NEW YORK CITY-Perhaps looking to go out with a bang, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's 12th, and final, state of the city address—delivered Thursday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn—revealed an ambitious agenda for the remaining 320 days of Hizzoner's administration. The Mayor cited numerous projects on the commercial real estate front that he plans to move forward.
Among the tasks he is looking to complete: rezone East Midtown; complete the second construction stage of a third water tunnel; finalize construction on the number 7 train extension, complete the third and final section of the High Line, begin developing the sites around Seward Park on the Lower East Side; and move forward with plans to build a major retail complex and the world's largest Ferris wheel at St. George, in Staten Island, that would include a 350,000-square-foot retail complex and a 120,000-square-foot hotel.
In addition, the Mayor wants to begin the process of cleaning up Willets Point, in Queens, and see it converted into a swath of retail and hotel development; build the $50 million New York Genome Center in Lower Manhattan; open the new Steeplechase Plaza at Coney Island; open one of the largest track and field complexes on the East Coast at Ocean Breeze, a 110-acre park that was once part of the Staten Island University Hospital campus; move forward in converting the Domino Sugar Plant into housing and commercial space and begin the redevelopment of the South Street Seaport.
The Mayor also discussed his goals to get several lesser-known projects going, including: the Culture Shed, a 170,000-square-foot arts and exhibition center at Hudson Yards; begin creating a new community called Greenpoint Landing—with more than 5,000 new homes, 1.5 acres of parkland and up to four acres of waterfront open space, a marina, a public school, commercial space and shops—on the waterfront in Brooklyn; open the next phase of BioBAT at the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park, a 500,000-square-foot commercial biotech space; begin creating a 50-acre new media campus at Steiner Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
"But as far as we've come, our work is not done,” Mayor Bloomberg said at the press conference, according to a release. “Our goal is not to spend the year cutting ribbons; our goal is to advance projects—and start new ones—that will keep our city on the right course for decades to come."
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Rayna Katz
Rayna Katz is a seasoned business journalist whose extensive experience includes coverage of the lodging sector, travel and the culinary space. She was most recently content director for a business-to-business publisher, overseeing four publications. While at Meeting News, a travel trade publication, she received a Best Reporting award for a story on meeting cancellations in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
