The city broke ground on the first phase of a long-awaited plan to build a new neighborhood in Willets Point, Queens, on Wednesday, with construction starting on housing and a new school as plans to bring a soccer stadium to the area await approval.
Phase 1 of the project includes constructing a 650-seat school and two buildings with 880 of 2,500 promised affordable apartments, as well as infrastructure fixes, an acre of open space and new streets.
“This community has always been a blighted community of just great promise and opportunity,” Mayor Adams said at the groundbreaking ceremony, held near construction beside Citi Field. “For many years this was joked to be the Iron Triangle or the Valley of the Ashes. We’re now going to see a vital community come about right here.”
The Willets Point transformation is a public-private partnership between the city government and co-developers Related Companies and Sterling Equities, which are hoping to eventually bring a privately funded 25,000-seat soccer stadium to the nabe.
Construction on the first 880 units is expected to be finished by the end of 2026, and 220 homes earmarked for low-income seniors will also break ground as part of the first stage. The project is being touted as the largest 100% affordable housing initiative in the city in 40 years.
Rents for the initial round of apartments will range from 30% to 120% of area median income, and 15% of the units will be designated for homeless households.
The Willets Point redevelopment is expected to include more than 3 million square feet of total development. According to Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, there is a public sector commitment of just over $200 million for infrastructure improvements such as sewer building and environmental remediation.
The second, more ambitious component of the project involves building a permanent home for NYCFC — which would be New York’s first soccer stadium — and is undergoing the city’s monthslong formal land use review process. This stage would also include a hotel and the remaining housing commitments.
It passed the first major hurdle earlier this month when it was approved by Queens Community Board 7.
Phase 2 is currently on the desk of Borough President Donovan Richards. During a Monday roundtable with reporters, he said “there are a lot of sticking points for us” but there have been “soft agreements” on affordability levels for the housing in Phase 2.
“I want to see these affordable levels repeated in the next phases of this project,” he said at Wednesday’s ceremony.
After the borough president’s review, the stadium plan will go to the City Planning Commission, the City Council and, finally, the mayor.
Councilman Francisco Moya, who has long pushed for the project, told the Daily News he’s optimistic that the plan will be go over well with his colleagues.
“I have to do my due diligence here to get to all 51 of them, and we will get there,” he said. “But it’s all been positive, especially with my surrounding colleagues.”
If Phase 2 clears the city’s review process, construction on the stadium could start next year and wrap up in time for games in 2027, according to Torres-Springer. The hotel and housing component would likely be finished in 2030.
“It’s not just about soccer,” Moya said. “We’re not just building a stadium. We’re building an entire neighborhood that’s coming here. It’s housing, and we actually put the housing first. It’s the first of its kind that’s ever done this.”
