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  #101  
Old Posted Dec 10, 2010, 2:14 AM
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http://www.yournabe.com/articles/201...0566973664.txt

Ferreras, biz owners protest raid that shut down Willets Point



By Connor Adams Sheets
December 9, 2010

Quote:
City Councilwoman Julia Ferreras (D-East Elmhurst) is leading a charge to uncover the details behind an unannounced law enforcement raid on Willets Point Wednesday morning that ground business to a halt in the district. She held a protest in the neglected neighborhood Thursday morning to decry the raid, which crippled commerce there for the remainder of the day as most shops kept their doors closed until Thursday morning.

“These are businesses — these people need to keep their doors open. Willets Point was completely shut down yesterday because of fear,” Ferreras told a group of workers and tenants who joined her at Willets Point Boulevard and 37th Avenue to protest the raid. “Enough is enough. We’re here to say Willets Point is open for business.”

A multi-agency sweep of the pothole-ridden, bustling home of car repair shops, junkyards and bus lots in the shadow of Citi Field led to the arrests of at least 15 people, according to Marco Neira, a local shop owner and president of the Willets Point Defense Committee, a group of Willets Point tenants and workers. Ferreras said she was told that some of the arrested may have been customers passing through.

The raid, conducted by government agencies including the NYPD and the Buildings and Housing Preservation and Development departments, began about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, when an estimated 200 law enforcement officers in more than 50 vehicles arrived at the Iron Triangle, blocking several entrances and exits and stopping anyone from coming or going for more than six hours, Neira said. Ferreras said “dozens” of officers participated.


“I tried to drive up the street [into Willets Point] and the police said, ‘This is a secured area, you can’t come in.’ I said, ‘What do you mean? I live here,’” the Iron Triangle’s only resident, Joseph Ardizzone, recounted Thursday. “I was running up and down the streets telling everyone to close up since they were coming through to ticket everyone.”

The officers proceeded to arrest six people for dismantling cars without a license, four people for falsifying business documents, two people for illegal possession of a forged instrument, two for having a suspended license, one for interfering with the investigation of an officer, and one for bribing authority, according an official report obtained by the El Diario newspaper. As many as 100 vehicles were confiscated for having no registrations or plates, including a broken-down ice cream truck, according to Ardizzone.

The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday, and Ferreras said even she had not been able to get the police to fill her in on the specifics of the raid as of Thursday afternoon.

Many workers and local landlords believe the raid was directly related to the fact that the city plans to build a multibillion-dollar development project at Willets Point. The city wants to relocate existing businesses and maybe even use eminent domain to clear the land in pursuit of its development goals, which area tenants and landlords say leaves them up against a wall.

“They were harassing us. I have no intention of selling or giving anything to Economic Development [Corporation],” Ardizonne said. “I think it’s wrong. I don’t think this is a democracy anymore, I think it’s a dictatorship.”

EDC Spokeswoman Julie Wood vehemently disagreed with the insinuation that the EDC’s plans to redevelop the area had anything to do with the raid.

“The allegation that this raid is in any way related to the development is absolutely false, and that is not the way the city does business,” she said.

Ferreras said she had been told that the raid was aimed at cleaning up auto theft and “chop shops” in the area, a goal she applauded but that she believed was pursued in the wrong manner, as the sweep mostly led to minor arrests, some of which could cause major headaches for the heavily immigrant workforce.

“No one is surprised that Willets Point has those who are undocumented here, and the fact that you arrest them on something that should have been a desk appearance, and now they may very well be facing deportation — that’s not what this city is about,” Ferreras said. “If there is any impropriety in Willets Point, we applaud the fact that they’re focusing on auto theft here in Willets Point. However, there should be a tactic that is smarter, a tactic that is timed properly.”

Julia Sandoval, owner of WJ Auto Repair on 127th Street in the Iron Triangle, said the simple fact that she had to close for the day had an impact on her bottom line.

