The $850 million mixed-use Flushing Commons project will begin construction sometime this month, now that TDC Development, the Rockefeller Group and other partners have officially closed on the 5.5-acre lot. The complex — perhaps the last major project undertaken by the Bloomberg administration — closed on the land, at Union Street and 39th Avenue in Flushing, Queens, for $20 million late last month.
The project’s first phase includes the construction of 160 residential units and 350,000 square feet of commercial space, according to Crain’s. The second phase includes a 62,000-square-foot YMCA, 130,000 square feet of commercial space and an open public space – construction of which is expected to start in 2018.
The City Planning Commission approved the project in 2010. In October, the developers filed a Department of Buildings application for a permit to begin work, just under the wire of a deadline for breaking ground. The developers were chosen in 2005. [Crain’s] — Mark Maurer