Cabán announces support for three-tower development in Astoria
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City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán on Tuesday announced her support for Halletts North, a three-tower development planned for Astoria. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye
By Jacob Kaye
Despite previously expressing concerns over a proposal to bring a three-tower development to northern Astoria, City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán announced her support for the Halletts North rezoning Tuesday, all but assuring its approval by the full City Council during its vote Wednesday.
Cabán, who represents Astoria, East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, Woodside and Rikers Island, said that while initial proposals for Halletts North, which plans to bring around 1,300 new apartment units into the neighborhood, didn’t meet her standards, she was swayed by a number of commitments made by the developers. Included in those commitments was a promise to deepen and expand the affordable units offered in the development.
“I believe it would be very, very foolish not to vote aye,” Cabán said.
The project, which has gained trepidatious support from both the local community board and the borough president, is located blocks from the Astoria Houses.
Located near the intersection of 3rd Street and 26th Avenue, Halletts North will host three towers, standing between 23 and 34 stories high, if approved by the City Council. It will also include commercial space, a 525-space parking garage, the same number of bike parking spaces and a waterfront promenade open to the public.
The socialist lawmaker, who also laid out a 10-point plan Tuesday aimed at changing the way affordable housing is built in the city and state, said that the developers, who operate under a vague limited liability corporation named Astoria Owners LLC, committed to deepening the project’s affordability.
In total, the developers said 268 units will be priced at or below 50 percent of the area median income. Of those, around 100 will be set at 30 percent of the area median income, which amounts to $28,020 for a single person and $40,020 for a family of four.
A bulk of the remaining affordable units will be set at 50 percent AMI. Around 5 percent of the units will be set at 80 percent AMI, according to Cabán. The remaining approximately 1,000 units will be rented at market rate.
Astoria Owners LLC also told the councilmember they’d expand the number of two- and three-bedroom units. In total, the project will include 950 one-bedroom, 315 two-bedroom and 75 three-bedroom units, the councilmember said.
Cabán, who took office late last year, noted that the 268 affordable units slated for Halletts North amount to over half of the total number of units renting at or below 50 percent AMI approved by Community Board 1 in the past decade.
Community Board 1 voted 19-14 to approve the project in April. Board members expressed concern over the affordability of the project, its potential to price nearby residents out of their current homes and the potential lack of availability to nearby Astoria Houses residents, Patch reported.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, who also expressed concern over the project’s affordability and encouraged the developer to rent a number of units at 30 percent AMI, approved Halletts North in July.
The City Council’s Land Use Committee unanimously approved the project on Tuesday, hours after Cabán announced her vote.
In explaining her support of the project, Cabán said she was presented with a limited number of options – the developers have previously said that if the development were to fail, they’d turn the area into a last-mile shipping facility, an option allowed by its current zoning.
The developers purchased the land around a decade ago and shortly after began remediation efforts on the site that once housed vacant warehouse space and empty lots.
“A ‘no’ vote today, would be a vote for that,” Cabán said.
A development dubbed Halletts North will likely get the approval of the City Council after Councilmember Tiffany Cabán, who represents the area, voiced her support for the project on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye
Jim Hedden, a representative of Astoria Owners LLC, said the developers were “honored to have” Cabán’s support.
"The Council Member understands that our city is facing an unprecedented housing crisis but has maintained that it is equally important that the local community also benefit from new development,” Hedden said in a statement. “Hallets North will bring desperately needed jobs, affordable housing and develop a publicly accessible waterfront park, from a previously unusable industrial site, returning the waterfront to our neighbors in the Astoria Houses and throughout northwest Queens.”
“We look forward to being an important part of the Halletts peninsula community for many years to come,” Hedden added.
Cabán’s approach to the project stands in stark contrast to the approach taken by other socialist or progressive lawmakers in recent months and years.
City Councilmember Kristin Richardson Jordan, who represents a portion of upper Manhattan, vehemently opposed One45, a 900-unit development planned for Harlem. Despite a commitment from the developers to make 50 percent of its units affordable, the project was squashed.
Near Halletts North, the Innovation QNS rezoning, which would essentially result in an entire new neighborhood in the southeast corner of Astoria, faces a potentially bleak future. The project, which would bring in twice as many apartment units as Halletts North and would see the creation of around five times as many new buildings, has been voted down by both Community Board 1 and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards.
The project will be voted on by the City Planning Commission later this month and then head to the City Council, where Councilmember Julie Won will have an opportunity to sway the vote of her colleagues.
Won, who identifies as a progressive, has taken issue with the affordability commitment from Innovation QNS’ developers and has also scolded the developers for what she and a number of others said was a lack of effort to conduct outreach to neighbors of the potential development.
Won, who issued a guide for her land use principles over the summer, has yet to say which way she’ll vote. Negotiations over the affordability of the development are ongoing.
