Cirrus Workforce Housing and LCOR, two developer names tied to major upcoming New York megadevelopments, plan to build 3,000 units of housing on an 80-acre former airport in Queens.
The Adams administration on Monday announced that the firms would lead redevelopment of the former Flushing Airport in College Point, which was decommissioned in 1984. The joint venture will build 3,000 units of workforce housing and potentially a new station for the New York City Police Department, along with 60 acres of public space, walking trails and preserved freshwater wetland.
In the blazing 92-degree sun, standing in an unshaded clearing within the fenced-in wetland area, Mayor Eric Adams described the project and how it is part of a broader effort by his administration to find every opportunity available to build housing on city-owned land. The overgrown, unused former airport is a prime example of the kind of projects the city should pursue, he said.
“Government can’t hold onto space as some form of novelty project when people can use those spaces to build housing, and that’s what we’re doing,” Adams said.
Members of the laborers, steamfitters, carpenters, plumbers, sheet metal and other unions stood behind the mayor. The project will need to go through the city’s land use review process, and local Council member Vickie Paladino, who previously opposed the idea of development on the site, attended the event and stood behind the mayor.
During a budget hearing in March, Paladino said she was “disturbed” by the Economic Development Corporation’s plans for the site, pointing to its vulnerability to flooding. At Monday’s event, she declined to discuss the project with The Real Deal.
The project adds to Cirrus’ growing portfolio of projects in the city. Last year, the firm reached an agreement with the Building and Construction Trades Council and City Hall to invest $100 million in multifamily workforce housing and redevelopments by pooling pension funds from more than a dozen construction unions. At the time, the partnership announced a goal to eventually raise $400 million. Joseph McDonnell, managing partner at Cirrus, told TRD that they had raised $300 million so far.
“When you look at New York City today, the housing crisis everybody talks about, the reality is there aren’t a lot of easy sites left,” he said. “This is 80 acres, and it’s something that we need to do.”
Cirrus, headed by McDonnell, formerly of BlueMountain Capital, and Tony Tufariello, who handled global real estate at Fortress Investment Group, announced a partnership with Resorts World Casino New York City in May. Resorts World pledged to help finance 50,000 workforce housing units over the next 20 years.
Cirrus and LCOR have also teamed up as the proposed development team to take over the final phase of the long-stalled Pacific Park megadevelopment in Brooklyn from Greenland USA. State officials still need to sign off on the developers and whatever new plan they present for the site.
The city’s Economic Development Corporation released a request for proposals for the airport site in November. The agency didn’t specify how many responses it received, though the preexisting partnership with Cirrus likely gave the development team a leg up.
As a condition of the union pension fund investments, the developers must hire union construction workers. Gary LaBarbera, head of the city and state chapters of the Building and Construction Trades Council, envisions this model — of union pension funds investing in housing projects, where the rents are aimed at being affordable to union members, as well as the city’s other essential workers — being used repeatedly across the city.
“We look forward to doing this again and again and again,” LaBarbera said. ‘This is a scalable model, and I think this is a turning point that we have now reached. This is an inflection point for the city of New York and how we can build housing where it is a win-win-win for everyone involved.”
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