The city signed an agreement Thursday that charts a path forward for development in Willets Point.
The de Blasio administration signed a letter of intent Thursday with a joint venture between the Related Cos. and Sterling Equities. The pact lays out a timeline for the development team to hash out the details on
two potential scenarios drafted by a community task force for 17 acres to the east of Citi Field in Queens. One of the scenarios includes a hotel and soccer stadium, while the other is more traditional, presenting a mix focusing on housing and retail. In roughly a year, according to the letter, the city will decide which path to pursue and draft a final development agreement after soliciting public input.
“Yesterday’s decision to move forward with the joint-venture and pursue these options in a very meaningful way—with very serious milestones—is a really important next step,” said Alicia Glen, deputy mayor for housing and economic development.
While working out a more granular plan for the mixed-use development scenario would be fairly straightforward, vetting plans for a soccer stadium would be more involved. Building an arena would require the developers to secure a letter of intent from a franchise, according to Glen. The team would likely be newly created within the United Soccer League, an organization with nearly 40 squads that play in smaller stadiums than Major League Soccer, a league that counts New York City Football Club among its members. While the task force recommended a stadium of up to 25,000 seats, the developers envision a facility with up to 15,000 seats, according to the city.
Development in Willets Point has been on the table for more than 15 years. However, in 2017 a state judge scuttled Bloomberg-era plans for the area, allowing Mayor Bill de Blasio to start from a clean slate. Under an agreement the city reached with Related and Sterling last year, the developers are already building a mixed-use project including 1,100-units of affordable housing on six acres of land. And a community task force was created to formulate development ideas for the remaining 17 acres in the overall project’s first phase.
The task force sent its recommendations to the city in September, and the development team said that it had received them this week and will now begin the due diligence process.
“We are continuing to work with EDC to bring the revitalization of Willets Point to fruition and transform a long-contaminated site and vacant lots into a vibrant community,” a spokesman for the development team said in a statement.
Whichever development scenario is ultimately selected—or whether the city will terminate its agreement with the developers and do something else—Glen said that keeping momentum going is essential to creating a neighborhood around the greenlighted mixed-use project.
“The single most important thing is that we don’t wind up with the first phase out there in Siberia,” she said. “That would just mean we had failed.”
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