NEW YORK CITY-After years in the making, the $850 million Flushing Commons project has moved a step closer to fruition. Developers TDC Development International and the Rockefeller Group—who eight years ago announced plans to convert a 5.5-acre, city-owned parcel in Queens from a municipal parking lot into a mixed-use complex—have filed their first permit to start construction with the Department of Buildings.

The pair requested approval to spend $3.5 million to modify the parking lot for the project's first phase, which includes construction of about 160 residential units and 350,000 square feet of retail or commercial space, according to Crain's New York Business. It also will include a YMCA and park. Another 450 residential units and 150,000 square feet of retail or commercial space are slated for the second phase of the project, for which no starting date has been set. Rockefeller declined to comment, and TDC and the Department of Buildings could not be reached by press time.

Under the contract signed between the developers and the city, TDC and Rockefeller are required to break ground by Oct. 31. But of course, such a large project has met its share of opposition. Community Board 7, which oversees Flushing, has criticized both the city and the developers for keeping them uninformed about the project since 2005, when the developers won a request for proposal, sponsored by the city's Economic Development Corp., to redevelop the parking lot site, Crain's reports. The Flushing Commons project then took five years to work its way through the city's land use review process. That concluded in 2010 when the City Council approved the project. But then things went back to being a little too quiet for the community board's taste.