Developers hope Flushing's commercial boom will extend to the large swath of office and retail space proposed for the 75-acre redevelopment of Willets Point in Queens, an area dominated by automotive repair shops and junk yards.The city's Economic Development Corporation has proposed 500,000 square feet of office space and more than 1 million square feet of retail square feet for the area, along with a new convention center and housing. A footbridge will cross wetlands and link Willets Point to downtown Flushing.
As Flushing booms, Willets Point looms
Not everyone is bullish on Flushing. Tom Angotti, director of the Hunter College Center for Community Planning and Development and author of last year's study on Willets Point, said he doubted that the area could sustain the proposed office space. He said that Willets Point's separation from Flushing could not be erased by a lone footbridge.
"It is a lengthy bridge that is not very inviting across wetlands," he said. "I would certainly want to see the numbers to convince me that there is real demand."
6 comments:
"....inhibiting growth in Downtown Flushing..." That's why Wellington Chen proposed this project. That's what "Wellington Point" is all about. Displacement of long time business and takeover by foreign special interests.
Shall we organize a mass protest if the office buildings don't have gables??
That article is all about "spreading the appropriate propaganda".
This project is being pushed forward
at lightning speed for one main reason.....
Those developers who are building
(or planning on building)
along the east bank of the Flushing River
will have great difficulty marketing their condos
as luxury class if the residents have a view
of the junk yards on the other side.
I personally don't like the looks
of scrap metal and auto wrecking yards.....
but this project is ill planned from the get-go
and will turn out to be a disaster upon completion.
How many unoccupied office suites
can we expect to see in this new commercial
development?
But that doesn't really matter.....does it?
Wellington Chen and his boys will make a fortune on building this latest addition
to the vast inventory of Queens crap.
Do you all know that Wellington Chen
is on the board of trustees
of the Metropolitan Museum of Art ?
H-m-m-m.....he must have brought in a lot of Chinese (laundered????) money to that institution.
I just canceled my membership.
They no longer need my chump change
for their support.
Some credentials listed in his bio..... Urban Living, Inc.? I wonder if Wellington still hears from Michael J. Lazar, the former Taxi & Limo guy (and political hack) who was friends with Donny Manes. Lazar partnered with Urban Living on a proposal for the Muni #1 parking lot in downtown Flushing in 1985. What a thrill to remember those colorful days of yester-year!!!
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