“We need to support our families. I’m a single mother and I have to support four children, but they came yesterday and shut everything down,” said. “All we ask is for someplace to be relocated so we can keep working.”
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  #102  
Old Posted Dec 10, 2010, 2:40 AM
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They never make this easy do they….
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  #103  
Old Posted Dec 10, 2010, 3:02 AM
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They never make this easy do they….
Nope, it's always messy. Just look at Atlantic Yards and even Coney Island. In every inch of the City, every development must be fought with blood on both sides.
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  #104  
Old Posted Dec 10, 2010, 3:12 AM
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the city does this every 6 months or so..
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  #105  
Old Posted Dec 10, 2010, 3:15 AM
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These are necessary developments for the sake of revitalization; so whatever it takes.
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  #106  
Old Posted Feb 4, 2011, 4:16 AM
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ny1


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  #107  
Old Posted Feb 5, 2011, 9:59 PM
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this is great news.

Notice how it was announced at the same time as MLB announcing the 2013 All Star Game coming to CityField.
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  #108  
Old Posted Feb 6, 2011, 1:30 PM
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this is great news.

Notice how it was announced at the same time as MLB announcing the 2013 All Star Game coming to CityField.
The Yankees had it a few years ago at the old stadium. This would be the first time one of the new stadiums hosted the All Star game. But if anything, the area around the stadium, particularly phase one will be cleaned up - or cleared up may be the proper term.
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  #109  
Old Posted Feb 15, 2011, 3:17 PM
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http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/...%28NY+Local%29

Biz owners keep battling
EDC plan kicks off, but Willets Pt. holds out


BY Mark Morales
February 14th 2011


Quote:
THE CITY'S attempt to create a blank canvas for its sweeping Willets Point mega-development is set to kick off this week.

But holdout landlords and business owners in the gritty industrial zone are vowing not to go without a fight.

The Economic Development Corp. is scheduled to send out notices in the mail this week for a March 2 public hearing that officially begins the process of acquiring land in Willets Point through eminent domain.

Some lawmakers have already picked sides.

"To take these businesses and give it to a private developer who's going to make millions of dollars - that is simply un-American," state Sen. Tony Avella said at a rally Thursday with Willets Point business owners.

EDC officials said they have reached a deal with nearly 90% of the landowners in the area designated for the first phase of the project. There are nine holdouts. "As we seek to reach agreements with the nine remaining businesses, we will also begin the legal process that gives us the option to condemn these properties if needed," said EDC spokeswoman Julie Wood.

The plans envision transforming Willets Point from a maze of auto body shops into a bustling development of condos, affordable housing and retail stores.

The plan is split into three phases, with the first expected to include infrastructure work as well as 1.3 million square feet of housing, retail, a hotel and open space. The EDC is set to issue a request for proposals in April, with infrastructure work beginning later this year.

But the holdout landlords and business owners vowed to keep fighting.

Jairo Martinez, 58, a tow truck driver who does business with the auto shops at Willets Point, said the city will be taking away his livelihood.

"They're taking the bread right out of our mouths," he said.

Marco Neira, a shop owner and a local organizer, said he also was scared his business would go under if forced to move. Because he doesn't own the land that his shop sits on, the city has offered no deal to relocate, he said.

"I spent my whole life building my business in this area, now they want me to leave empty-handed. It's not right," Neira said.

Andros Chardidemou, 60, who owns the Shea Truck and Auto Repairs and the land it sits on, said he objects to being forced to move for "some millionaire developer."

"We created a business and all of a sudden they want to take it away," Chardidemou said.

The EDC's public hearing starts at 4 p.m. at the Queens Library on Main St. in Flushing.
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  #110  
Old Posted Feb 22, 2011, 3:11 PM
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http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...ATE/302209983#

Holdouts dig in at Willets Point
Businesses fight eminent domain, but city goes ahead with development plan

By Hilary Potkewitz
February 20, 2011

Quote:
The battle of Willets Point ain't over, according to a dwindling group of local business owners in the western Queens neighborhood who are fighting city efforts to turn the 62-acre area into a mixed-use development.

As the city's Economic Development Corp. sent out notices last week for a March 2 hearing that is the first formal step to “buying” the land through eminent domain, the business owners said they were preparing a lawsuit to block that action.

“We're going to challenge them, and they're going to challenge us,” said Jerry Antonacci, owner of Crown Container, one of the largest of the 20 or so holdouts banded together as Willets Point United. “We have lots of outside supporters who feel very strongly about this eminent domain thing.”

