Won tells Council to vote ‘no’ on Innovation QNS

City Councilmember Julie Won (center) in a leaked email sent Thursday night told her colleagues that she was opposed to Innovation QNS, a massive redevelopment project proposed for Astoria. File photo by Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit 

By Jacob Kaye

The largest proposed rezoning in the history of Queens is in peril after the local councilmember on Thursday evening told her City Council colleagues that she’s opposed to the project and urged them to shoot it down when – or if – it comes up for a vote in the coming weeks.

In a leaked email to her colleagues first reported by Politico and obtained by the Eagle, City Councilmember Julie Won told the Council’s 50 other members that Innovation QNS, a massive, 5-block development proposed for a corner of southeast Astoria, didn’t meet her affordability standards. Won also expressed a number of other concerns, including worries that the project would result in the displacement of immigrant and low-income residents in nearby areas, a number of whom vigorously opposed Innovation QNS throughout the city’s ongoing review of the project.

With the Council often deferring to the local councilmember’s preference when it comes to land use decisions, Won’s lack of support could spell the end for the controversial project that previously failed to gain the favor of the local community board and Queens borough president.

“Approving this rezoning with minimal affordability would result in displacement, rising rents, and amplify infrastructure challenges,” Won said in the email. “It would also send a message to our communities that the Council will work around them and their representatives for the profit of large real estate interests.”

“This development team has repeatedly ignored the community needs,” she added. “Therefore, I oppose the proposed Innovation Queens development.”

In a statement released Friday afternoon, Won said that she had “strong reservations” about the project. Despite previously stating that she would not vote for the project unless the developers committed to 50 percent affordability, she said Friday that she would not vote for the project unless they committed to 55 percent affordability.

“As Council Member, it is my duty to advocate on behalf of my constituents – and my constituents demand more affordable housing,” she said in the statement. “Therefore, I will not approve this project unless the developer provides more affordable units, bringing Innovation QNS to 55 [percent] affordability.”

A spokesperson for Innovation QNS said that they “remain committed to working to earn the City Council’s support,” and touted what they say are the project’s benefits.

“Innovation QNS would be the largest privately developed affordable housing project in the history of Queens, creating 1,100 affordable homes including 500 deeply affordable homes for New Yorkers most in need with incomes starting at $28,000,” the spokesperson said. “In both the overall number of affordable homes and the number of deeply affordable homes at 30 [percent area median income], Innovation QNS would by a large margin dwarf all other recently approved rezonings in New York City.”

Innovation QNS, which is backed by developers Silverstein Properties, BedRock and Kaufman Astoria Studios, is a $2 billion, 2.7 million-square-foot mixed-use development proposed for the area from 37th Street to Northern Boulevard, between 35th and 36th Avenues. It would see the creation of over a dozen new buildings, some as high as 27 stories, featuring around 2,800 new apartments, retail space, community facilities and a new movie theater – Regal UA Kaufman Astoria is located in the area slated for development.

What has made the project so contentious is the developers’ commitment – or lack thereof, according to its opponents – to build income restricted or affordable units.

In late September, as Won and the developers continued negotiations, the developers committed to making 40 percent, or around 1,120 units, affordable. There was, however, a caveat that Won and opponents of the project objected to – 15 percent of those units would be paid for with subsidies that the city has yet to commit to.

Nonetheless, the offer presented an increase in the number of income restricted units planned for the project.

Silverstein Properties, BedRock and Kaufman Astoria Studios initially proposed setting aside 700 units, or about 25 percent of the 2,800 units, at permanently affordable rates. The most affordable of those units would have been made available to those making 40 percent of the area median income, or $37,360 for a single person and $53,360 for a family of four.

Innovation QNS, a massive redevelopment project planned for Astoria, is in trouble after local City Councilmember Julie Won said she was opposed to the plans in a leaked email sent Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022. Rendering via Innovation QNS

Under the new proposal, which Won appears to have rejected, 25 percent of the affordable units would be privately financed.

