By Rich Bockmann
Some 300,000 straphangers pass through downtown Jamaica every day and that could mean hundreds of thousands of double looks in a few years as the neighborhood’s main gateway undergoes a dramatic change.
The station area where the Long Island Rail Road, AirTrain to JFK, three subway lines and numerous bus routes intersect has a number of significant development projects in the pipeline, exemplifying the new direction stakeholders envision for Jamaica.
“Five years from now it will be a different place,” said Carlisle Towery, president of the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation.
One of the major changes coming in the next few years will be the skyline.
A pair of large towers are set to rise on either side of the tracks at the Long Island Rail Road station: a 26-story hotel and a 22-story mixed-use building with affordable housing.
Both projects were facilitated by Greater Jamaica, a nonprofit which targeted the station area to highlight Jamaica as a transit-oriented neighborhood with potential.
Able Hotel’s 240-room Hilton Garden Inn will not be the only hotel downtown — a Courtyard/Fairfield Inn and Four Points by Sheraton are planned for the same block — but it will be the only one with four stars.
With more than 500 rooms within walking distance from the transit hub, the area is set to capture some of the travelers who may otherwise stay near Kennedy Airport or simply pass through Jamaica on their way to other neighborhoods.
The downtown area will also see an increase in foot traffic, thanks to a number of residential projects, most notably the 22-story building across from Able’s hotel on the northern side of the track being built by the BRP Companies, the same firm that constructed the Macedonia Church’s 143-unit building in Flushing.
Reaching for the sky from the corner of Sutphin Boulevard and Archer Avenue, BRP’s $225 million, 400-unit building will join several luxury and mixed-income developments that are adding hundreds of apartments in the area.
Towery said the MTA’s East Side Access project to send the LIRR into Grand Central will bring even more travelers to the neighborhood and the AirTrain, which continues to see increased ridership numbers, can easily double in capacity. The system now runs two-car trains, but all 10 stations were built to accommodate four cars.
Other public works will also be getting a face-lift.
If there is one drawback to being a hub, it is congestion, and several major intersections downtown are choked with traffic.
To help alleviate the problem, the city is going to extend Atlantic Avenue — which currently switches from a six-lane highway to a two-lane street when it crosses the Van Wyck Expressway and heads downtown — toward the LIRR station on the track’s south side.
On the north side the city is planning to widen Archer Avenue and create public plazas that will be more pedestrian friendly.
Private investment is also filling in.
About ten blocks east of the station, developer United American is working to renovate three buildings into a retail project.
United, which successfully lured H&M to a project in Brooklyn, is rumored to be in talks with the Swedish clothing retailer about opening shop in Jamaica.
It would join other chains like Old Navy and the Gap and instantly boost the area’s shopping credibility.
Near the eastern end of the neighborhood the Blumenfeld Development Group is working to build a 160,000-square-foot retail center that could attract a big box store.
Jamaica used to be home to department stores such as Macy’s, Mays and Gertz, which closed some three decades ago.
Towery said the neighborhood has reached a tipping point.
“Jamaica’s potential becomes clearer and clearer each day,” he said.