Maybe so, but thus far, the battle has largely gone the city's way.
Four years ago, when the EDC unveiled its plans to build 5,500 residential units, 500,000 square feet of office space, a hotel, parks and 1.7 million square feet of retail space at Willets Point, opposition was widespread. Most of the 70 or so businesses—a mixture of small car-repair shops and a few larger manufacturers set up along the cratered, unpaved roads—were quick to condemn the effort.

The original opposition group, the Willets Point Industry and Realty Association, was quickly formed by a block of the 10 largest business owners in the area. But in November 2008, the three biggest companies all negotiated agreements with the city that their properties would not be part of the 20-acre first phase of development. Instead, they would be allowed to operate as usual for at least three more years, and would have the opportunity to sell their properties under more favorable zoning.

A united front

Three other large outfits subsequently cut deals with the EDC to move to city-owned land in neighboring College Point.

In the wake of those defections, the WPIRA went quiet. In early 2009, a group of smaller business owners—trash haulers, sawdust makers and auto shops—formed Willets Point United, which to date has lived up to its name.

“There are certain people who the city has made extraordinary deals to accommodate,” said Mr. Antonacci, who described the city's offer for his 2,300-square-foot property as insulting. “Then there are certain people who the city treats [badly].”

At this point, the EDC says it has deals with 90% of landowners in the area designated for the first phase of the project and is seeking agreements with nine holdouts. Opponents of the city's plan are largely pinning their hopes on opposition to eminent domain. Its use to seize land for private development has been a lightning rod since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of New London, Conn., doing just that for a project that never materialized.

WPU hired lobbyist Richard Lipsky, who helped kill the huge Kingsbridge Armory development in the Bronx last year. The group has also hired Washington law firm Arnold & Porter. In the past two weeks, the group has fired off letters to city officials and held a press conference keynoted by state Sen. Tony Avella, D-Queens, a longtime opponent of the project.

In the near term, the group is focusing on the EDC's failure to gain approval for a key ingredient of the project—access ramps for the Van Wyck Expressway—as the weak point in its armor.

Ramps first

“The city represented to the court in a sworn affidavit that it would not take my clients' property by eminent domain until it had received approval for ramps for the Van Wyck,” said Mike Gerrard, senior counsel with Arnold & Porter.

The EDC points out that its latest plan envisions building the project in phases, and that the first of those does not require new ramps. In the meantime, it is proceeding as if the ramp approval were a formality. It plans to issue a request for proposals in April to select a developer.


“As we seek to reach agreements with the nine remaining businesses, we will also begin the legal process that gives us the option to condemn these properties,” the agency said in a statement.

Maybe so, but Mr. Antonacci is hunkered down for a legal siege. “This fight is going to go on for years, and the city knows it,” he said.
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  #111  
Old Posted Feb 28, 2011, 7:01 PM
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EDPL Meeting this Wednesday.. Only issues brought up at THIS meeting can be used in future ED challenges to the project..



http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/28/ny...lets.html?_r=1

Concern for Underclass as the City Progresses on Its Willets Point Plan

Two years ago, as the mayor attended the Mets’ home opener at the new Citi Field, Adrien Nicolescue, an auto mechanic from Romania, joined a procession of honking garbage trucks to protest the city’s plans to condemn the nearby Willets Point area and build a $3 billion project of apartments, office buildings, stores, restaurants and a hotel.

But as his comrades geared up for another showdown with the mayor at a public hearing on the project scheduled for Wednesday, Mr. Nicolescue decided to pack up and leave. “I am going home, back to Romania,” he said, standing on the same pothole-pocked corner of Willets Point where he has been drawing in customers for windshield repairs for 36 years.

For half a century, Willets Point has proved remarkably intractable — Mayors Robert F. Wagner Jr. and Rudolph W. Giuliani were among those who failed in their attempts to give the area a facelift. But in the latest four-year skirmish, which has provoked heated debates on class and ethnicity, inspired furious lobbying on all sides and spawned allegations of conflicts of interest, the administration of Michael R. Bloomberg has gotten further than its predecessors, managing to persuade many of the larger businesses to sell out or relocate.

The city agency overseeing the project, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, hopes that at the hearing on Wednesday it can make the case that it is redeeming a hazardous industrial wasteland.

