Won Backs Innovation QNS As Astoria Rezoning Nears Finish Line

ASTORIA, QUEENS — The huge Innovation QNS rezoning advanced past another City Council committee Monday as local member Julie Won voiced full-throated support, putting it on a glide path to approval as soon as Tuesday.

The Council's land use committee voted unanimously to approve the five-block development Monday afternoon. Present at the meeting was Won, the Queens lawmaker who had opposed Innovation QNS until this week, when she secured a commitment from developers to add more than 300 new affordable housing units.

"We have set a new precedent for building affordable housing on private land," Won said.

Now including 3,190 total apartments, Innovation QNS will be roughly 45 percent affordable — less than the 55 percent threshold that Won previously set, though the total of 1,436 affordable units is more than double developers' initial proposal of 711. (Won told City Limits that developers had offered a 55-percent affordable plan, but only if they could raise the rents of some income-restricted apartments.)

After one last review Tuesday morning by the City Planning Commission, Innovation QNS will face a final vote by the full Council at its Tuesday afternoon meeting, where Won's colleagues are expected to approve it given her own support.

In the project's latest iteration, there will be 658 affordable units available for households that are formerly homeless or very low income (making about 30% of the area median income, or $36,030 for a family of three), according to Won's office. Of those, 157 will be reserved for renters using city vouchers meant for homeless households.

Won said she has also persuaded developers to increase the number of "family-sized" affordable apartments, with 554 two- or three-bedroom units now planned compared to 284 originally.

Once built, Innovation QNS will dramatically reshape the industrial area between 37th Street and Northern Boulevard, north of 36th Street, by constructing a dozen new buildings, two acres of green space, a rebuilt movie theater, offices, and more.

Supporters have long said it would help alleviate the city's housing crisis and enliven the neighborhood with new retail and recreational space, while opponents had charged that the project would indirectly displace longtime residents and be unaffordable for the people who already live in Astoria.

The developers — Silverstein Properties, Kaufman Astoria Studios and BedRock Real Estate Partners — have not recently commented on the negotiations or Council votes.

Mayor Eric Adams, who has supported Innovation QNS and urged Won to do the same, released a statement praising Monday's vote.

"Today’s vote is another critical win in the fight against our city’s affordable housing crisis," he said.

Related coverage:

• Innovation QNS Passes Key Council Vote As Affordable Homes Increase
• Won Still Against Innovation QNS As BP Blasts 'Weirdo' Opponents
• Innovation QNS Increases Affordable Apartments In Bid For Approval
• Innovation QNS Rezoning OK'd By Planning Commission, Heads To Council
• Huge Innovation QNS Rezoning Rejected By Board, But Battle Continues