Willets Point Eyed For Development

A new effort has been launched by the Bloomberg mayoral administration to uproot the 42-acre eyesore known as the Willets Point auto junkyards in Flushing near Shea Stadium and Flushing Meadows–Corona Park.

The city Economic Development Corporation has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to develop the area into a site that would attract visitors to the nearby downtown Flushing area.

About a year ago, Assemblymember Brian McLaughlin floated a proposal to develop the area with restaurants and upscale shops to try to attract patrons from nearby Shea Stadium when they visit there to attend New York Mets games.

McLaughlin had said that Shea is within walking distance of Downtown Flushing. His proposal was based on the conviction that the area could be made into a 24-hour resource, rather than a drab, smelly collection of auto body shops and junkyards by day and a desolate expanse by night.

McLaughlin also noted that the Shea Stadium area already has several major highways feeding into it, which would preclude the necessity to pour millions of dollars into the development for infrastructure improvements.

For years Queens Borough President Helen Marshall has been calling for uprooting the junkyards and replacing them with more economically viable businesses with amenities for community-oriented projects.

Commenting on the RFP that was issued, Marshall said that a possible use for the junkyard site could be a small hall to handle conventions, cultural festivals and large meetings, because right now such a facility does not exist in the area.

Marshall recently was designated by Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Dan Doctoroff to head the Willets Point Advisory Committee which will review the responses that come in from the RFP.

Perhaps some requests may come from Chinese investors with whom McLaughlin had discussions when he traveled to that country about two years ago on an economic mission. Downtown Flushing has attracted many Asian–Americans in recent years to open businesses and members of that ethnic group now make up a good portion of the residential population there.

Recently there was a proposal made by David Oats, a former newspaperman and unofficial World’s Fair historian, to raze the junkyards and build the proposed new New York Jets football stadium there rather than on the West Side of Manhattan. However, his idea never caught on with the Bloomberg administration, which is pushing hard to get the stadium built over the abandoned rail yards around 34th Street and 9th Avenue in time for the 2012 Olympics, if the city wins the right to hold them here.

Oats has said that removing the junkyards would in effect provide an extension of Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, which abuts the yards.

Getting a development plan may be easier than acquiring the junkyard space. It is presently privately owned and businessmen occupying space in the area say the property owners want to keep things as they are and will refuse to sell the property to the city. The Bloomberg administration would then have to go to court to try to take the huge tract by eminent domain. Eminent domain proceedings would be costly, as well.