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March 3, 2006
Finalists Picked To Bid for Willets Point Makeover
The NY Sun
By David Lombino
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.
Posted by lumi at March 3, 2006 7:36 AM