The City Of No rejects Innovation QNS

 

A Western Queens community board voted Tuesday to reject a developer’s plan to turn a five-block commercial stretch of southeast Astoria into a new 3,000-unit mixed-use neighborhood, citing their concerns over affordability and the impact on local infrastructure.

In a 24-8 vote, Queens Community Board 1 disapproved the plan to rezone a commercial and manufacturing district bound by 37th Street to the west, Northern Boulevard to the east, 35th Avenue to the north and 36th Avenue to the south. Following a lengthy debate, the members agreed to include recommendations on the number of affordable apartments, the impact on local transit, the locations of greenspaces and the proposed heights of the planned towers in a letter to the developers.

The vote marks the first major milestone in the city land use process for the proposed $2 billion project, known as “Innovation QNS,” put forth by Silverstein Properties, BedRock Real Estate Partners and Kaufman Astoria Studios.

The trio of developers already own most of the land and aim to erect at least a dozen towers containing offices, retail space and 2,845 apartments, with about 700 deemed affordable for people earning a percentage of the area median income (AMI) under the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) program. The developers have chosen Option 1 of the MIH program, which mandates that they reserve 25 percent of the units for people earning an average of 60 percent of AMI—about $56,000 for an individual and $72,000 for a family of three. They say that 300 of the income-restricted units would be priced below $1,000 a month. 

“We are living in an unprecedented housing crisis in our city. We need all types of housing if we’re going to flourish,” said the developers’ land use attorney Jesse Masyr during a presentation to the board. 

The proposed rezoning area “is lovely, but it is not highly-producing property,” Masyr added.

CB1 member Huge Ma, a tech engineer who created the TurboVax vaccine scheduling account, agreed that the city’s affordable housing crisis is “unprecedented,” but said the current proposal would not do enough to address the need for more income-restricted apartments. 

“While I do agree that dense, transit-adjacent housing is how we get out of this crisis, I struggle to vote for a development that provides us the bare minimum 25 percent affordability,” said Ma, who voted to reject the project.

Following a question and answer session with board members, several members of the public sounded off on the proposal, with most describing their opposition. 

“Despite calls for more deeply affordable housing, these deep-pocketed developers have refused to commit any more than the bare minimum affordability required,” said Astoria resident Amy Kenyan. “Upzoning is a gift so let’s demand more from it.” 

Others said the development team had not meaningfully engaged residents, especially non-English-speaking immigrants in the area. Organizer Farihah Akhtar from the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence (CAAAV) said she and her colleagues had talked with hundreds of neighbors living within a mile of the project and found that few had heard of Innovation QNS.

A spokesperson for the developers, Sam Goldstein, said the three firms welcomed the latest feedback from the board members and the public.

“We’re glad to receive that input even as we continue to make the case that New York City—perhaps now more than ever—needs this $2 billion private investment that will create urgently needed mixed-income homes and 5,400 jobs, while generating hundreds of millions of dollars to support infrastructure, public safety, and education,” Goldstein said.

City Council member deference halts "innovation" development in Astoria

 

QNS

The developers behind the $2 billion Innovation QNS project in Astoria will move quickly to meet the demands of Councilwoman Julie Won to shore up its community outreach and provide greater details on its proposal to build a massive development on a five-block area centered around Steinway Street near Northern Boulevard.

Won took a walking tour of the area last month with Council Land Use Committee Chairman Rafael Salamanca where Innovation QNS requires a zoning change to construct 18 buildings ranging from 9 to 27 stories with more than 2,800 apartments, with 25 percent of the units permanently affordable.

 “This project has been in the works since 2020 and claims to have done extensive outreach in the community,” Won wrote. “Community Board 1, local residents, and housing organizations have all expressed concerns about the lack of adequate community outreach, especially in Spanish and Bangla. The last two years, due to unforeseen circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, this project has had limited in-person outreach to residents in the impacted area, many of whom are not fluent English language speakers. Thus far, the amount of community engagement is insufficient for a project of this scale that will deeply impact not only those in the immediate vicinity but also will have lasting impacts on the neighborhood as a whole.”

 Innovation QNS, a consortium of developers including Silverstein Properties, Kaufman Astoria Studios and BedRock Real Estate Partners, will need Won’s approval as the project makes its way through the city’s arduous public review process which is expected to begin next month.

Won also demanded more detail be provided to Community Board 1 including environmental impact statement information and a full neighborhood impact study including a racial impact study.

25% "affordable units? They better do a lot better than that. How about 100% this time for once, so we don't have to use hotels for the housing deprived families and working class?

Donovan Richards approves luxury public housing development in Astoria against community board's official rejection

 

 Queens Post

 A developer’s application to rezone a section of 31st Street in Astoria — to make way for three large residential buildings — received the conditional approval of the Queens borough president last week.

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards’ approval, which he issued on Oct. 29, is at odds with mounting opposition from community leaders and elected officials. For instance, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani and Councilmember-elect Tiffany Cabán both argue that the plan does not make provision for enough affordable housing. Furthermore, Queens Community Board 1 overwhelmingly rejected the plan.

MDM Development, an Astoria-based real estate company, has filed plans with the city to upzone the east side of 31st Street between Astoria Boulevard North and 24th Avenue in order to develop three residential buildings — two of which would be 11 stories and the other 12.

One of the buildings would go up where the Neptune Diner is located. The diner would be demolished to make way for it.

The plan calls for the construction of 278 units, 69 of which would be deemed affordable housing in accordance with the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing Option 1 requirement. The proposal also includes retail space and community facilities.

Richards cited the citywide need for affordable housing as a justification for his conditional approval. He approved the plan subject to a series of conditions that dealt largely with the design and construction of the development.

Richards asked the developer to consider the feasibility of lowering the heights of the buildings to address one of the central issues raised by Community Board 1. The board was concerned that the buildings would overwhelm the residential buildings located nearby.

Another condition aims to placate adjacent homeowners who fear that their property would be damaged during construction. The condition calls for the developer to run pre-construction surveys on the homes along the property line to use as a baseline in case there is a dispute pertaining to damage.