Willets Point rendering

UPDATED, 10:22 a.m., May 11: 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. [more]

Attorney Michael Rikon, the rendering for Willets Point when eminent domain was pursued and New York City Economic Development Corporation president Seth Pinsky

After a lengthy eminent domain battle over Queens’ Willets Point, local business owners are still demanding that the city pay their legal fees, which tally in excess of $1 million, the New York Daily News reported. According to attorneys for the businesses, the city became obligated to reimburse their opponents’ legal fees after dropping a bid for the site in favor of another 23-acre development parcel near Citi Field last June. [more]

A rendering of the Willets Point development

A new community group in Willets Point, Queens is protesting plans to build a gambling site in the area, despite developers’ insistence that a casino is not in the cards, the New York Daily News reported. Don’t Gamble on our Community, a coalition of politicians, businesspeople and local officials intend to collect 25,000 signatures in protest against a development they say would hurt local businesses and be detrimental to the neighborhood’s social fabric. “This is true grassroots,” the group’s founder, Michael Olmeda, said, addressing the crowd at a senior center in Corona. “We don’t want it here.”… [more]

Willets Point rendering

UPDATED, Feb. 5, 5:47p.m.: Will a casino come to Willets Point afterall? The owners of the Mets had placed their bets on developing a casino at the Queens site in order to win back some of the $162 million the team lost in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme, the New York Post reported. Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz’s Sterling Equities had a proposal for a casino complex with a 500-room hotel and 1.8 million square feet of retail. [more]

Sheldon Silver

For the last year Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has been one of the largest obstacles to a casino opening in New York City. According to the New York Daily News, Silver has softened his stance on gambling in the city, but still won’t stand for one in Manhattan. Acknowledging the revenue generating potential of such an attraction, a source close to Silver said the speaker is open to allowing a casino in a destination area rather than in densely populated parts of the city. [more]

Sterling's Fred Wilpon and the Willets West retail center

Did the Related Companies and Sterling Equities have an unfair advantage in securing the bid to develop Willets Point? Sources told the Queens Times Ledger that none of the other bidders were aware that land to the west of Citi Field, which is currently used as a New York Mets parking lot and owned by the Wilpon family that heads Sterling Equities, was up for development. That’s where the partnership plans a 1 million-square-foot retail and entertainment complex called Willets West. [more]

Rendering of downtown Flushing development

Willets Point could be getting a neighboring development project directly to the east. The Queens Chronicle reported that a local development group presented plans to the Flushing community last week that called for large-scale development on 60 acres of downtown Flushing land across the Flushing River from Willets Point.

The plans, crafted by the Flushing Willets Point Corona Local Development Corp., were funded by a $1.5 million grant from the state’s Brownfield Opportunity Areas program and aim to upzone the area to allow for mixed-use development. [more]

Willets Point retail center rendering

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 in officially unveiling the plans for the 50-years-in-the-making, $3 billion project.

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. [more]

Related Chairman Stephen Ross, Hudson Yards and Willets Point renderings

Thanks to its expertise in negotiating complex agreements with the city and its long-term thought process, Related Companies has become the most prominent developer in the city, according to Crain’s, boasting forthcoming mega-developments at Hudson Yards and Willets Point, among others.

Because Chairman Stephen Ross got his start developing affordable housing, he became adept at striking deals with the city that ensure favorable terms for both sides, Crain’s said. [more]

From left: Construction on the Barclays Center and a rendering of the Willets Point retail

In order to placate local interests, the Bloomberg administration secured promises of affordable housing before allowing Willets Point and the Atlantic Yards development projects to move forward. But the Wall Street Journal noted that the below-market residential components of those projects lags far behind the lucrative commercial development. In Atlantic Yards, Forest City Ratner has yet to begin work on any of the 6,400 housing units, 2,250 of which were slated to be affordable. But a brand new basketball arena is almost complete. [more]