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The housing lottery for Willets Point Commons, the first phase of the affordable housing complex being built next to Citi Field in Flushing, is officially open on HousingConnect.NYC.gov as of Dec. 12.
Applicants must be over 18 years old and enter the lottery through the website’s portal, where they must fill out a profile. They will be asked to provide information such as recent pay stubs, W-2 wage statements, last year’s federal and state tax returns, benefit award letters, child support or alimony payments, verification of assets or more.
Pricing for studio apartments starts at $486 per month for single applicants making between $20,469 and $34,020, and are capped at $4,244 for seven-member households with income totaling anywhere between $152,778 and $301,350.
Interested applicants can check the website to determine eligibility, as well as visit LiveWilletsPoint.com to learn more about pricing.
Willets Point subway station is also undergoing a major renovation as part of the redevelopment project. Several transportation options will be available to residents, including access via the 7 train, Long Island Rail Road, and the Q19, Q90 and Q66 bus routes. The news release noted that commuting to Manhattan on the LIRR would take under 30 minutes, and LaGuardia Airport is a five-minute drive away.
“The opening of the lottery for Willets Point Commons is a major step forward in the longstanding effort to create a new, vibrant, and affordable community in North Queens,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards. “The dream of living in a high-quality yet affordable home will soon become a reality for 880 well-deserving families. I encourage all those who would benefit from living in an up-and-coming, affordable, and easily accessible neighborhood to apply for an apartment at Willets Point Commons today.”
The affordable housing complex will include green space, public spaces and a neighborhood market. A news release from Related Companies, which is overseeing the project’s development, said 20 percent of apartments are set aside for Queens Community Board 7 residents, 10 percent for veterans or NYC municipal employees, 5 percent for mobility access needs and 2 percent for visual and hearing access needs.
A full suite of amenities and programming will also be available to residents, some of which come with an additional fee. The common spaces include two landscaped inner courtyards, tenant lounge space, outdoor terraces and BBQs, community garden, fitness center, children’s playroom, co-working space, ground floor retail shops and other community facilities.
Additionally, Related said the buildings will be all-electric, achieve LEED Gold certification, and comply with Local Law 97 through high-performance glazing, high-efficiency HVAC systems, an electric hot water plant, an insulated envelope, Energy Star appliances and low-emission mobility options for residents, such as bike storage and electric vehicle charging. Both buildings will be managed by Related Management Company.
The next phase of the neighborhood transformation, the news release said, will be the groundbreaking of the third building comprising 220 additional affordable homes for low-income seniors. A future phase also contains plans to construct a new public school to accommodate the growing number of families with children in the community.
“The opening of the affordable housing lottery at Willets Point Commons marks a once-in-a-generation moment for Queens,” said Council Member Francisco Moya. “This project delivers the kind of deep affordability our families deserve, made possible only through the unwavering commitment of our incredible partners at the Queens Development Group.”
Moya emphasized that the homes built at Willets Point would anchor generations of residents, which gives families stability, opportunity and a legacy of truly accessible housing that will shape this community for decades to come. “I could not be more proud of the complete redevelopment of Willets Point and seeing it come to fruition.”
Once complete, Willets Point will include more than 150,000 square feet of public open space, a brand-new hotel, and Etihad Park — the future home of the city’s first professional soccer-specific stadium and Major League Soccer’s first fully-electric stadium across the nation. The stadium is currently being developed by New York City Football Club.
The project is spearheaded by Queens Development Group — a joint venture between Related Companies and Sterling Equities — in partnership with the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and the New York City Housing Development Corporation.
Through a public-private partnership between QDG, New York City Economic Development Corporation, the City of New York and New York City FC, the news release said Willets Point is projected to generate $6.1 billion in economic impact over the next 30 years, creating 1,550 permanent jobs and 14,200 construction jobs. The development group is also participating in HireNYC, a city program that connects local residents to jobs.
The Willets Point transformation has been decades in the making, according to Ahmed Tigani, acting commissioner of HPD. He said for decades, Willets Point was known as the “Iron Triangle” — an industrial area of Queens with auto-repair shops, warehouses and underdeveloped lots — with limited infrastructure that kept the neighborhood from growing.
However, he said this development changes all of that. Tigani said he believes Willets Point will be a center of economic and community development as the site of the city’s largest 100 percent affordable housing project in 40 years.
“We mark another milestone in this historic effort with the neighborhood’s first housing lottery,” Tigani said. “This is the kind of meaningful, long-term investment approach this administration has made sure to deliver for New Yorkers across this city.”
Related said the city has made a significant investment to support the development of the Willets Point neighborhood, including the remediation of formerly contaminated soil and infrastructure investments, such as new streets, signage, sidewalks, curbs, trees, lights, draining, stormwater management, water mains, hydrants, sewers and utilities.
Because Willets Point is in a flood-prone area, the news release continued, the city is taking a holistic approach that centers on resiliency by raising the new streets and buildings out of the 100-year floodplain to protect it from future storms. The QDG said it will champion this environmental investment by seeking LEED Gold U.S. Green Building Council certification or Enterprise Green Communities for each residential building.
“We are excited to join our partners in celebrating the launch of the Willets Point Commons lottery,” said Eric Enderlin, president of NYC HDC. “These new homes — paired with a range of amenities, resident programming, and new community and retail space — will help Willets Point grow into a vibrant, inclusive neighborhood for New Yorkers across a wide range of incomes. I encourage all interested applicants to apply.”
