East River Queens West waterfront in 2006

Queens West is a district and redevelopment project along the East River in Long Island City, Queens, New York City. The project, located on Hunter's Point south of the Anable Basin, is a joint project sponsored by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PANYNJ)[1] and the Empire State Development Corporation (ESD). The Queens West Development Corporation (QWDC), a subsidiary of ESD,[2] was established in 1992 to facilitate implementation of the approved development plan.

History

Hunters Point Library under construction

The project on 74 acres (30 ha) was first announced in 1983 when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced a new development along Long Island City's underused industrial waterfront, much of it brownfield land.[3] There were no specific proposals, but one plan would include 11 residential buildings with about 4,500 units on 44 acres (18 ha), as well as 13 acres (5.3 ha) of state park land, a public library, two public schools, and 120,000 square feet (11,000 m2) of retail space.

Legislation authorizing the development was passed in 1983 or 1984, but delays arose due to the need to purchase land from several owners, as well as the fact that roughly a quarter of the proposed development was underwater.[4] The Empire State Development Corporation joined the project in 1989, by which time the Port Authority had only purchased about a third of the necessary land.[5] The proposals for the Long Island City waterfront development changed during the planning process. By 1990, when the project was sent to the New York City government for review, the development was slated to contain 6,300 apartments, a hotel, office space, and a school spread across 15 buildings, as well as 19.2 acres (7.8 ha) of open space. About 80% of the space would be residential, and the rest would be commercial.[6]

The landmarked Pepsi-Cola sign

The Queens West master plan ultimately called for three office towers, a hotel, apartments, and 28 acres (11 ha) of waterfront space, which were to be developed incrementally.[7] The project officially began construction in with the start of Hunters Point Community Park. The park was constructed first partially because developers wanted to convince the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide funding for the first apartment buildings, and HUD would only provide that funding if amenities were guaranteed for the apartments.[8] Gantry Plaza State Park first opened in May 1998 and was expanded in July 2009.[9] The Pepsi-Cola sign in Gantry Plaza State Park was made a New York City designated landmark in April 2016.[10] Queens West is home to the Hunter's Point Community Library.[11]

In May 2009, 30 acres (12 ha) were transferred to the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) for construction of the development renamed Hunter's Point South. It was completed in 2014 with 5,000 residential units, an 11-acre park, and 96,000 square feet of retail space and 46,000 square feet of public and community facilities.[12][13]

In November 2018, Amazon.com announced that it was going to construct one of two campuses for its proposed Amazon HQ2 on the Long Island City waterfront, near Queens West. The campus would have 25,000 workers.[14][15][16] However, in February 2019, Amazon announced it would withdraw its plans to build the HQ2 location in Queens West due to community opposition.[17]

Panorama of Queens West, May 2015

Transportation

NY Waterway in 2011

The district lies west of the Long Island City station, served by the Long Island Rail Road, and the Vernon Boulevard–Jackson Avenue station, served by the New York City Subway's 7 and <7>​ trains. The district also contains the Long Island City ferry stop, which is served by NYC Ferry's Astoria route.[18][19][20]

References

  1. ↑ Waterfront Development, Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. Accessed February 22, 2022.
  2. ↑ "Queens West Development Corporation (QWDC)". Empire State Development. 24 October 2016. Archived from the original on 2 April 2017. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  3. ↑ Gargan, Edward A. (March 21, 1983). "RIVERFRONT BUSINESS AND HOUSING FOR QUEENS OFFERED BY PORT BODY". The New York Times. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  4. ↑ James, George (December 15, 1987). "Queens Plan Still Stuck On Square 1". The New York Times. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  5. ↑ Chira, Susan (July 30, 1989). "Queens Waterfront Plan Gets a Push". The New York Times. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  6. ↑ Lueck, Thomas J. (June 9, 1990). "New York Agencies Push Huge Queens Development". The New York Times. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  7. ↑ Muschamp, Herbert (May 22, 1994). "ARCHITECTURE VIEW; Queens West: Why Not Something Great?". The New York Times. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  8. ↑ Dunlap, David W. (September 18, 1994). "Queens West Begins With a Park". The New York Times. Retrieved April 1, 2017.
  9. ↑ Polsky, Sara (October 19, 2012). "Exploring the Second Stage of Queens' Gantry Plaza State Park". Curbed NY. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  10. ↑ Dunlap, David W. (April 13, 2016). "Pepsi-Cola Sign in Queens Gains Landmark Status". The New York Times. Retrieved November 10, 2018.
  11. ↑ "Hunters Point Community Library Breaks Ground". Steven Holl Architects. May 16, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Queens West Development Corporation". Archived from the original on April 2, 2017. Retrieved April 1, 2017.
  13. ↑ "History of Long Island City". Queens West Villager. Archived from the original on May 16, 2017. Retrieved April 1, 2017.
  14. ↑ "Amazon Selects New York City and Northern Virginia for New Headquarters" (Press release). Amazon. November 13, 2018. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
  15. ↑ Stevens, Laura; Morris, Keiko; Honan, Katie (November 13, 2018). "Amazon Picks New York City, Northern Virginia for Its HQ2 Locations". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
  16. ↑ Selyukh, Alina (November 13, 2018). "Amazon's Grand Search For 2nd Headquarters Ends With Split: NYC And D.C. Suburb". NPR.org. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
  17. ↑ Goodman, J. David; Weise, Karen (February 15, 2019). "Why the Amazon Deal Collapsed: A Tech Giant Stumbles in N.Y.'s Raucous Political Arena". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  18. ↑ DNAinfoNewYork. "Proposed Routes for NYC's Expanded Ferry Service". Scribd. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
  19. ↑ Honan, Katie (2016-03-03). "Citywide Ferry Service to Launch in June 2017, Official Says". DNAinfo New York. Archived from the original on 2016-09-23. Retrieved 2016-09-22.
  20. ↑ Siff, Andrew (March 16, 2016). "New York City's Ferry Service Set to Launch in 2017". NBC New York. Retrieved 9 May 2016.

40°44′43″N 73°57′32″W / 40.74528°N 73.95889°W / 40.74528; -73.95889

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