The deal represents Mayor Eric Adams’s most ambitious economic development initiative and comes as he is about to complete his first year in office. It also spells the end of two sagas: the team’s decade-long search for a dedicated soccer stadium and an even longer conundrum about the future of Willets Point, a once thriving conglomeration of auto body shops.
“Queens, which is the world’s borough, now will become the home of soccer, which is the world’s sport,” Maria Torres-Springer, the deputy mayor for economic and workforce development, said in an interview on Tuesday.
Unlike many stadium deals, including one for the Buffalo Bills negotiated this year by Gov. Kathy Hochul that included nearly $900 million in public funds, city officials said subsidies for this project are largely limited to infrastructure improvements at the site and property tax breaks for the stadium.
The soccer team will pay for the entire construction of the stadium, which is estimated to cost $780 million, city officials said. Neither tax-exempt bond financing nor direct city capital infusions will be used, according to Andrew Kimball, the president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. The developers are not getting abatements on mortgage recording or sales taxes, he said. But the stadium owners will not have to pay real estate taxes for the duration of the lease.
7 comments:
Claire Schulman wanted to build Flushing Bus Terminal at Willets Point. The original terminal was torn down in 1950 to make room for Woolworth, now Duane Reed. They promised to promptly build a new one. Proof it is needed is that bus traffic kept police from going to the Wendy's Massacre a quarter century ago for fifteen minutes. Another plan was to build the bus terminal above the street, extending the LIRR platform. However, ten years ago, the redesign of bus routes in the center of Flushing greatly improved traffic. But busses can't just stop everywhere, there has to be some order. But who expect those who tore down Flushing Municipal Parking to build a bus terminal?
"Officials say the project would be the city’s largest development of entirely affordable housing since the Mitchell-Lama developments of the 1970s."
Oh yay, more bug-man housing. And given today's ethnic jockeying, and given it's Flushing, expect 95% Chinese occupancy, "income" be damned.
Kudos to Mayor Adams for brokering a deal that may actually benefit New Yorkers !
Oh, come now. Another hotel? Perhaps there needs to be a study of empty hotel rooms, hotel rooms occupied by travelers, and hotel rooms occupied by the homeless before anyone proposes a new hotel in Queens.
😆 a hotel. That's other terms for a new homeless shelter. So now a soccer stadium, homeless shelter, and "low income housing" all rolled into one. Let's see the show that goes on there now.
Will the people who's jobs and businesses were destroyed to make way for these projects get priority for the housing?
" But the stadium owners will not have to pay real estate taxes for the duration of the lease."
Would this be another 99-year lease, like the one Mayor Dinkins gave the USTA?"
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