Flushing Commons, a large mixed-use project planned in Queens was approved last night by Community Board 7.

The project is a development of The Rockefeller Group Development Corporation and the TDC Development & Construction Corporation and will occupy a five-acre site that is now a municipal parking lot.

The project will include 600 residential units, parking for 1,600 cars, a 62,000-square-foot YMCa, 36,000 square feet of community and cultural space and 420,000 square feet of offices and retail space.

According to an article by Amanda Fung today at crains.com, "The project also includes 140 affordable housing units in a separate building, which will be developed by a group created by the Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church."

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall will hold a public hearing on the project April 20.

The location is bounded by 37th and 39th Avenues and 138th Street and Union Street.

The project calls for the creation of a 1.5-acre town square and passageways that connect to the Lippmann Arcade on Roosevelt Avenue and surrounding streets. With more than 600 local union workers without employment, the project hopes to generate 2,000 new jobs and 3,600 construction jobs.

TDC President Michael Meyer has said that "The main goal of Flushing Commons is to create a public space that will rival anything that Manhattan has to offer," adding that

"We will in no way affect the shops along Union Street," and "Every single business in Flushing is important and we will go to any lengths to ensure that those shops are kept open and are well accessible."

Perkins Eastman is the project architect and Thomas Balsley Associates is the landscape architect.