"This has been a long process; we're five years into it since we were designated" as the development team, says Michael Meyer, president of TDC Development and Construction Corp. After issuing an RFP, the city in 2005 selected a joint venture of TDC and the Rockefeller Group Development Corp. to develop a five-acre site currently occupied by Municipal Parking Lot 1 in Flushing. It will contain a 1.5-acre town square, a 500-unit condominium, 35,000 square feet of retail, a new YMCA, a hotel and a 1,600-space underground parking facility.

Meyer calls the CB7 approval "an extraordinary win for the community. As one of the speakers at the CB7 meeting said the other day, we'll be bringing Flushing into the 21st century. This is a really unique and vibrant community, not just in New York City but in the entire United States, and Flushing deserves to have this level of quality and this type of open space and mixed-use space."

Although the Flushing Commons plan got the nod in 2005 from area politicians—including then-Councilman John Liu, now the city's comptroller—over two other proposals, it faced years of delays. These included community concerns over traffic congestion and the project's impact on local merchants, along with issues related to an adjacent 140-unit affordable housing development, Macedonia Plaza, sponsored by the Macedonian African Methodist Episcopal Church. Eighteen months ago, Flushing Commons was reportedly on the verge of beginning the city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure process, but the review didn't actually get under way until late January of this year.