Despite Changes, Innovation QNS Voted Down By Astoria Board Committee

ASTORIA, QUEENS — A slew of last-minute changes to the huge Innovation QNS proposal were not enough to placate an Astoria community board committee this week, which voted to recommend that the city reject the five-block rezoning.

Members of Community Board 1's land use and zoning committee voted 7-2 to reject the hotly contested project, which will now head to the full board for a vote on June 21. The board's vote is only advisory, with the City Council likely getting a final say later this year.

"I still feel like the developer is coming up short," said board member Jeffrey Martin, explaining that he would support some development on the site, but arguing that Innovation QNS still failed to meet the community's demands.

The committee's recommendation came despite a half dozen alterations to the proposal announced by developers at the start of Wednesday's meeting.

That included reducing the heights of three buildings along 35th Avenue and fully eliminating a 16-story tower planned for the corner of 35th Avenue and 41st Street — an attempt to assuage concerns about high-rise development near Astoria's residential core.

Meanwhile, a lot on the project's westernmost block between 37th and 38th streets, which had been slated for a school until the city withdrew plans to put one there, has found a new use: a 30,000-square-foot sports and recreation center, able to accommodate soccer fields and basketball courts.

Finally, developers withdrew their requests to accommodate large retail on two of the project's blocks. Jesse Masyr, an attorney for developers, explained that "We have never intended this development to be a destination shopping center."

But none of those changes met the stipulations that CB1's zoning committee had said it would need to support the project — namely, that developers change the project's zoning to lower-density schemes. The number of affordable units, which critics have called insufficient, also remained unchanged from prior versions. (There are 711 affordable units out of roughly 2,800 total apartments in the project.)

"What concerns me is that this will set a precedent," said board member Evie Hantzopoulos. "Once something goes up at this scale, then the next set of developers will come in and say, this rezoning happened, so what we're proposing now is contextual — and then it spills down all across Astoria, to Woodside, to Sunnyside."

Gerald Caliendo, who co-chairs the committee, was one of the two members who did not vote to disapprove the rezoning, arguing that the project's benefits would outweigh any costs.

"I think that the community needs development — we’ve always been pro-development within reason, and I don’t think that this is out of reason," he said Wednesday. "I think that there will be great benefit for the community overall."

The $2 billion project would span between 37th Street and Northern Boulevard, bounded by 35th and 36th avenues — a largely industrial area that currently includes auto body shops, other small businesses, a P.C. Richard & Son store, and the Regal UA Kaufman Astoria movie theater (the latter two of which may find a new home in the development).

The developers are a joint team of Silverstein Properties, Kaufman Astoria Studios and BedRock Real Estate Partners.

"We’ve been discussing the plans for the redevelopment of these five blocks with the community for four years, and that discussion will continue throughout the formal review process," said Tracy Capune, vice president of Kaufman Studios, in a statement before Wednesday's vote.

"Innovation QNS is a significant investment and will be an economic boost to the area, particularly to the Steinway Street retail corridor. We look forward to continuing to refine this plan to deliver a project that meets the needs of all our neighbors."

Related coverage:

• Astoria's Innovation QNS Opponents, Supporters Clash At Public Hearing
• Astoria's Innovation QNS Developers Face Opponents At Tense Town Hall
• Innovation QNS Rezoning Begins Review, Against Councilmember's Wishes
• Astoria's Innovation QNS Developers Are Being Cagey, Pol Says
• Astoria's Innovation QNS Developers Share Changes Amid Skepticism