NEW YORK—After losing the 2012 Olympic bid to London, the original Olympic Village site in southwest Queens will be transformed to a new middle-income neighborhood, announced Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday.
The city obtained 30 acres of land for $100 million at Hunter’s Point South in Long Island City to construct the largest, moderate-income affordable housing development since the 1970s.
Overlooking the East River, the vast land will have room for 5,000 new units of housing, 3,000 of which will be set aside for families of four with incomes between $55,000 and $158,000. The 2,000 remaining will be for market-rate.
“With the acquisition of the site and the start of the design work, we are setting the stage for the largest investment in permanently affordable housing for our police officers, nurses, teachers and public employees and other middle income New Yorkers,” said Mayor Bloomberg in a news release.
Along with the affordable housing, an 11-acre waterfront park with Midtown Manhattan skyline, Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn as backdrops, new retail shops, pedestrian-scaled streets, community facility space and a new 1,100 seat high school are to be built, expecting to generate more than 4,600 jobs and over $2 billion in private investment.
Transportation will also be fairly convenient for future residents. The seven train is two blocks away, and in 2010, a ferry will take riders to Midtown in three minutes and to Lower Manhattan in 27 minutes. The city has also been requesting MTA to extend bus service to the area.
Mayor Bloomberg said that the city is still searching for a developer in the area. Nevertheless, the first phase of $175 million infrastructure improvements will begin this fall.
“When will it finish? I think that’s a function of the marketplace. What we’re trying to do is rezone the big parts of the city that need it and whenever the marketplace is there, the developers can go in. We’re trying to acquire the land, like in this case, and get the infrastructure in place,” said the Mayor in Long Island City.
Back in 2006, the Mayor announced the city’s intention to obtain the site from the Empire State Development Corporation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey as a vital part of the New Housing Marketplace Plan, which calls for the maintenance and establishment of 165,000 affordable housing units in the city.
The city obtained 30 acres of land for $100 million at Hunter’s Point South in Long Island City to construct the largest, moderate-income affordable housing development since the 1970s.
Overlooking the East River, the vast land will have room for 5,000 new units of housing, 3,000 of which will be set aside for families of four with incomes between $55,000 and $158,000. The 2,000 remaining will be for market-rate.
“With the acquisition of the site and the start of the design work, we are setting the stage for the largest investment in permanently affordable housing for our police officers, nurses, teachers and public employees and other middle income New Yorkers,” said Mayor Bloomberg in a news release.
Along with the affordable housing, an 11-acre waterfront park with Midtown Manhattan skyline, Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn as backdrops, new retail shops, pedestrian-scaled streets, community facility space and a new 1,100 seat high school are to be built, expecting to generate more than 4,600 jobs and over $2 billion in private investment.
Transportation will also be fairly convenient for future residents. The seven train is two blocks away, and in 2010, a ferry will take riders to Midtown in three minutes and to Lower Manhattan in 27 minutes. The city has also been requesting MTA to extend bus service to the area.
Mayor Bloomberg said that the city is still searching for a developer in the area. Nevertheless, the first phase of $175 million infrastructure improvements will begin this fall.
“When will it finish? I think that’s a function of the marketplace. What we’re trying to do is rezone the big parts of the city that need it and whenever the marketplace is there, the developers can go in. We’re trying to acquire the land, like in this case, and get the infrastructure in place,” said the Mayor in Long Island City.
Back in 2006, the Mayor announced the city’s intention to obtain the site from the Empire State Development Corporation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey as a vital part of the New Housing Marketplace Plan, which calls for the maintenance and establishment of 165,000 affordable housing units in the city.
