The Project Will Include the City’s First Professional Soccer Stadium and Largest, New 100% Affordable Housing Development in Over 40 Years

A Fox Rothschild Zoning & Land Use team represented the New York City Football Club and the Queens Development Group in obtaining approvals for the Willets Point Phase II Project, a 17-acre construction plan that includes a 25,000-seat soccer stadium, 250-room hotel, 1,400 affordable housing units and public open space.

The stadium will serve as the permanent home for the New York City Football Club. It will be the first professional soccer stadium in New York City and the first all-electric stadium in Major League Soccer. The housing development will be the largest, new 100% affordable housing development in the city in over 40 years.

Jesse Masyr and Ethan Goodman, members of Fox’s New York Zoning & Land Use Group, led a team of developers, architects, engineers, environmental consultants and public relations professionals in the preparation of land use applications and environmental review documents. They navigated numerous public hearings comprising New York City’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, and ultimately secured approvals from the New York City Planning Commission and New York City Council for zoning text modifications, zoning special permits and changes to the city map.

The approvals represent the culmination of decades of attempts to redevelop the Willets Point peninsula, which was famously dubbed the “Valley of Ashes” by F. Scott Fitzgerald in his novel, The Great Gatsby. After years of use as a dumping ground for the city’s incinerator ash, Willets Point had been used for decades as a poorly maintained area of auto body shops and industrial facilities. In preparation for development, the entire project site will undergo an environmental remediation. Project completion is set for 2027.