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Willets Point

By Michael Ewing 2/09 10:48am

manifest destiny east

That big thing in the corner is the Willets convention Center. (NYC EDC)

Does Queens Need Two Convention Centers?

After Mayor Bloomberg and the city won a key Willets Point case back in 2010, a slew of colleges and development companies are competing to redevelop the iron triangle. As part of Bloomberg's plan, a convention center—the first outside of Manhattan—will be a focal point of the project and will rocket Willets Point into "New York's next great neighborhood."

But now that the gigundo casino-and-convention complex is in the works at nearby Aqueduct, is there room for two convention centers in Queens? Read More

By Matt Chaban 10/11/11 1:00pm

Week In Review

A handful of developers are competing to redevelop the so-called "Iron Triangle." (The NYC Economic Development Corporation)

Related and the Wilpons Team Up for Willets Point Pitch

While some people are hoping—futilely, perhaps—for a high-tech college at Willets Point, the official R.F.P. is also cranking along, with application filed this past week. Crain’s now has word of a handful of the developers competing to redevelop the Iron Triangle, and one looks to be a hit, if it weren’t already facing a few strikes.

The Related Companies has teamed up with Sterling Equities, which is controlled by Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, to submit a proposal to redevelop the 12.75 acres included in the project’s first phase, the sources said. Silverstein Properties, which is building three towers at the World Trade Center site, also threw its hat into the ring. None of the firms would comment. A source said Sterling had teamed up on bids with more than one firm. Read More

By Eliot Brown 8/20/10 7:37pm

manifest destiny east

City Wins Key Willets Point Court Case

A lawsuit challenging the development of Willets Point has been dismissed by a state judge, handing the Bloomberg administration a key victory in its attempts to transform the industrial area by Citi Field into a housing and retail center.

The lawsuit, brought by a set of business and land owners in the project's footprint, challenged the Read More

By Eliot Brown 4/15/10 6:03pm

Silverstein, Douglaston, Related Vying to Develop Willets Point

World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein, Queens developer Jeff Levine and Related Cos. chairman Stephen Ross are among those seeking to develop Willets Point, the polluted, 62-acre auto repair district next to Citi Field, according to city records.

The names are part of a list of 29 firms released by the Bloomberg administration in response to Read More

By Eliot Brown 11/18/09 12:48am

Four Years Hard Labor

A repetitive refrain filled City Hall’s council chambers on Tuesday morning. For a good hour at a zoning committee hearing on the contentious plan to redevelop the Bronx’s Kingsbridge Armory into a mall, council member after council member battered the Bloomberg administration and the developer, the Related Companies, with a similar line of questioning: Given Read More

By Eliot Brown 10/05/09 2:22pm

City Closes on Willets Point Land as Opponents Question Funding

In the past month there’s been a fair amount of deals closing at Willets Point, with the Bloomberg administration finishing up the acquisitions that it negotiated with some of the property owners on the industrial site by Citi Field that’s slated for a major redevelopment.

In the run-up to a City Council approval of the Read More

By Eliot Brown 6/09/09 7:28pm

Michael Bloomberg’s Two Favorite Mega-Projects

In the universe of the city budget, cuts are everywhere.

Nowhere was this more apparent than the city’s capital budget, the decade-long plan that pays for new parks, schools, firehouses, infrastructure and economic development with $47 billion in city funds. The Bloomberg administration is proposing to shrink its capital spending by about $8 billion from an Read More

By Eliot Brown 4/01/09 1:00pm

The Recession Hops the 7 Train

Hours after Lehman Brothers said it would file for bankruptcy on the now infamous Sept. 15, 2008, Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber—a former Lehman executive himself—professed an aggressive approach to the Bloomberg administration’s economic development agenda.

With a little over a year left in office, Mr. Lieber said during an interview in City Hall at the time, Read More

By Eliot Brown 3/31/09 10:38pm

City to State: Park Off!

In the mid-1990s, park advocates and government officials devised and employed what they thought was an innovative, win-win strategy to build a series of new parks: split the cost and control equally between the city and the state. With equal claims for bragging rights by the mayor and the governor, money would stream in from Read More

By Azi Paybarah 1/21/09 8:24pm

Ferreras Gets 32BJ

City Council candidate Julissa Ferreras' campaign announced the endorsement by 32BJ, a union representing property service workers with 10,000 members in the borough of Queens.

The union’s president, Michael Fishman, cited Ferreras' support of the Willets Point project as a main reason for supporting her candidacy.

“Ferraras worked hard to ensure that the Read More

By Eliot Brown 11/18/08 5:26pm

Hotel Union Discovers Its Muscle

On Nov. 12, at an event announcing his support for the Bloomberg administration’s planned Willets Point redevelopment, Queens Councilman Hiram Monserrate made a round of thank-yous, mentioning city officials, other electeds, his staff and, with a smirk, the unions.

“I want to thank all my labor partners, who ensured and reminded Read More


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