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Mayor Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump met at Gracie Manion this week to take their Sunnyside Yards housing discussions to “a new level.”
A revived plan to build housing over Sunnyside Yards in Queens gained a bit more steam this week after President Donald Trump and Mayor Zohran Mamdani agreed to ramp up conversations about the development.
The idea for the project was resuscitated in February after the mayor pitched the president on building a deck over the 180-acre railyard in the center of Western Queens.
Affordable housing has been a significant part of those discussions, according to the two leaders, with the president touting his own experience constructing “low income and moderate income buildings” in the city. “I would think that Sunnyside would have to have a component—at least a pretty substantial component—of exactly that,” said Trump.
Decking over the yard is a “big job” that could create 12,000 new homes, 30,000 jobs and “an entire new neighborhood” the leaders said Monday.
Asked by reporters, the president did not directly express support for the project, for which a platform alone could cost $22 billion. But the leaders said that the White House and the mayor’s operations and housing teams would continue conversations.
“You’re going to need a lot of federal approvals and probably some federal money to do it,” said Trump.
Just how much affordable housing, or what income levels would be eligible, was not immediately clear, though Mamdani’s February pitch called for all 12,000 units to be affordable.
The original Sunnyside Yards plan, for which the former de Blasio administration concluded a round of community engagement before issuing a report in March 2020, called for “12,000 new affordable homes—half dedicated to homes for very low income families, and half providing homeownership opportunities through a 21st century Mitchell-Lama Program.”
Amid a citywide housing affordability crisis, the proposal to add more housing excited some. But others wondered if it was the best use of vast resources, and questioned if the plan would engage the local community.
“We need truly affordable housing in Queens, but we need a real plan to execute,” Councilmember Julie Won, whose district includes the railyard, said in a statement. “Since the last discussion on Sunnyside Yard months ago between the Mayor and President there is no funding from Congress nor any public meetings to move this project forward.”
“Until we see real funding, real approvals process, and real community engagement, this is a conversation, not a housing project,” said Won.
Here’s what else happened this week in housing—
ICYMI from City Limits:
- Nearly 40 percent of homeless families with children are placed in shelters outside the borough of their child’s school, forcing long commutes, early mornings, and strained community ties.
- The new development team for Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park has promised to build lower-income units up front. And while Gov. Hochul is on board and the state’s approval process is starting, the full public costs remain unknown.
- Heat pumps, inductions stoves and infrared heating panels: these are a few of the climate-friendly upgrades being installed at some public housing developments, with more to come, officials said Tuesday.
ICYMI, from other local newsrooms:
- The city is pitching a redevelopment plan for “downtown” Staten Island which would bring 5,000 new apartments to the borough’s north shore, according to Gothamist.
- The Mamdani administration is pulling out of a federal program that aids help homeless veterans, alleging the Trump administration would have required the city to discriminate against transgender vets seeking shelter, The City Reporter reports. But advocates are worried about the potential impact to a veterans shelter in Queens.
- The Real Deal said down with NYCHA CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt for an interview about the housing authority’s effort to bring private developers into its public housing renovation plans.
- Co-ops and Condos United, a new “grassroots” group of homeowners fighting the city’s climate lower to lower building emissions, is funded by the Real Estate Board of NY, New York Focus reports.
- No decision yet in a lawsuit, filed by landlords, seeking to overturn the Rent Guidelines Board’s decision to freeze rents on stabilized apartments—though City Hall officials have been ordered to turn their communications with board members to the court, according to Patch.