While the developers committed to making 500 of the total overall affordable units rent at 30 percent of the area median income – or units available to individuals making around $28,020 a year or a family of four making $40,020 a year – a little more than half would be privately financed. The remaining units would be paid for with subsidies.

The proposal gained the support of Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, who voted against the project in August, citing affordability concerns. At the time of his vote, Richards recommended that the City Planning Commission and the City Council push the developers to commit to making 50 percent of the units affordable, with an unspecified percentage renting at 30 percent AMI.

But Richards celebrated the September proposal from the developers and on Friday, appeared to criticize Won’s rejection of it.

“Are we still having a conversation in 2022 on why Queens needs more deep affordability,” Richards said on Twitter.

“Black and Brown Queens residents deserve to live in Astoria,” he added in a separate tweet. “We were pushed out nearly a decade ago, because of no affordable housing production. I'm going all out on this ish!!!!!”

Richards also called a number of Innovation QNS opponents “weirdos.”

In a statement released late Friday afternoon, Richards reiterated his support for the latest affordable housing proposal.

“With Queens in the throes of a housing crisis and asylum seekers by the thousands being directed into our homeless shelters instead of housing, now is the time for real solutions, not rhetoric,” Richards said. “By creating 1,100 new affordable units in a community where affordable housing is essentially nonexistent, we must seize this opportunity to set a new standard when it comes to securing critical public benefits from private development.”

“I encourage all involved in this process to not let this opportunity slip away,” he added.

Richards’ original “no” vote was not the only hitch Innovation QNS encountered along the road of the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, otherwise known as ULURP.

Queens Community Board 1 voted 24 to 8 against the project during an often tense and crowded June meeting. Again, board members cited affordability concerns as the reason for their rejection of Innovation QNS.

Evie Hantzopoulos, one of the more vocal opponents of the project on the board, told the Eagle on Friday that she was in support of Won’s disapproval of the latest proposal.

“I feel like she is pointing out the flaws in this project, not just originally as it stood, but also with the supposed deal for 40 percent of affordable housing,” Hantzopoulos said. “What does that even mean? There's no details on the total breakdown. There's no dollar amount tied to the public subsidies.”

“[Without those numbers] how can a responsible and thoughtful, holistic opinion be made about this project,” she added.

Earlier this year, Hantzopoulos, who chairs the boards Housing Committee, issued a report on Innovation QNS and found that under the original proposal, even the least expensive units in the development would not be available to Queensbridge and Ravenswood Houses residents earning at or below area median income for the neighborhood without them exceeding the 30 percent rent burden threshold.

According to Hantzopoulos, around 47 percent of Community Board 1’s constitutes are classified as either low or very low income residents.

“[Nearby residents] are already seeing patterns of harassment from their landlords, they're already seeing buildings fall into disrepair, and this will make it easier down the line for those properties to be snatched up and those tenants to be removed,” she said.

The City Council’s Subcommittee on Zoning is scheduled to discuss Innovation QNS on Wednesday, Oct. 19, at 11 a.m.

Won will virtually brief her colleagues on the project on Friday, Oct. 21.

The project could stand in stark contrast to the Council’s recent passing of Hallett’s North, a project north of Innovation QNS in Astoria in City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán’s district.

Cabán, who was initially opposed to the project, told her colleagues that she was in support after the developers made a number of concessions. Halletts North will see the creation of 1,340 apartments, 25 percent, or 330, of which will be income restricted, according to the developers. Only one councilmember voted against approving the project earlier this month.

“I believe it would be very, very foolish not to vote aye,” Cabán said in September when announcing her support of the project.

Though she received backlash from online from progressive circles, Cabán’s support of the project received praise from a number of her colleagues in government, including City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Mayor Eric Adams, who has repeatedly pushed the idea that New York City should be a “city of yes” when it comes to private development.

“This project, like all land use projects, is being thoroughly reviewed on its merits,” a spokesperson for Speaker Adams said in a statement to the Eagle. “The Council will hear from stakeholders and members of the public at this Wednesday’s hearing. The Speaker’s office will continue working with Council Member Won and all partners during the review of this application.”