Seth W. Pinsky, president of the corporation, said in an interview that the project would create 5,300 new jobs, provide affordable housing and generate $25 billion in investment over the next 30 years. He said that 29 developers had already expressed interest, and that the city would choose finalists this spring.

But opponents of the Bloomberg plan counter that the project is speculative and environmentally unsound. They insist that the area, however bedraggled, has become an Ellis Island of sorts for a newly arriving underclass that depends on it to get by. They also complain bitterly that the city is shutting down thriving small businesses that have nowhere else to go.

The city will have 90 days to respond to concerns raised at the hearing on Wednesday. Officials said they planned to proceed with the project, including seizing property, if necessary, by the middle of 2012.

City officials estimate that Willets Point is home to 255 businesses, which employ about 1,700 people, some in sheds made of tin or cinder blocks. Of 74 property owners, 28 have agreed to sell their land or relocate, city officials say; the city already owns 90 percent of the property where the first five-year phase of development would go.

While opposition to the plans remains strong, people on both sides said that the city’s divide-and-conquer strategy seems to have worked, with many of the largest landowners conceding defeat and planning to depart, leaving the smaller shops and the immigrants who work there to fight a lonely battle.

“I’m not going to fight a man like Bloomberg: You know you aren’t going to win,” said Daniel Sambucci, 80, who said he had agreed to accept an offer of a “few million” dollars from the city for his 2.5 acres of land and to relocate his 61-year-old auto salvage company to a nearby neighborhood. “They treated us pretty good. But I am upset that I paid $50,000 a year in taxes for years for a place with no sewers. This place is worse than Iraq, and the city let it become this way.”

On a recent afternoon, as garbage cans burned, Mexican norteño music wailed from boom boxes on the hoods of cars. Large pools of swirling dirty water overwhelmed unpaved roads. Locals complained that the police handed out tickets for parking cars on the sidewalk, even though there were no sidewalks.

Whatever the challenges, some are determined to stay. Michael Rikon, a lawyer representing 82 businesses that have refused to leave, said that he was preparing to file a lawsuit against the city, claiming that the project flouted environmental laws. But he acknowledged that history and precedent were not on his side.

In November 2009, the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, ruled that the state could take businesses and private property for the $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. Legal experts said that decision reaffirmed New York’s right to use eminent domain even as many state legislatures have been moving in the opposite direction.

While some critics have portrayed the redevelopment of Willets Point as a class battle by a billionaire mayor intent on supplanting scrap metal with sushi, the Bloomberg administration has some unlikely allies in the project. “We see Willets Point as a form of modern-day slavery in which poor people are working in conditions worse than in their home countries,” said Eduardo Giraldo, head of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Queens. “It is better to shut it down.”

Mr. Pinsky, of the Economic Development Corporation, stressed that the first phase of the project would include 140 affordable housing units and noted that the city had offered free English language lessons and training for Willets Point’s dispossessed. But, Mr. Giraldo said, many of the immigrant workers could not take advantage of the classes because they were already working 12-hour days.

Meanwhile, some small business owners are frustrated that their neighbors are getting lucrative deals from the city and they are not. Ralph St. John, whose company has built apartment buildings and parks for the city for nearly 20 years, said he had been offered nothing, and that his 18 employees would lose their jobs if he were forced to leave.

City officials said that Mr. St. John’s land was not earmarked for development in the first phase, and that by the time the city was ready to make a deal with him, his land would probably have increased in value. But Mr. St. John, who is 77, does not want to live in limbo.

“If you want what I got, act like a man and come face me,” he said. “Don’t use eminent domain and steal from me.”
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  #112  
Old Posted Feb 28, 2011, 10:21 PM
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I would have to agree with Mr. Eduardo Giraldo that Willets Point is currently a dump. Seems like a great reason to develop.
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  #113  
Old Posted Mar 1, 2011, 2:48 PM
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The city will have 90 days to respond to concerns raised at the hearing on Wednesday. Officials said they planned to proceed with the project, including seizing property, if necessary, by the middle of 2012.

Of 74 property owners, 28 have agreed to sell their land or relocate, city officials say; the city already owns 90 percent of the property where the first five-year phase of development would go.
Ready to see the finer details of that first phase.
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  #114  
Old Posted Mar 1, 2011, 6:02 PM
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im interested to see how this phase one is going to generate the 170,000 ADDITIONAL DAILY car trips that the opposition claims.

ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY THOUSAND PER DAY??
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  #115  
Old Posted Mar 1, 2011, 10:04 PM
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That is pretty impressive.

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Ready to see the finer details of that first phase.
As do I.
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  #116  
Old Posted Mar 3, 2011, 5:59 PM
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Sounds a bit exaggerated to me. I expect to see at least 10,000 cars in the first few weeks, and about 50,000 pedestrians traveling by train.

During the baseball season the estimated number should triple.

I understand people have jobs at Willets Point, but they have to take a look around them. It's a run-down neighborhood with unpaved streets and industrial garbage. I've never gone to the area for anything in particular, except maybe passing by it on the train.
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  #117  
Old Posted Mar 10, 2011, 6:44 AM
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Important truths about Willets Point

By Greg David
March 1, 2011

Quote:
It may appear Wednesday at a public hearing that there is considerable opposition to the Bloomberg administration's plan to clean up and redevelop the hazard waste site known as Willets Point, Queens. Don't be deceived. Tomorrow is the end game of a decades-long effort to make Willets Point a generator of jobs and business activity. Also don't forget that the last-ditch efforts of the few holdout businesses have extracted a steep cost: preventing the city's economy from being as prosperous as it could be.

Willets Point, located next to the new Citi Field and near thriving Flushing, has been a problem for decades. It's basically a collection of relatively small industrial businesses in an area with no sewers that pollutes not only the land it sits on but the nearby bay. Robert Moses tried to use park money to clean up the site but was blocked by local business owners. Gov. Mario Cuomo tried to do the same by building a domed football stadium. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani made a run at the problem, too. Only Mayor Michael Bloomberg has gotten this far, which says a lot about the backbone of this administration.

The Willets Point plan originated on the watch of the Bloomberg administration's first deputy mayor for economic development, Dan Doctoroff. The formal approval process kicked off in 2007. It took until the end of 2008 for Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber to win final City Council approval. Now, more than three years later, the next step begins under Deputy Mayor Robert Steel. To say this project has been given all possible consideration would be an understatement.

The opposition has been greatly overstated. In a 2007 survey, Hunter College researchers found exactly one resident in the area. At the time, there were 225 businesses, mostly auto parts and repair business. They employed 1,300 people. Most of the major businesses in the area have reached agreements with the city to relocate elsewhere, mostly to nearby College Point. The numbers of remaining businesses and workers is much smaller today.

Meanwhile, opponents keep inventing strategies to derail the city. For a while, it was the idea that planned highway ramps somehow violated the environmental impact statement. A judge dismissed the claim summarily. Another complaint is that eminent domain is being wrongly applied. New York's highest court has rejected that line of reasoning at both Atlantic Yards and Columbia University's West Harlem plan, and the U.S. Supreme has refused to consider the cases. Case closed.

There are questions about Willets Point--how much can the financially strapped city invest in the cleanup, and what will the interest of private sector developers be in building the housing and commercial space the city envisions? But those are not reasons to give up and leave Willets Point as it is. Whatever happens will be better than what exists today and will create jobs and help diversify the economy.
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  #118  
Old Posted Mar 13, 2011, 12:42 AM
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Willets Point United stands by lobbyist Richard Lipsky despite Kruger bribery allegations

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/...ribery_al.html

A group fighting a city redevelopment plan in Queens says it's standing by its lobbyist - despite charges he bribed state Sen. Carl Kruger.

Willets Point United, which is in a critical stage in its fight against the plan to develop the gritty industrial zone, is sticking with lobbyist Richard Lipsky.

Jerry Antonacci, head of the group and a property owner in the so-called Iron Triangle, said he won't make a move until all the facts are in.

"If he's ever proven guilty then we'll take the proper steps but right now these are just accusations," he said.

The feds have charged Lipsky with paying Kruger to grease the way for his clients in Albany.

Another Willets Point property owner Len Scarola, 34, said the charges against Lipsky do not affect their fight "in any way."

"He's the one person who stood by us, fighting for small business," he said.

Lipsky's client list has shrunk since prosecutors charged him Thursday.

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, the Committee to Save New York, and Forest City Ratner, the group developing the Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn, have all cut him loose.

