City, ESDC in $100M Queens Land Deal

NEW YORK CITY-The city’s largest middle-income housing development in more than 30 years will go up on a site once envisioned as a component in the bid for the 2012 Olympic Games. The Bloomberg administration on Thursday announced the $100-million acquisition of 30 acres at Hunter’s Point South in Long Island City from the Empire State Development Corp. and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The project will accommodate 5,000 new units of housing, with 60% reserved for moderate- and middle-income families. It will also include more than 11 acres of landscaped waterfront parkland, new retail shops, community facility space and an 1,100-seat high school.

The city says the first phase of the $175-million infrastructure and park design work will begin this fall, and is expected to catalyze more than $2 billion in private investment. It’s all in keeping with the Hunter’s Point South rezoning approved by the City Council in November.