The city has selected eight firms as finalists to bid for the $2 billion to $3 billion project to remake a 75-acre site at Willets Point, Queens, with a mixed-use development including about 1 million square feet of retail space, a hotel, and a convention center.

Among the firms expected to compete for what real estate experts call a potentially profitable but challenging project are three of the most active in the city: Forest City Ratner Companies, the Related Companies, and Vornado Realty Trust, according to information provided by the city’s lead development agency.

Willets Point is a long-neglected part of Queens, now zoned for heavy industrial use, with an inadequate sewer system and no paved roads. The proposed project is likely to require condemnation of private property through the exercise of eminent domain, as well as extensive environmental remediation and traffic work.

The Bloomberg administration is seeking to spur further growth in the Queens waterfront and nearby Flushing, provide thousands of new jobs, increase tax revenues, and improve the environmental quality of the neighborhood. The project would complement a new Shea Stadium planned nearby.

Forest City Ratner is already seeking final approval for its $3.5 billion plan to build a basketball arena, about 16 commercial and residential towers, and a hotel on a 22-acre site in the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn, a project that also will likely require condemnation through eminent domain. The company is also developing the new headquarters on Eighth Avenue for the New York Times across the street from Port Authority bus terminal.

The Related Companies recently earned final approval to build a megamall just south of Yankee Stadium at the site of the Bronx Terminal Market. The chairman of Related Companies, Stephen Ross, is known for his political connections. He and the deputy mayor for economic development, Daniel Doctoroff, are former business partners.

A lawyer for Related, Jesse Masyr, said the company was “seriously thinking about” Willets Point. “It’s a great piece of property, but it’s complicated how you will get the land control – so much of it is privately owned there,” Mr. Masyr said. “The enthusiasm for that area is something that we support.”

Vornado Realty Trust is the developer, along with Related, of the new Moynihan Station, a transit hub to be located at the site of the James A. Farley Post Office building on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan. Vornado is also the builder of One Beacon Court, on East 58th Street, which houses Bloomberg LP’s offices and some of the city’s most expensive residential condominiums.

In the next few months, the city’s development agency, the Economic Development Corporation, will select a consultant to prepare the environmental impact statement, and will begin the public review process for the Willets Point redevelopment effort. That process is likely to encounter community opposition.

The local City Council member, Hiram Monserrate, a Democrat, said that the area is home to about 200 businesses that employ up to 3,000 people.

“This is a viable economic hub today. It generates revenue and produces jobs,” Mr. Monserrate told The New York Sun.

Mr. Monserrate expects an agreement with the existing community that will include jobs, housing, schools, public space, and community facilities.

“I’m more concerned that those that work and live in the surrounding area will be directly impacted. It is unacceptable if we don’t meet the needs and interests of the people in these communities first, before the developer.”

Other finalists include the Macerich Company along with Avalon Bay Corporation; the Westfield Corporation; TDC Development & Construction Corporation; Muss Development Company; and General Growth Properties, Incorporated, along with Rosenshein Associates, LCOR Incorporated, and Sage Hotel Corporation. All the proposals are due by May 5.