Major Changes Planned For Area Around US Open Site

Written by: Staff on 2nd October 2012

Major Changes Planned For Area Around US Open Site |

While most tennis fans that attend the US Open don’t spend that much time in the surrounding Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, in the coming years, they may see the area undergo tremendous changes.

Major League Soccer is asking to build a 25,000-seat professional soccer stadium on nine acres of the 1,200-acre park, with plans calling for filling in the former Pool of Industry from the 1964 Worlds Fair and convert it into a soccer stadium.

The SUTRA is also asking to expand its footprint by installing an 8000-seta stadium and a parking garage, while the area Economic Development Commission wants to construct a large mall next to City Field, where the baseball NY Mets play and which is just a stones throw from the US Open.

The proposals are all part of the Willets Point Development Plan, which seeks to transform the area, create more jobs, clean up the environment and help improve the quality of nearby waterways. It seeks to improve the infrastructure of Queens and establish a major new mixed-income neighborhood and commercial destination that will not only create jobs, but also recapture billions in spending now lost to the suburbs.

The Queens Development Group (a joint public-private venture) will acquire an initial 23 acres of land adjacent to City Field to begin build-out of Phase 1 and will include a retail and entertainment attraction to the west of City Field. Ultimately, the plan will attempt to unlock over 5 million square feet of new development in a unified district, transforming what it calls a “contaminated area into a new neighborhood.” The build-out will include retail, hotel, and commercial uses to complement a residential community of 2,500 housing units, of which 875 will be affordable.

The project is looking to infuse $3 billion of private investment into the local economy and create 7,100 permanent jobs and 12,000 direct construction jobs with local hiring goals of 25 percent.

Willets Point is said to suffer from widespread petroleum contamination, with additional potential contamination from paint, cleaning solvents, and automotive fluids. Environmental hazards are exacerbated by a high water table that spreads pollution throughout the site, endangering adjacent water bodies.

Most of Willets Point lies within the 100-year flood plain, necessitating an increase in grade. In December 2011, the City broke ground on infrastructure work including the construction of a sanitary sewer main and reconstruction of a storm sewer and outfall, which constitute a $50 million investment

The USTA National Tennis Center takes up 42-of the parkland, which is leased by NYC Parks to USTA. The USTA’s proposed project would include construction of two new stadiums to replace the existing Louis Armstrong Stadium in the same location and the Grandstand Stadium in a new location at the southwest corner of the NTC site, improvements to Arthur Ashe Stadium, a temporary stadium on the site of Louis Armstrong Stadium for one US Open tournament during construction, and two new parking garages. The project would add up to 1.02 acres to the NTC site, including up to 0.76 acres of park land that would be alienated, and 0.26 acres of previously alienated park land that is currently not covered by the NTC lease.

The various projects have become a political hot potato in Queens. State Senator Jose Peralta said that Major League Soccer would make a great economic impact on the area and “we’re talking about over 2,000 construction union jobs. We’re talking about 1,100 permanent jobs when it comes down to it. And that’s what it’s all about. It’s about bringing economic development back into Queens.”

Julie Wood, a spokeswoman for New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said that in their conversations with Queens community groups, “we hear the same message consistently: the borough needs more jobs and economic activity. These projects would meet that need in spectacular fashion and provide employment to thousands of Queens residents.”

However, there is also opposition. Donovan Finn of the Jackson Heights Green Alliance said: “The worst part is that they’re all being proposed in the same park within a stone’s throw of one another. If you go to the park on any weekend, you can see how important it is. This park is incredibly heavily used.”

Geoffrey Croft, with NYC Park Advocates added: “This is a park,” And unfortunately, what we’re seeing over and over again, the administration just keeps handing over our public spaces to completely commercial purposes.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: American tennis news, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Sports, Tennis News, US Open