Willets Point Commons Launches Lottery for 880 Affordable Homes

The area around Citi Field may not feature Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo or Edwin Diaz anymore — sorry, Mets fans — but it’ll soon have something far more reliable for many New Yorkers: affordable housing.  

Queens Development Group (QDG), a joint venture between Related Companies and Sterling Equities, in partnership with the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC), announced that the housing lottery for 880 affordable homes at Willets Point Commons is set for launch. 

“What is happening at Willets Point right now is nothing short of extraordinary,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in the announcement. “In less than four years, we turned a vacant stretch of land into homes for hundreds of families, and laid the foundation for a whole new neighborhood in Queens.” 

The apartments, ranging from studios to three-bedrooms, will be within Buildings 1 and 2 of the development. The units will be available for people making between 30 and 120 percent of the area median income (AMI). 

Twenty percent of the apartments will be reserved for residents of the neighborhood represented by Queens Community Board 7; 10 percent will go to veterans and New York City municipal employees; 5 percent will be reserved for residents with mobility access needs; and 2 percent will go to those with visual or hearing access needs. The remaining 63 percent will be available to all who otherwise qualify.

The new buildings will be all-electric and LEED Gold certified, and will be managed by Related Management. Amenities at the new complex will include tenant lounge space, outdoor terraces with grilling stations, a fitness center, a children’s playroom, and coworking space, as well as retail outlets. 

The developers see the project as a textbook example of the success that public-private partnerships can bring to the city.

“At a time when everyone is talking about affordability and the need for more affordable housing in New York, Willets Point is proof of what can happen when the public and private sectors come together — we are delivering on the largest all-affordable housing development in 40 years,” Bruce A. Beal Jr., president of Related Companies, and Gregory Katz, partner at Sterling Equities, said in the QDG announcement. 

The next phase of the development will include a third building featuring 220 affordable apartments for low-income seniors. Upon full completion, the development will include a new public school, more than 150,000 square feet of public open space, a new hotel, and the soccer stadium Etihad Park, which will be the home of the New York City Football Club (NYCFC).

The Willets Point complex is expected to generate $6.1 billion in economic activity over the next 30 years including the creation of 1,550 permanent jobs and 14,200 construction jobs, according to the announcement.  

Larry Getlen can be reached at lgetlen@commercialobserver.com.