A $2 billion development along toxic Flushing Creek will pollute the neighborhood with gentrification, critics say.
Affordable housing activists, unions and mom-and-pop shops have packed public hearings on the waterfront proposal, pushing back against more luxury apartments and designer stores.
And as livid as they are about the revitalization, they are just as angry about the government-approval process — claiming Community Board 7 and ex-Borough President Claire Shulman have steamrolled the project through. After wrapping up 15 years as beep, Shulman set up a nonprofit that makes private investments like the Flushing Creek venture possible.
Three developers — F&T Group, United Construction and Development Group, and Young Nian Group, in a partnership called FWRA LLC — want to transform 29 mostly unused acres into 3.4 million square feet of 1,725 apartments, a hotel, retail shops and offices that would generate a projected $28 million annually.
Their plan — the land is on the opposite side from the infamous junkyards near Citi Field — includes privately maintained roads and public access to the waterfront after an environmental cleanup of the area, polluted for decades by industrial waste.
“We believe this is the poster child for future waterfront development, and a legacy project for the owners who live and work in the community,” said their attorney, Ross Moskowitz, who pointed out supporters have turned out in big numbers at the public hearings — alongside the protesters.
“You can disagree with the project, but to say it has been steamrolled is just not right,” he said, adding the owners have followed the city’s statutory timeline for both land use and environmental reviews. “Already, he said, the owners have spent about 18 months on the reviews.
But opponents still think the process has been shady. As evidence of shenanigans, they point to Chuck Apelian, CB7’s first vice chair and land use committee chair, acting as a paid consultant to the developers and to Shulman, who received more time to speak during a Feb. 10 public hearing that turned so nasty cops were called. At times, demonstrators shouted “Shame” and “Let us speak.”
“This has seemed rigged from beginning to end,” said Flushing Chamber of Commerce’s John Choe, who sits on CB7 himself and worries that all the gentrification is forcing out family-owned businesses. “I don’t have to support this project and I won’t be railroaded.”
Apelian recused himself from CB7 vote; he didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The 94-year-old Shulman makes clear she is 100% behind the project, which grew out of a $1.5 million state grant awarded a decade ago to her Flushing Willets Point Corona LDC.
“The public has the right to say whether they want it,” she said, “but we worked with the City Planning office and followed by the rules.”
FWRA needs the city to rezone 226,000 square feet — the land under one building — to build the project as planned. Even without rezoning, Moskowitz said, the developers will go forward with whatever is allowed under the law.
Rezoning would require FWRA to set aside 90 apartments — about 5% — for lower-income New Yorkers. Rent for a two-bedroom would run a Manhattan-like $3,000 a month. If the zoning isn’t changed, Moskowitz said, the building goes away — and so does the affordable housing.
The small number of apartments is the biggest sticking point for immigrant advocates. For them, the project would extend the overdevelopment that they tie to Mayor de Blasio’s rezoning citywide to create more affordable housing. Instead, they said, landlords have used Hizzoner’s strategy to hike rents — 90% in a decade, numbers show — and kick hundreds out of their homes.
“They’re collecting market-rate rents and displacing immigrants, especially seniors, who often aren’t proficient in English,” said Seonae Byeon of MinKwon Center for Community Action, which has led the dissenters. “The libraries are full of the homeless population.”
CB7 passed the rezoning request 30 to 8. Acting Borough President Sharon Lee has recommended disapproval of the application unless modifications are made, including adding more affordable housing. The process also calls for approval from the Planning Commission and, finally, the City Council.
Flushing’s council member, Peter Koo, hasn’t taken a position yet, but has questions about the project and is watching closely. “Whatever is ultimately built here needs to enhance the downtown Flushing community as much as possible,” Koo said in a statement.