Mayor Takes Step To Redevelop Area Adjacent to Shea Stadium

A polluted 60-acre nest of heavy metal near Shea Stadium in Queens could be transformed into a mega-complex featuring housing and retail space.

The Bloomberg administration announced the specifics of its plans to redevelop Willets Point yesterday, laying out a vision for a new urban center built with sustainable design.

Long slated for development, Willets Point is a run-down colony of more than 200 auto yards and repair shops, enclosed by a noisy mess of two highways, the no. 7 train and a flight path to La Guardia Airport that restricts building heights.

The city is proposing a sweeping makeover of the area that would create a mixed-use center just west of downtown Flushing packed with 5,500 units of housing, a 400,000-square-foot convention center, 1.8 million square feet of retail, and 500,000 square feet of office space at a level of density unusual for the borough.

"We believe that out of these ashes can rise New York City's next great neighborhood," Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday at the Queens Museum of Art.

Mr. Bloomberg said the city intends to use eminent domain to acquire property if owners refuse to sell their land, though he pledged to offer relocation assistance and education opportunities for the 250 or so businesses that employ an estimated 1,000 people.

The owners of businesses on the site, which include small manufacturing companies in addition to the auto yards, have been vocal in their opposition to the project, and showed up in a small contingent at the mayor's press conference.

"There's no place to go — where are they going to relocate us?" the owner of an auto salvage yard, Daniel Sambucci, whose family has owned the business for decades, said.

The process from here will take years, as the city just began yesterday the public comment period on its plans. Once the city rezones the area to allow for the new development, it would select a developer, who would likely be responsible for remediation of the polluted sites as well as building new streets and infrastructure.

"This location is clearly the logical place to do something," the president of the Real Estate Board of New York, Steven Spinola, said. With the growth of nearby Flushing and the new Mets stadium, Mr. Spinola said there was no shortage of interest in the job in the development community.

Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Daniel Doctoroff said yesterday the cost to the city was unclear. "It could be zero, it could be up to $100 or $200 million, but those are also very preliminary estimates," he said.