First buildings open in massive Willets Point redevelopment

The first two buildings of a new neighborhood in Willets Point will officially begin to welcome residents later this month.  Photo via Queens Development Group

By Jacob Kaye

A new neighborhood decades in the making opened in Queens on Monday.

City officials and private developers cut the ribbon on Willets Point Commons, an 880-unit affordable apartment complex on the outer edge of what will one day be an entirely new neighborhood in Willets Point.

It was the first two buildings to open in the development, which will have 2,500 income-restricted apartments, a new school, a hotel and the city’s first-ever soccer stadium by the start of the next decade.

The neighborhood’s first residents will begin moving in later this month.

The opening marks a major milestone in the development of Willets Point, which, until recently, was an oft-forgotten and ignored corner of the city, plagued by decades of pollution from its inhabitants and neglect from the city.

When the development is completed, the neighborhood will look entirely different than it has over the past century.

A little more than 100 years ago, Willets Point served as the inspiration for a particularly desolate setting in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, “The Great Gatsby.” He called it the “Valley of Ashes,” named for the conditions created by the Brooklyn Ash Removal Company, which dumped heaps of ash onto the site until 1930, when the company was booted from the neighborhood to make way for the World’s Fair. For a time, the area served as a city dump. It later became home to scores of auto mechanic shops, earning it the nickname “the Iron Triangle.”

Willets Point Commons, which features 880 affordable apartment units, will be the first building to open in Willets Point.  Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye

But a large portion of the area, which is bordered by Flushing Creek, the Whitestone Expressway and Roosevelt Avenue, was owned by the city, which, at various points, failed to develop it.

It was until 2021 that a plan to develop Willets Point – the first phase of which was completed this week – began to move forward.

“For almost a century, this very spot we're standing has been maligned, ignored, and forgotten,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said on Monday. “But…a phoenix has risen in the form of New York City's newest community.”

“The best part is that we're only just getting started here in Willets Point,” he added.

Of the approximately 100 city workers, developers, elected officials and construction officials who attended Monday’s ribbon cutting, many had been working on the project for years.

Among them was Chuck Apelian, the chair of Community Board 7, which has been involved in the development of Willets Point for decades.

Apelian and his fellow board members had spent countless hours over the years debating, examining and helping to plan the city’s attempts to develop the area.

“I don't think, in the beginning, we could have never envisioned this,” Apelian said. “We knew there'd be a transformation. We knew that they were going to take the junkyards and they would be gone, but to see this?”

“What a great place to live, right?” he added.

The two buildings opened on Monday sit at the southeast corner of the neighborhood. In front of them is a new public plaza, replete with benches, tables and a smattering of young trees. To support the new residents, the city and private developers Related Companies and Sterling Equities had to build out the neighborhood’s infrastructure, including a new water line and a sewage system, which the area previously lacked. The city also had to create a number of new streets.

Despite being surrounded by active construction sites, the newly opened area was in pristine condition on Monday. In stark contrast to much of the rest of the city, Willets Point’s streets and sidewalks were free of litter and grime, flower beds by the curbs were full and beginning to bloom and save for a few trucks hauling construction materials, the neighborhood was free of traffic.

That won’t likely be the case for long. For the next several years, the area will be one of immense change.

In addition to cutting the ribbon on Willets Point Commons, officials on Monday also broke ground on a third building, which will include 220 senior affordable housing units. There’s also a new school, which will be built just down the road from the buildings opened on Monday.

The city will also soon begin building out phase two of the project, which will include an additional 1,400 residential units, more open space, a hotel and Etihad Park, New York City Football Club’s 25,000-seat soccer stadium that is expected to host its first match next year.

Beyond the borders of what was once the Iron Triangle, Mets owner Steve Cohen and Hard Rock will soon break ground on Metropolitan Park, a massive casino, resort and entertainment complex that will be built on Citi Field’s parking lot, which is separated from Willets Point Commons only by the baseball stadium.

With several active construction sites in the area, Willets Point Commons’ first residents will likely have to be comfortable with noise. Even when the construction of the neighborhood is complete, the area likely won’t be the quietest in New York City.

The view from the front door of Willets Point Commons. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye

Between New York Mets games played between the spring and fall, and NYCFC games played from the summer until the spring, residents of Willets Point will contend with cheering fans at major professional sporting events effectively year-round. Reflections of both stadiums could be seen clearly in the windows of the new development on Monday morning. And every summer, the largest tennis tournament in the United States is played for two weeks at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center across the street from the neighborhood.

There’s also the sounds of transit. The roar of passing 7 trains and low-flying airplanes making their way to and from LaGuardia Airport, which is a little less than two miles from the front door of the development, frequently interrupted officials giving remarks on Monday.

While Apelian acknowledged that the area will be particularly bustling, he said he wasn’t concerned about how it might affect the residents’ quality of life.

“It's going to be a vibrant area,” he said.

Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect that two buildings were opened this week in Willets Point.