Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today unveiled the latest development plan for Hunter's Point South, the largest new affordable housing complex to be built in New York City since the 1970s.
A development team, consisting of Phipps Houses, Related Companies and Monadnock Construction, has been selected through a competitive process to build the residential portion of the first phase of the Queens waterfront complex, which includes two mixed-use buildings comprising more than 900 housing units and roughly 20,000 square feet of new retail space. At least 75 percent of the housing will be permanently targeted to low-, moderate- and middle-income families, up from the 60 percent required by the Request for Proposals.
The first phase, to be completed in 2014, also includes five acres of new waterfront parkland, a new 1,100-seat intermediate and high school, new retail space and parking.
The permanently affordable units - at least 75 percent or a minimum of 685 of the total 908 phase one units - will be targeted to families with household incomes ranging from $32,000 to $130,000 per year for a family of four; 20 percent of the units will be available to families earning between 40 percent and 80 percent of Area Median Income (AMI), 20 percent to families earning up to 130 percent AMI, and 35 percent to families earning up to 165 percent AMI.
The first phase of Hunter's Point will transform a total of more than 800,000 square feet of vacant waterfront land bounded by 50th Avenue to the north, 2nd Street to the east, Borden Avenue to the south and Center Boulevard to the west. Infrastructure work, including the installation of sewers, watermains, roadways, sidewalks and parking, will begin next month and is expected to be completed during the Spring of 2013. Park construction will begin this summer. The two residential buildings, including the retail space, will begin construction in 2012 and are expected to take up to 24 months to complete. The new school, which will be built by the New York City Schools Construction Authority, will open in the Fall of 2013.
Designed by SHoP Architects, with Ismael Leyva Architects, the team's plan for the initial two residential mixed-use buildings features classic tripartite building composition in a modern, facade design. The development plan calls for the creation of vibrant retail corridors along 50th Avenue as well as Second Street, which will ultimately serve as a spine that connects all of Hunters Point South. Generous sidewalks, multiple street level entries, and facade treatments that anchor the buildings to the streets, will all work together to create an active, new neighborhood.
Hunter's Point South will also be serviced by the East River Ferry pilot program set to launch this spring. The ferry will stop at the southern tip of Hunter's Point - on the waterfront between Borden Avenue and 54th Avenue, with service to 34th Street in Manhattan as well as Brooklyn and lower Manhattan.
The Hunter's Point South plan completed the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure in November 2008. In 2009, the City acquired the entire 30 acre Hunter's Point South site from the Empire State Development Corporation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey at the cost of $100 million dollars. In the late 1980s, the Hunter's Point South site was slated to become the third and fourth phase of New York State's Queens West Development which called for 2,200 apartments and more than two million square feet of office space.
Later the site was envisioned as the location for the Olympic Village in the City's 2012 Olympic bid.
Mayor Bloomberg was joined at the announcement, which took place adjacent to the development site at the Waterfront Crab House on Borden Avenue in Long Island City, by many city officials and he said that "All told, the project will provide new homes for 5,000 New York City families - more than 900 in this first phase - while creating thousands of jobs."
A development team, consisting of Phipps Houses, Related Companies and Monadnock Construction, has been selected through a competitive process to build the residential portion of the first phase of the Queens waterfront complex, which includes two mixed-use buildings comprising more than 900 housing units and roughly 20,000 square feet of new retail space. At least 75 percent of the housing will be permanently targeted to low-, moderate- and middle-income families, up from the 60 percent required by the Request for Proposals.
The first phase, to be completed in 2014, also includes five acres of new waterfront parkland, a new 1,100-seat intermediate and high school, new retail space and parking.
The permanently affordable units - at least 75 percent or a minimum of 685 of the total 908 phase one units - will be targeted to families with household incomes ranging from $32,000 to $130,000 per year for a family of four; 20 percent of the units will be available to families earning between 40 percent and 80 percent of Area Median Income (AMI), 20 percent to families earning up to 130 percent AMI, and 35 percent to families earning up to 165 percent AMI.
The first phase of Hunter's Point will transform a total of more than 800,000 square feet of vacant waterfront land bounded by 50th Avenue to the north, 2nd Street to the east, Borden Avenue to the south and Center Boulevard to the west. Infrastructure work, including the installation of sewers, watermains, roadways, sidewalks and parking, will begin next month and is expected to be completed during the Spring of 2013. Park construction will begin this summer. The two residential buildings, including the retail space, will begin construction in 2012 and are expected to take up to 24 months to complete. The new school, which will be built by the New York City Schools Construction Authority, will open in the Fall of 2013.
Designed by SHoP Architects, with Ismael Leyva Architects, the team's plan for the initial two residential mixed-use buildings features classic tripartite building composition in a modern, facade design. The development plan calls for the creation of vibrant retail corridors along 50th Avenue as well as Second Street, which will ultimately serve as a spine that connects all of Hunters Point South. Generous sidewalks, multiple street level entries, and facade treatments that anchor the buildings to the streets, will all work together to create an active, new neighborhood.
Hunter's Point South will also be serviced by the East River Ferry pilot program set to launch this spring. The ferry will stop at the southern tip of Hunter's Point - on the waterfront between Borden Avenue and 54th Avenue, with service to 34th Street in Manhattan as well as Brooklyn and lower Manhattan.
The Hunter's Point South plan completed the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure in November 2008. In 2009, the City acquired the entire 30 acre Hunter's Point South site from the Empire State Development Corporation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey at the cost of $100 million dollars. In the late 1980s, the Hunter's Point South site was slated to become the third and fourth phase of New York State's Queens West Development which called for 2,200 apartments and more than two million square feet of office space.
Later the site was envisioned as the location for the Olympic Village in the City's 2012 Olympic bid.
Mayor Bloomberg was joined at the announcement, which took place adjacent to the development site at the Waterfront Crab House on Borden Avenue in Long Island City, by many city officials and he said that "All told, the project will provide new homes for 5,000 New York City families - more than 900 in this first phase - while creating thousands of jobs."
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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