crisis in sub-prime mortgage rate.”
Stavisky also wonders how the slowing housing market will affect those on the other end of the spectrum.

“I feel for the developers who have put a lot of money and then they run into a brick wall,” she said.
Willets Point presents an opportunity, Stavisky said, for creating new affordable housing.

“5,500 units of housing, I think, is too dense,” she said. “EDC has said some will be affordable….We’ll see. It ought to follow model of mixture of income levels so that everyone will benefit.”

With the majority of new residences large enough for families, CB7 has expressed concern that schools will be overwhelmed. Bitterman said a new K-3 school is under construction on Franklin Avenue would open in September to alleviate some of the stress.

Eyeing Managed Growth
Bitterman said CB 7 is essentially pro-development.
“It has to be good development that takes into consideration parking, the infrastructure, the new green building we’re concerned about, open space,” Bitterman said, adding “traffic has become a major, major issue in Flushing as well as all the boroughs.”

As Flushing becomes more developed, residents and elected officials alike are questioning whether their community will turn into another Manhattan.

“For better or worse, [Queens] is getting to resemble Manhattan,” Liu said. “And to better manage traffic it seems inevitable that the streets will need to become one way. I’ve never believed that traffic has to be accepted as a byproduct of economic activity.”

Although Bitterman supports one-way traffic northbound on Main Street and southbound on Union Street, she does have one condition.

“The board wants a true one way path with no contraflow bus lanes. The only other place that happens is Second Avenue and there you have 24/7 police. You can’t have that in downtown Flushing,” Bitterman said, adding, “That’s been a stumbling block.”

As Flushing continues to develop it may need to look west to Manhattan and a bit father to the east, to Asia that is, for insight, investors and even inhabitants.

Sky View Parc will feature six residential towers and shopping, including a Target.

Queens Crossing at 39th Avenue and Main Street already has some locations filled.