Chetrit Group Planning Mixed-Use Complex For Queens Industrial Yard
The Chetrit Group has big plans for an eight-acre, Long Island Railroad-bisected industrial complex in Maspeth, Queens.
The developer wants to develop a mixed-use project on the oddly shaped property at 57-46 56th St, which lies in an Industrial Business Zone and is occupied by warehouses and industrial companies, Crain’s reports.
While plans are in the early stages, the developer claims the complex would fit in with the surrounding low-rise housing.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has promised to protect IBZs from residential development, which could make getting rezoning approval difficult, despite Chetrit’s insistence the site is at the IBZ’s edge and has other residential properties nearby.
The developer could receive support from City Council member Elizabeth Crowley, who met with Chetrit in 2013 and 2015 and who wrote a letter to the mayor telling him to search for more low-income housing development opportunities.
Her letter even mentioned the site. “Two real estate developers who are eager to build residential housing units in Maspeth and Woodside have approached me," she wrote, "looking to start a conversation about a zoning change." [Crain’s]
