Major League Soccer team New York City Football Club plans to build a stadium as part of a multiuse redevelopment in the Willets Point section of Queens County, New York City officials and the team announced Nov. 16. The plan also calls for construction of seven buildings containing 2,500 affordable housing units, a 650-seat K-8 public school, retail space and 40,000-sq-ft of public space.
The team is in the process of selecting an architect. The stadium plan still must go through land use, design and environmental reviews.
The city owns the site for privately financed 25,000-seat stadium, immediately east of the Mets’ Citi Field. The aim is to have the sports facility open in 2027.
Representatives from the developers declined to share the project’s expected cost. The New York Times reported an estimated $780 million price tag for the stadium.
The project would support 14,200 construction jobs, city Mayor Eric Adams said during a press conference. He called the development “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a brand-new neighborhood.”
“We can build a city and we can make sure everyone can participate in what this city has to offer,” Adams said. Environmental cleanup and infrastructure improvements of sewers, storm lines and water mains are currently underway, he said.
Construction of the first residential building is expected to begin next year, according to Jeff Blau, CEO of developer Related Cos., which is working with Sterling Equities through a joint venture called Queens Development Group to partner with the soccer team on the project.
The stadium would be built with union labor, officials say. That decision drew praise from labor groups including the Cement & Concrete Workers District Council and New York State Laborers’ Union LECET. Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, said unions' pre-apprenticeship and direct entry programs would help workers from underserved communities enter the middle class while contributing to the project.
“Not only will a new soccer stadium at Willets Point become a cultural and economic hub for generations to come, but this project will also immediately benefit the lives of thousands of hard-working New Yorkers with the good-paying union construction jobs it will create,” LaBarbera said.
