City to vote on controversial $850M development plan in Flushing

Two developers have pledged to spend $850 million on Flushing
Commons,
a 600-unit, 420,000-square-foot commercial space in Queens, the
current site of a five-acre parking lot in one of the city’s busiest
commercial strips, according to the New York Times. Developers TDC
Development and Construction, and Rockefeller Group
Development were chosen in 2005 by the city, which sees
the project as an opportunity to cash in on a thriving area. But local
opponents are criticizing the project, which is slated for completion
in 2013. On one side are Chinese immigrants whose businesses lie
largely out of sight of the planned construction zone and who are
supporting the local developer, TDC’s Michael Lee. On the other side
are Korean immigrants whose stores are clustered around the lot —
bordered by Union Street,138th Street and 37th and 39th avenues — and
fear that construction will disrupt their businesses. A city council
subcommittee is scheduled to vote on the project at a public hearing
tomorrow and the full council is expected to do so by the end of
the month, the first time the Council will vote on a development since
it rejected Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s February plan to plan to convert
the former Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx into a mall. 

[NYT]