Astoria Councilmember OKs Three-Tower Halletts North Rezoning

ASTORIA, QUEENS — Councilmember Tiffany Cabán will vote to approve Astoria's three-tower Halletts North rezoning, likely assuring the passage of the 1,340-apartment proposal, the lawmaker announced Tuesday.

Cabán made the announcement in a news conference at the site of the proposed development, hours before the Council's land use committee voted to approve Halletts North, sending it to the full Council for a final vote on Wednesday. Since the Council typically defers to local members on rezonings, her support will almost certainly help the proposal win approval.

Cabán's support had been far from assured: the socialist lawmaker expressed "significant concerns" about the development's affordability levels earlier this summer, and the project just barely passed Community Board 1 when the neighborhood panel voted on it in April.

But Cabán explained that developers had won her over by deepening the affordability levels for the project's roughly 335 below-market-rate apartments, and by setting aside space for public waterfront access and local nonprofits.

Halletts North's developers have also said that they would likely convert the site — formerly a heavily-polluted steel plant — into a last-mile warehouse akin to an Amazon distribution center if the rezoning were not approved, Cabán noted.

"If that's better than a trash heap, it's not better by much," Cabán said.

The Council member was joined Tuesday by Claudia Coger, a longtime tenant of the nearby NYCHA Astoria Houses, a representative from the SEIU 32BJ construction union, as well as representatives from the nonprofits Zone 126 and Urban Upbound, which are getting about 10,000 square feet of space in Halletts North for just $1 per year in rent.

Also present was Sabina Unni, a member of the Queens chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, who praised Cabán for "co-opting zoning" to win a better project.

"Zoning is really a tool to extract resources from developers and real estate to create a more well-funded city," Unni said.

Once built, Halletts North will include three towers standing 23, 31 and 34 stories tall, plus a waterfront promenade, retail space, a 525-car garage and 525 bike parking spaces, according to public documents.

Located on the north side of the Halletts Point Peninsula, the project passed Community Board 1 by a 19-14 vote in April, and won approval from Queens Borough President Donovan Richards in July.

Some board members expressed concerns about the project's affordability this spring. A few feared the new towers would indirectly contribute to rising rents around Astoria, while member Evie Hantzopolous said she disliked the optics of a "white and wealthy development" going up near the NYCHA Astoria Houses, whose residents could likely afford few of the new apartments.

But Cabán said Tuesday that the existing, inaccessible site "sends a message to the residents of Astoria Houses the next block over that they're unworthy of a safe, comfortable neighborhood."

What's more, she said, "it holds down the housing supply amid a brutal housing shortage."

After negotiating with Cabán, developers Astoria Owners LLC have agreed to set more than 100 of the affordable units at 30 percent of the area median income (AMI) — or about $28,000 for a single person.

A similar number of units will be set at 50 percent AMI, while several dozen will be pegged to 80 percent AMI — exceeding the bare minimum total of affordable units included in the city's mandatory inclusionary housing program.

The combined 268 units at 50 percent AMI or below amount to nearly half the total number of units at that level of affordability to be produced in Astoria's community district in the past decade, Cabán noted.

The apartments include 950 one-bedroom units, 315 two-bedrooms and 75 three-bedrooms — a higher number of family-sized units than had initially been proposed, Cabán said.

"We are honored to have Council Member Caban's support for the Halletts North project," said Jim Hedden, a representative for the developers, in a statement.

"Hallets North will bring desperately needed jobs, affordable housing and develop a publicly accessible waterfront park, from a previously unusable industrial site, returning the waterfront to our neighbors in the Astoria Houses and throughout northwest Queens."

Halletts North is not to be confused with two separate, already-approved projects that will also help reshape the rapidly-developing peninsula: the Durst Organization's Halletts Point development, which has begun or finished work on four of its seven planned buildings, and the four-building Astoria Cove project a few blocks east, which recently stirred to life after years of delays.

Also on Tuesday, Cabán unveiled her own 10-part framework for "a more affordable NYC," saying the city should create a social housing fund, support community-based nonprofit developers and end parking minimums, among other changes.

The apparent success of Halletts North forms a stark contrast with One45, a two-tower Harlem rezoning that failed last year amid opposition from the local Council member, also a socialist.

There, much like the alternative plan for Halletts North, the developer recently indicated he would redevelop the site as a big-rig truck depot given the torpedoed rezoning, as Patch reported last week.

Related coverage:

• Astoria's 3-Tower Halletts North Rezoning Advances To City Council
• Astoria's 3-Tower Halletts North Project Gets Borough President's OK
• SEE: Plans Revealed For 'Halletts North' Development In Astoria