Plans for Willets Point reconstruction revealed

Plans for a reconstructed Willets Point were announced today.

More than 12,000 construction jobs and 7,000 permanent jobs will come from the proposed Willets Point renovation, which includes retail space, a hotel and an expansion of the U.S. National Tennis Center.

The reconstruction, to be partially funded by $3 billion in private investment, is expected to bring $4.2 billion in economic activity over the next 30 years.

The specifics of the long-awaited project were announced this morning at Mayor Michael Bloombergs meeting with the Queens Chamber of Commerce.

The city felt the plans for phase one would best be done by the Queens Development Group, a joint venture of Sterling Equities, Inc. owned by Mets Owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz and Related Companies.

For generations, Willets Point was neglected, no investments were made in the roads or in the sewers or in environmental remediation and it remains one of the citys most polluted sites, Bloomberg said. Each year, four million people visit the area. These are four million potential shoppers, local business and restaurants, creating thousands of new jobs and laying the groundwork for thousands of housing units.

The plan includes the activation of the 126th Street corridor, building a 200-room hotel with 30,000-square-feet of retail space and restaurants. There will be an additional open recreation area, it was announced, that will be open during the MLB offseason and during certain Mets road trips.

A new component, Willets West, is designated from a portion of the Citi Field parking lot to become one-million square feet of space for retail, entertainment and dining.

An expansion to the U.S. National Tennis Center is expected to bring about 10,000 people to the U.S. Open annually, the mayor said.

New off-ramps from the Van Wyck Expressway will be added after Phase 1 of the project is completed in the next 10 to 15 years to provide better access to the area. Approval for the off-ramps went through in March.

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Plans for Willets Point reconstruction revealed