The first of seven towers that are a part of the Halletts Point development project in Astoria is set to open this summer and new renderings have been released.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the 2.5-million-square-foot development took place in January 2016. Halletts Point will include a total of 2,400 units with about 400 deemed affordable.
The first building at 10 Halletts Point will include 405 units and up to 25 percent of the units will be affordable to low-income families, according to a spokesperson with The Durst Organization, the developer for the project. Residents in the neighboring Astoria Houses will have a rental preference for 50 percent of all affordable housing units in the project.
Brooklyn Harvest Market will take up 25,000 square feet on the first floor of the building. The building, made up of two towers standing 17 and 22 stories tall, will also include a fitness center, recreational room for children, communal outdoor spaces and a landscaped rooftop. Curbed first reported on the new renderings.
Halletts Point will also include 65,000 square feet of retail space and community facilities, a public elementary school and a waterfront promenade.
The project has gone through several setbacks. When the 421-a tax abatement, which many developers use to receive tax breaks for building large projects, was not renewed in January 2016, the Durst Organization said it would not be financially feasible to continue the project. In April 2017, the real estate industry and lawmakers agreed to a proposal brought forth by Gov. Andrew Cuomo called Affordable New York.
Earlier this month, it was announced that in Nov. 2017 the city suspended $43.5 million allocated for the project. The city’s Housing Development Corporation was slated to provide the funding for a 163-unit building for tenants making up to 60 percent of the area median income, which is $51,540 for a family of three or $57,240 for a family of four.
