Former Flushing Airport Site to Be Redeveloped Into 3K Units of Workforce Housing

The administration of Mayor Eric Adams has selected two developers to transform a decommissioned airstrip in Queens into affordable housing for working-class New Yorkers.

Cirrus Workforce Housing and LCOR were chosen as the developers of 3,000 apartment units to be built at the site of the former Flushing Airport in College Point, Queens, according to the Adams administration. The airport closed in 1984, and the site has since remained unused and become overgrown.

The land targeted for development is bordered by 20th Avenue to the north, Linden Place to the west, and commercial developments lining the Whitestone Expressway to the east. 

The development, which will create workforce housing, will lead to 1,300 union construction jobs and 530 permanent positions. The decision was based on a request for proposals (RFP) process that began in November 2024, and was ultimately decided on by the administration and New York Building and Construction Trades Council President Gary LaBarbera.

“We’re making sure that the union members who built the housing will get to live in the housing,” Adams said in a press conference Monday. “For 40 years, this location has just been sitting around. The government can’t hold onto space as some kind of novelty when people can use those spaces to build housing, and that’s what we’re doing.”

The administration was acting on an executive order from the mayor that was issued in August 2024 for all city agencies to review land that was owned or controlled by their departments, and to then identify private partnerships that could help boost housing supply throughout the five boroughs.

The overarching goal of the administration has been to create 500,000 new homes by 2032.

“In the current environment, these employees make a little too much money to qualify for affordable housing but not enough for market rate,” LaBarbera said. “With this model, we’re going to use some pension fund money to partner with the city and create thousands of middle-class jobs. We’re also going to be able to bring people into the building trades — because there’s work for marginalized communities — and give them the opportunity to get into the middle class.”

The housing component will utilize 20 out of the site’s 80 acres. The rest will be open space.

The deadline for RFPs was March 20, but the city is ahead of schedule in terms of awarding a contract. The original announcement had the city preparing for a selection sometime in 2026.

“When you look at New York City today and the housing crisis that everybody talks about, the reality is that there aren’t a lot of easy sites left,” Joseph McDonnell, managing partner at Cirrus Real Estate Partners, said during the press conference.

Flushing Airport had a short-lived heyday, having been built in 1926 by private operators contracted by the city. It was the busiest air travel hub in New York City until LaGuardia Airport opened in 1939.

Other plans for the land have fallen flat.

In 2004, former mayor Michael Bloomberg tried to build a 585,000-square-foot distribution center for Korean wholesalers who were priced out of Midtown, but Queens Community Board 7 rejected those plans.

In 2013, Bloomberg attempted to turn the site into a park to make up for lost parkland in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, one section of which he hoped to make the home of a new stadium for the New York City Football Club. That effort fell through, and that stadium is now being constructed in nearby Willets Point.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.