Hunter’s Point South megaproject moves into its second phase

After years of delays, there’s some movement on the second phase of the Hunter’s Point South megaproject in Long Island City.

YIMBY reports that plans have been filed with the Department of Buildings for two towers, designed by Handel Architects, that will sit at the intersection of 57th Avenue and 2nd Street. Gotham and RiseBoro Community Partnership Inc. are the developers for the two buildings; those firms were chosen in 2017 by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development to oversee the next phase of development.

And these won’t be small buildings: One will rise 57 stories and have close to 700 apartments, while the other will rise 33 stories and have approximately 450 apartments. A good chunk of these will be permanently affordable. Plans also call for a community facility, a boathouse, retail, senior apartments, and more.

A bit of backstory: Some kind of development has been proposed for the Hunter’s Point South site—which was known, until about a decade ago, as Queens West—and it even became one of the selling points of the city’s failed 2012 Olympic bid. But eventually, the middle-income housing that was promised came to fruition: The first phase of development brought in Related Companies, Phipps Houses and Monadnock Construction, a team that developed Hunter’s Point South Commons and Crossing, two affordable buildings that opened in 2015.

Another piece of the larger Hunter’s Point South puzzle—the second phase of an expansive park that hugs the East River waterfront—opened to the public last year.