Related Companies and Sterling Equities reached an agreement with city officials, kicking off development of a soccer stadium in Queens’ Willets Point neighborhood.
The companies will develop the 25,000-seat soccer stadium for the New York City Football Club across the street from the right field foul pole of Citi Field, the New York Times reported. The stadium is expected to arrive by 2027 for the vagabond NYCFC squad, which won’t be in time for the hosting of the World Cup the year before.
The project on city land goes beyond a soccer stadium, with plans for a 250-key hotel and 2,500 units of affordable housing across a 23-acre stretch. It will be the largest entirely affordable housing development in a half-century, according to city officials.
The soccer club is carrying the stadium’s $780 million development price tag, which includes no tax-exempt bond financing, capital infusions from the city or abatements on mortgage recording and sales taxes.
The stadium owners won’t have to pay real estate taxes during the lease, though. NYCFC will pay up to $4 million annually on a 49-year lease, which includes an option for a 25-year extension.
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NYCFC has been playing most of its games at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. In 2018, the New York Yankees and Maddd Equities proposed a $1 billion project to develop a stadium, retail, affordable housing and a hotel in parking facilities next to the baseball stadium. However, the deal fell apart in the eleventh hour.
The area around Citi Field is also where New York Mets owner Steve Cohen wants to put a casino.
The stadium and housing will have to go through the city’s land review process, which is never a sure thing for any developer. Local council member Francisco Moya, who has heavy sway on the process, has been pushing for a soccer stadium in Queens for years.
Willets Point was once a hub of auto body repair shops and scrapyards, some of which are still in business today. There are about a dozen businesses operating in the development area, half of which are on city-owned property. The city plans to evict those tenants while the developers work to acquire the other sites.
— Holden Walter-Warner