City Council Approves Second Willets Point Development

Stephen Ross’ Related Companies and Fred Wilpon’s Sterling Equities can move forward with a second development at Willets Point including a Major League Soccer stadium, 1,400 affordable apartments, a 250-key hotel and 80,000 square feet of retail.

The New York City Council on Thursday approved the second phase of the Queens project, which is headlined by the 25,000-seat soccer stadium in the transitioning industrial neighborhood. Related CEO Jeff Blau said in a press release that it would be “a vibrant neighborhood with affordable housing at its core.”

“This project checks every box: affordable housing, good jobs, economic growth and community benefits,” said Willets Point Council member Fransisco Moya before the vote.

Moya’s assent assured the passage of the project, given the City Council’s tradition of deferring to the local member. But approval was never in much doubt, given that the housing will be income-restricted. Mayor Eric Adams has five days to sign off on the land-use change Related and Sterling needed, but that is a formality.

“Housing is the goal — and with today’s City Council vote, I’m proud to say that we just scored the goal of the decade,” the mayor said in a statement.

Related and Sterling are already building 1,100 affordable housing units as part of the project’s first phase, as well as 22,000 square feet of retail and a 650-seat school. City officials insisted that affordable housing come before the profitable components of the sweeping plan.

In all, some 2,500 affordable apartments are coming to Willets Point. It is the largest 100-percent affordable, ground-up housing project in New York City in 40 years, say city planners.

The stadium, to be built with union labor, will be funded by the privately owned New York Football Club to the tune of $780 million, although the city, which is leasing land to the developers, will forgo about $516 million in tax revenue.

Owners of the soccer team include the deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, whose net worth is reportedly $300 billion.

Projected for completion in 2027, the stadium will arrive too late to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup, part of which will be played in New Jersey.

Ross, whose personal worth is estimated to be more than $10 billion, is the chairman and founder of Related, the private development firm behind developments at Hudson Yards and Columbus Circle.

Like many city-backed real estate projects in New York, the redevelopment of Willets Point figured prominently in Dan Doctoroff’s Olympics bid before he became a deputy mayor in the Bloomberg administration.

Once a dumping ground for coal ash, Willets Point was immortalized in The Great Gatsby as the Valley of Ashes. The low-lying area later became home to Shea Stadium, junkyards and auto body repair shops before the construction of Citi Field for the Mets in 2009. Hedge funder Steve Cohen purchased the team from the Wilpon family in 2020 for $2.4 billion.

Cohen is competing for one of the state’s casino licenses. The gambling venue would be part of an $8 billion development called Metropolitan Park on a parking lot beside Citi Field, but his plan may be killed by the local state senator.

The City Council on Thursday also approved three smaller rezoning proposals for a total of 153 housing units, of which 44 will be affordable, in Brooklyn and Queens.