Just before the ball dropped—on December 30—a coalition of
developers finally sealed the deal on a site in Flushing that will be home to
Bloomberg's last legacy megaproject, paying $20 million for a municipal parking
lot. The complex was approved back in 2010, so there's been a heck of a lot of
delays and false starts and backtracking and community beefs... and some
financing troubles. But the mixed-use development—which will include offices,
housing, shopping, parking, a hotel, and community space—is set to break ground
in March. The $850 million potential poster child for unarrested development,
a.k.a. Flushing Commons, has also tweaked its phases: the first one will
include 150 condos, a 1,000-space parking lot, and 220,000 square feet of
offices. That'll apparently be done in 2017.
What is getting pushed back to the second phase is a
62,000-square-foot YMCA, a 1.5-acre public open space, and about 130,000 square
feet of offices. Already planned for Part 2 was 450 apartments, another 150,000
square feet of offices, and 15,000 square feet of community space. According to
Crain's, phase two must begin by 2018 (to be finished by 2021) or else
developers will face millions of dollars in penalties. A speedier timeline,
because they used to have until 2027 to tackle that swath. The complex will
also have a 1,600-spot parking garage.
So now nearby store owners are speaking out, worried about
their customers' ability to park 'n' shop, which is in jeopardy because the
1,100-spot lot is getting this giant project plopped on top of it. Oddly
enough, coalition of 300 merchants is also worried about increased traffic. An
EDC spokeswoman assures that there will be "ample parking" and
developers have promised to keep all eleven hundred spots open during
construction. (Ah, #QueensProblems.) By contrast, these pro-development
job-seekers are probably really excited, though.
Now for the backers. The project is being spearheaded by an
alphabet soup of developers: TDC Development International, the Rockefeller
Group, AECOM Capital and Mount Kellett Capital Management with financing from
Starwood Property Trust. Chalk up another project to watch in 2014.
· Flushing Commons [NYEDC]
· Big Queens project to break ground [Crain's]
· Local merchants fear Flushing Commons could put them out
of business
Source: NYCurbed
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