Antonacci said his group will do the same if the allegations prove true.

"Lipsky's just the mouthpiece. We can hire another mouthpiece if we need to," he said. Lipsky declined comment.
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  #119  
Old Posted Mar 20, 2011, 1:19 PM
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http://www.yournabe.com/articles/201...p_20110317.txt

City accepting proposals to build Willets Point sewers

By Connor Adams Sheets
March 17, 2011

Quote:

Sewers are finally coming to Willets Point, though many business owners there will have little opportunity to use them as they will be the first construction work on the city’s $3 billion redevelopment plan for the neglected area.

The denizens of the 62-acre Iron Triangle have worked there for decades without sewer service, sidewalks, reliable streetlights or other basic city services, but now the city is looking to begin work on two sewer projects to make way for its development plans.

Hunter Roberts Construction Group, the city’s construction manager for off-site Willets Point infrastructure work, issued a request for proposals March 9 calling for qualified builders to bid on the reconstruction of a storm sewer and outfall located within 126th Street and the construction of a sanitary sewer main. The work is expected to cost about $20 million to complete.

“When this work is completed, Willets Point will finally have the infrastructure it needs to prevent further environmental contamination and allow new development to take place. These badly needed infrastructure improvements are a key part of the project that was overwhelmingly approved by the City Council and taken on at the behest of central Queens residents,” city Economic Development Corp. President Seth Pinsky said in a statement. “In addition to improving the neighborhood’s basic infrastructure, remediating decades of environmental damage and creating a new sustainable development, this project will generate thousands of new, quality jobs.”

The storm sewer will convey stormwater north toward Flushing Bay, and the sanitary sewer main will convey wastewater from Willets Point to an existing pump station near the intersection of 114th Street and 37th Avenue. The city expects each project to cost at least $10 million and to be complete within two years.

Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) conveyed the feelings of many Willets Point property owners regarding infrastructure improvements during the city’s eminent domain hearing March 2. He said the city should have built sewers and made other improvements while the taxpaying businesses were not facing eminent domain and that it is unfair to only do so now that a massive development is on the horizon there.

“You can’t go to businesses and refuse to put sewer lines in. You can’t go to businesses and refuse to pave their roads. You can’t go to businesses and refuse to send snowplows down their roads and then tell them [Willets Point] is underutilized and underdeveloped,” he said.

EDC spokeswoman Julie Wood said Tuesday she did not believe the city had received any proposals yet by that point.
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  #120  
Old Posted Mar 30, 2011, 1:59 PM
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City's Willets Point plans hit legal pothole
Judge asks authorities why she shouldn't reverse her earlier dismissal of lawsuit to block the redevelopment after city skirts restrictions.


By Erik Engquist
March 29, 2011

Quote:
The city's bid to redevelop Willets Point, Queens, hit a pothole Tuesday when a judge ordered the Bloomberg administration to show why she shouldn't revoke the go-ahead she granted last summer.

State Supreme Court Judge Joan Madden had ruled that the project could proceed because the city promised not to condemn any land until it had approval for new Van Wyck Expressway ramps, which it had deemed essential to the project. But when state and federal approval of the ramps proved elusive, the city split the project into two phases and moved ahead with condemnations, arguing that the ramps were not required for Phase I.

But the administration failed to make that argument to the judge.


According to Michael Gerrard, the attorney for Willets Point property owners who object to the city's plan, the judge signed an order directing the city to explain why her order dismissing his lawsuit should not be vacated.

City lawyers will prepare a brief, the property owners will write a response, and the judge will hear oral argument in open court July 20. Mr. Gerrard and his clients are asking that she reopen the case. But because they did not ask for an injunction, the city can continue with its eminent domain proceeding, said Connie Pankratz, a spokeswoman for the city's corporation counsel.

“Since its pending litigation now, we're not able to comment,” she said.

Last August, Ms. Madden ruled against the Willets Point group on all of its claims—which ranged from questioning the environmental review to contending the office of the deputy mayor for economic development did not have the authority to be the lead agency on the project.

The city's plan for the 62-acre site, a stone's throw from Citi Field, calls for 5,500 housing units, eight acres of open space, 500,000 square feet of office space, 1.7 million square feet of retail space, a school, a hotel and a convention center.
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