By Cynthia Koons
The Flushing Airport, which has been defunct for at least 20 years, is “close” to being sold to the city and developed as a non-retail property, Avella said in an interview this week. He said Liu's comment in the TimesLedger last week that profits from that sale be invested in Flushing was innappropriate and that the city should contribute to College Point and Whitestone with additional soccer fields.
Liu said last week he was proposing the city use profits from the airport sale to finance a road from the Linden Place exit off the Whitestone Express way to 20th Avenue that would directly benefit College Point and Whitestone.
“I'm not thinking of Flushing vs. College Point or Whitestone,” Liu said. “For the sake of the overall area, it's a net positive.”
But Avella said College Point and Whitestone initiatives should be left to him.
“It's not his district,” Avella said. “Myself and the residents should have a say in what happens.”
Avella wrote the letter to the EDC last Thursday saying he is “vehemently opposed” to Liu's suggestion that some of the profits from the airport sale be invested in Flushing.
Avella said he believes the money from the airport sale should be invested directly in the neighborhoods that he said are adversely affected by the construction of the College Point Corporate Park.
Liu maintained that a new road would benefit the College Point and Whitestone residents more than their neighbors in Flushing who might see an increase in traffic at the Linden Place exit off the Whitestone Expressway.
The Economic Development Corp. is reviewing proposals for the sale and development of the 23-acre property that borders College Point and Flushing. EDC Vice President Janel Patterson said her agency is in the final stages of determining which bid will be accepted.
The property is being eyed for industrial or soft recreational uses, Patterson said. The actual value of the airport has not been determined. Instead, the EDC is allowing developers to put their own price tags on the property.
Fred Mazzarello, president of the College Point Board of Trade, said an additional 34 acres of the site will be preserved as wetlands and the remaining acres will be developed in the College Point Corporate Park.
Reach reporter Cynthia Koons by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 141.
