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City moves forward on Hunter's Point South

The de Blasio administration took the first steps last week to furthering a 30-acre, Bloomberg-era economic development project on the Long Island City, Queens, waterfront known as Hunter's Point South that will eventually be home to up to 5,000 units of housing.

The city is moving forward with a nearly $100 million construction project to build both a new waterfront park and a series of roads, water mains and sewer lines that will eventually support the final buildings of the initiative. On Friday, the city's Economic Development Corp. issued a request for proposals for part of the job.

"This RFP will help us build upon the incredible success of Hunter's Point South so far, continuing to transform an abandoned industrial site into a dynamic, mixed-use community, and reconnecting Queens residents to the waterfront," said EDC spokesman Ian Fried.

The city-led project is billed as the largest housing development in more than three decades, and all told is set to bring at least 3,000 below market rate units to the formerly gritty peninsula in Long Island City.

The site was designed to stem the loss of middle-income housing in the city and two buildings already under construction will boast 900 affordable units that will serve, for example, families of four making between $55,000 to $158,000 annually, based on federal guidelines.

And in former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's final month in office, the the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development selected a partnership between TF Cornerstone and the nonprofit Selfhelp Community Services to build a 1,193-unit complex where about two-thirds of the apartments will be below-market rate.

Friday's request will literally lay the groundwork for the last part of the project, which should entail the construction of an additional 3,000 units, though the exact number of affordable units and the income range they will serve has not yet been set in stone.

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May 28, 2014
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...rs-point-south