Mayor throws support behind Innovation QNS as potential rejection looms
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Mayor Eric Adams went on a tour of the area slated for the development of Innovation QNS on Monday, Oct. 31, 2022. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye
By Jacob Kaye
Mayor Eric Adams on Monday went on a walking tour of the area slated for the development of Innovation QNS, the largest proposed development in the history of Queens.
The tour in support of the project came several weeks before the City Council is scheduled to decide whether or not it will accept the massive proposal or reject it.
While walking down 41st Street near Northern Boulevard and down 35th Avenue and Steinway Street, Adams reaffirmed his support for the controversial five-block rezoning proposed for southeast Astoria. Though the project has been floated around for nearly half a decade, it’s now in the final stages of review and its future remains uncertain.
“I wanted to come out here and see it for myself – when you walk through this location, this is a prime example of the type of spaces we should utilize and build affordable housing, jobs [and] build park space,” Adams said. “This is a good place to build.”
Adams was joined by Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, several labor union representatives, a couple of Astoria residents and representatives of the developers – all of whom support the proposal to build.
Notably absent from the tour was City Councilmember Julie Won, the local lawmaker who has so far rejected the proposal and whose vote on the project could very well decide whether or not Innovation QNS gets built or is scrapped entirely.
Innovation QNS is a 2.7 million-square-foot mixed-use development proposed for the area from 37th Street to Northern Boulevard, between 35th and 36th Avenues. If approved, 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, two-acres of open space and a new movie theater.
‘A real opportunity’
At the heart of the project’s controversy is the commitment the developers have and haven’t made to building affordable, or income-restricted housing.
On Monday, Adams touted the 40 percent affordability commitment made by developers Silverstein Properties, BedRock Real Estate Partners and Kaufman Astoria Studios – under the latest proposal, 25 percent of the affordable units would be privately financed and the remaining 15 percent would be paid for with city subsidies that the city has yet to commit to.
In total, around 1,100 of the development’s proposed 2,800 units would rent at income-restricted rates, the developers say. Of those affordable units, 500 would rent for 30 percent of the area median income – or be made available to families of four making around $40,000 a year.
“Just think about that for a moment,” Adams said on Monday. “That's almost unheard of in the city.”
Richards originally voted against the project but, following the development team’s latest affordable housing proposal, has become one of Innovation QNS’ biggest boosters.
On Monday, he urged the mayor and his administration to meet the developers’ request for subsidies to build a number of the affordable units. Queens, as a whole, has only seen about 13 percent of the city’s financing agreements, according to the borough president.
“This is a real opportunity under this administration to shift that policy,” Richards said.
Mayor Eric Adams was joined by Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and other supporters of Innovation QNS during a walking tour of the area slated for the development on Monday, Oct. 31, 2022. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye
The mayor’s tour was limited to the area slated for development and he did not venture onto any of the neighboring blocks, many of which are home to tenants in either multi-story apartment buildings or one-to-two family homes.
During the multiple public hearings held on Innovation QNS, dozens of Astoria residents expressed concerns that the development will eventually bleed onto their blocks and invite future prospecting from developers, hiking up nearby rents to prices they can’t afford.
In response to those concerns, Adams said that his administration would monitor the development of Innovation QNS, as well as any future developments that may be proposed for the already-expanding neighborhood.
“We got to make sure we don't have tenant harassment, we're going to make sure we don't have landlords that see it as a way of displacing tenants,” Adams said. “It's about incorporating those tenants that have been here to make sure that they can remain here in an affordable way.”
Nina Fiore, an Astoria resident and the creator of the Astoria Film Festival, was on the tour and said that her support was tied to the idea that it’s better to be at the table advocating for the neighborhood than out of the room entirely.
“[The mayor] understood that no one in this group wants to displace working class people – we are all working class people, and we respect what the community is,” Fiore said. “But we also see the changes that are happening, and we want to make sure that the existing community members benefit from new development.”
“We can potentially get some benefits out of this project versus little pop-up developments everywhere that don't give us anything,” she added.
The battle to build affordable housing
Hanging over the tour held on Halloween was the specter of Won’s vote.
The councilmember has demanded the developers up their affordability commitment to 55 percent, with 15 percent of those units covered by city subsidies and the remaining 40 percent covered by private funds.
Adams and Won both confirmed to the Eagle that the pair have been in communications about the project and are both actively negotiating with the developers.
Though he never referred to her by name, Adams appeared to suggest that Won, and the City Council as a whole, was “disrupt[ing] the deal.”
“I think that is really responsible for us to ask the question of those that constantly call for affordable housing to deal with not only those who are in shelters, but those who are traditionally being priced out of their communities, if not in your district than where?” he added.
In a statement to the Eagle, Won said that she agreed that “the number of evictions and homelessness is growing by the week in our district as well as the city,” adding that she welcomed “100 percent affordable housing in any empty lot in our district.”
“Securing the greatest amount of affordable housing remains our top priority for Innovation Queens,” Won said. “We were not invited to the Innovation Queens site tour today, but we are in daily conversations to ensure the community’s voice is heard and their concerns are met.”
In February, Won went on a similar walk through of the proposed development site with the City Council’s Land Use Committee Chair Rafael Salamanca “so he could meet the hardworking multigenerational immigrant families who are at the highest risk for secondary displacement,” she said.
City Councilmember Julie Won tours the area eyed by the developers of Innovation QNS for their five-block project with City Councilmember and Land Use Chair Rafael Salamanca in February. File photo by Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit
Private development of affordable housing is a key component of the mayor’s plan to combat the city’s housing crisis.
Richards, who has traditionally supported private development as a means to boost the city’s affordable housing numbers, said on Monday that he believed Innovation QNS, though not the solution, would get the city closer to its affordability goals.
“Is this project going to resolve the affordable housing crisis in Queens and in the city? Absolutely not,” he said. “But every bit counts, and we can't simply talk our way out of this crisis – we have to build our way out.”
The City Council, as a body, has not come forward with a clear plan to combat the housing crisis but has generally rejected the strategy of building affordable housing through private development. Despite a lack of a cohesive plan, individual members, including Won and Queens City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán, have independently released guides and policy proposals aimed at upping the city’s affordable housing count. Won released a land use principles guide in August that she said she would use to judge the merits of a proposed housing project.
‘This is a neighborhood’
About half an hour after the mayor, borough president and the others on the tour left Astoria, a longtime resident named Maria Lyrist was walking by P.C. Richard and Son, a large electronics store located inside the proposed development. Lyrist testified at both the City Council’s recent hearing on Innovation QNS, as well as at the local community board’s public hearing on the project over the summer.
When told that the mayor had recently toured the neighborhood, Lyrist said that she hoped Adams left the area with the understanding that Astoria is home to a “community of middle class families and lower income families that deserve to have a percentage of these buildings’ affordable units so they can live there.”
“This is a neighborhood – we have families, we have places that matter to us,” she said. “I hope he understands that.”
Editors note: Innovation QNS is a unprecedentedly large project that has gone through several changes since first being proposed. There are many details of the project that were not included in this story. Do you have any Innovation QNS questions that you’d like to have answered? Email your questions to Jacob Kaye at jacobk@queenspublicmedia.com or reach out via Twitter at @Jacob_Kaye_. Your questions and their corresponding answers may be featured in a future story that will aim to breakdown the details of the project as they currently stand.
