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Queens community board endorses plan to bring soccer stadium to Willets Point
By
Catalina Gonella
and
Phil Corso
Published Dec 5, 2023
Modified Dec 5, 2023
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Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
By
Catalina Gonella
and
Phil Corso
Published Dec 5, 2023
Modified Dec 5, 2023
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Queens Community Board 7 voted on Monday to advance a plan that would bring a $780 million soccer stadium to the borough.
Queens residents, union workers and soccer fans packed St. Luke Roman Catholic Church in Whitestone for the community board’s monthly meeting on Monday to comment on the proposal and see how its members would vote. The board voted 37-2 to endorse the plan, fulfilling its role in the city's lengthy land-use approval process.
The final vote landed to applause and chants of “NYCFC,” the Major League Soccer team that may soon call Queens home. Next, the borough president and city planning commission will evaluate it, and eventually the City Council and mayor.
“We are excited to see [15] years of everyone’s hard work come to fruition,” said Vice Chairman of CB7 Queens in a statement following the meeting. “Welcome to our new neighbors!”
In November 2022, Mayor Eric Adams unveiled his administration’s plan for what he billed as the next phase of the transformation of Willets Point in Queens – an area known for its auto repair shops and other industrial businesses in the shadow of Citi Field and the U.S. Tennis Association's Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
At the meeting on Monday, a representative of Related Companies, the developer of Hudson Yards and Sterling Equities, outlined the proposal. Through a partnership with the MLS’s New York City Football Club, which for the last decade had been playing its home games at Yankee Stadium, the plan includes a 25,000-seat stadium, 2,500 new "affordable" housing units, a hotel, and a new 650-seat public school. Everything except the residential projects are slated to be union-built.
Queens residents pack Monday night's Community Board 7 meeting before a crucial vote on a project to build a professional soccer stadium in the borough.
Catalina Gonella
City Hall referred to Deputy Mayor of Housing Housing, Economic Development, and Workforce Maria Torres-Springer for comment.
“From the beginning, our administration’s goal for the Willets Point development was to take the needs of the community seriously,” Torres-Springer said. “As we prepare to make this transformational investment, we are thrilled that Community Board 7 has affirmed their support for the project.”
The stadium was slated to debut in 2027.
Outside the church where the meeting was held, a group of residents led by advocacy group Queens Neighborhoods United held their own public hearing in objection to the land-use process. A projection on the front of the church read “100% affordable housing? affordable for who?”
Speaking to Gothamist, organizer Arianna Martinez criticized the project as the "privatization of public land in Queens," and the land-use process as a “scam process that is not really interested in community engagement.”
City Hall estimated the project would generate $6.1 billion in economic impact over the next 30 years, creating 1,550 permanent jobs and 14,200 construction jobs. And while Martinez said that kind of economic activity may be enticing to workers in the city, it would ultimately result in a venue that’s unaffordable to them.
"A lot of people may be soccer fans, they may be Mets fans, but they can't afford, especially residents of Corona, for example, they can't afford to actually ever buy tickets to get inside of these stadiums,” she said. “Like the U.S. Open stadium, how many people in the surrounding community actually go to the U.S. Open, right?"
Inside the church, a majority of the public commenters at the meeting voiced support for the project. Clad in light-blue NYCFC merchandise, Queens resident and NYCFC season ticket holder Braidys Arias shared her excitement for the borough to become home to the city’s first major league soccer stadium.
“There have been a lot of improvements, but this is an opportunity that we cannot let pass,” she said, before rejoining the crowd of soccer fans. “This is an opportunity to bring affordable housing, to bring a school and so much more for this community.”
Rafael Morales, district leader of 32BJ, a union representing property service workers, shared his support for the plan that would bring union jobs to Queens.
“We have a credible commitment from NYCFC for good stadium jobs,” Morales said. “The inclusion of the NYCFC stadium in this proposal is a critical component to our job growth in the area. Our members have a track record of working stadiums across New York City including iconic brand names like MSG, City field. The football club’s new flagship home would join the ranks of New York stadiums.”
Still some, like lifelong Queens resident Margaret Flanagan, expressed skepticism about the project and land-use process.
“The soccer stadium is only one small part of a much larger proposal that needs more clarity and more obligations in all its different land uses,” Flanagan said. “On top of it all, developers and stadium owners are well known to make deals exempting themselves for taxes, not paying for any of this infrastructure.”
In a statement following the vote, NYCFC Vice Chairman Marty Edelman thanked CB7 for its “vote of confidence.”
“NYCFC committed 10 years ago to build in the five boroughs, and we are thrilled to be closer to bringing this promise to life in Queens – the World’s Borough will be our home for The World’s Game,” Edelman said.
Elizabeth Kim and Arya Sundaram contributed reporting.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the involvement of a casino in the soccer stadium. Related is not a part of that casino project.
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Phil Corso is the evening news editor at WNYC/Gothamist. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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