Astoria Residents, Organizations Clash At Innovation QNS Hearing

ASTORIA, QUEENS — On Monday, supporters of Innovation QNS, a proposed mixed-use cultural hub in Astoria, monopolized the first 90 minutes of the development's public environmental review hearing with glowing predictions about how the project will nurture the neighborhood's post-pandemic recovery.

The project's association with Kaufman Astoria Studios went a long way for many speakers, including Carl Goodman, executive director of the nearby Museum of the Moving Image, whose museum has received the studio's monetary support in the past and plans to build a digital arts and media gallery in Innovation QNS.

"We would be hesitant to support this project as presented if it was not led by Kaufman Astoria Studios," he said, describing the group as "the real deal. They have served as a good and beneficent neighbor to a broad array of non profits and arts organizations in Queens. Their commitment to all of us is not lip service that one may hear from other development groups," he added.

But local leaders, business owners, and community organization heads like Goodman failed to persuade a set of local residents who described the project as "gentrification," "artwashing," and a source of "environmental blight."

Among them was Raayan Katow, a resident of Astoria, who said that the development will "continue to push out lower income people of color that call this neighborhood home in favor of young professionals who do not work in this area."

"Their money, their culture, and their tastes will define the future of this neighborhood rather than the life experience of longer term residents," he said, alluding to the rapid gentrification of western Queens, primarily at the hands of young people who commute into Manhattan.

The Innovation QNS proposal

The scoping meeting was a first step in a public process over the developers' proposal.

The $2 billion project, which spans a portion of five city blocks from 37th Street to Northern Boulevard between 35th and 36th Avenues, was first last summer, followed by a complete project overview, which was released last month by Kaufman Astoria Studios, Silverstein Properties, and BedRock Real Estate Partners.

Innovation QNS would bring more than 2,8000 units of mixed-income housing, office space for the creative and tech sectors, arts and culture venues, outdoor space, a grocery store, and more to the "underutilized" area by 2032, according to the proposal.

In order to move forward with the high-density resident project, the developers need to rezone the area from commercial and manufacturing use to residential, to allow for several 200-foot-plus high rise buildings that could bring up to 7,000 additional residents to the area.

The rezoning requires approval through the city’s lengthy land use review process, known as ULURP, which takes into account public comments and recommendations from the Department of City Planning, local community boards, the Borough President, and the City Planning Commission.

The public process

Monday’s scoping meeting, which was organized by the City Department of Planning, included time for comment from elected officials and the general public. No elected officials showed up.

An overwhelming majority of the meeting’s speakers spoke in favor of the Innovation QNS project, including a host of community leaders who have already called for the project’s approval, citing the amenities, jobs and housing that this project would bring to the neighborhood.

Claudia Coger, a lifelong Astoria resident and the Astoria Tenants Association President, said that nearby Astoria House residents are “often overlooked in terms of health and wellness” but that Innovation QNS would afford them with new amenities, like community health and wellness facilities and access to “open public space, [and] many locally owned shops and restaurants and entertainment options.”

Seniors are another group that would benefit from the project, according to Silas Leavitt, the Housing Development Coordinator at HANAC, an Astoria-based social services and affordable housing nonprofit.

He said that Innovation QNS — which is partnering with HANAC to manage the site’s designated affordable housing units for seniors — would “not only create additional affordable and supportive homes for seniors, it will also integrate these residents into a larger community ripe with open space healthcare facilities and ground floor spaces operated by local non profits and neighborhood serving nonprofits.”

One of those nonprofits is Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement, a community-based nonprofit that would extend its youth and adult programming into the Innovation QNS footprint.

Chris Hanway, the organization’s executive director, described Kaufman Astoria Studios as “very involved members of the neighborhood’s cultural and civic fabric.”

When the studio approached him to partner on this project, he said it “wasn’t just a presentation seeking our buy-in in order to influence community opinion, this was a real offer of partnership.”

Many other speakers praised Kaufman Astoria Studios for the impact that it’s had on the neighborhood, including David Kilmnick, the president and CEO of the LGBT Network, which moved its headquarters into the Kaufman Astoria Studios in January and would expand its services in Innovation QNS.

Kilmnick said that when his organization was first approached about the development he was "in awe of what a project like this could do for all communities, including the LGBTQ community which is often left out of conversations like this."

He described Innovation QNS as a "project that will address the critical housing and open space needs of Astoria and LIC."

Opposition to the project

Many of the people who pushed back against the development — all of whom were area locals without ties to the project — said that Innovation QNS would further gentrification in the neighborhood despite its efforts to partner with local organizations.

Laura Shepard, a Community Board 2 member speaking as an individual, said that the sentiment expressed by supporters is “not the sentiment among many of my neighbors. Many people are struggling and considering moving away,” she said, alluding to the high cost of rent in the neighborhood and the “lack of transparency” about the affordability of the Innovation QNS units.

She added that she “cannot and will not support something that contains close to 1,600 parking spaces” which she said is akin to building “for climate devastation,” since the project won’t be completed for another decade.

Similarly, a local artist named Carolina said she'd been talking to neighbors for over a year about Innovation QNS and has "never heard much support [for the project] beyond 'more housing would be nice, but what kind of housing.'"

She also questioned how the neighborhood will handle an influx of thousands of residents, citing existing issues with overcrowding.

"It really makes me question whether any of the people who are supporting this actually take [the subway] and have to take the R or the M," she said, adding "when something sounds too good to be true it usually is because it is."

Evie Hantzopoulos, a community leader and City Council candidate in Astoria’s District 22, echoed concerns about the impact of thousands of new residents on Astoria’s infrastructure, including sewers and schools.

“What is the developer going to be paying to make sure that our [existing residents’] quality of life doesn’t suffer?” she asked, pointing to issues of concern like additional cars, and people being displaced through secondary displacement (no longer being able to afford rent).

As a supporter of the arts Hantzopoulos called the project’s partnership with arts organizations “artwashing" (obscuring gentrification with art). She said that “there is plenty of vacant space right now for our arts community,” pointing to many storefronts on Steinway Street that are kept empty because of real estate speculation (when landlords keep their storefronts empty and sell to developers).

She rejected the idea that Innovation QNS “is somehow going to solve the problem on Steinway [when] in fact this kind of speculation has caused it.”

Official response

Patch reached out to the Innovation QNS developers and the Department of City Planning (DCP) about this meeting, and spokespeople from both groups responded.

In response to criticisms that the hearing largely featured people with ties to the project and that Innovation QNS will accelerate gentrification a spokesperson from the project said: "Yesterday's hearing was about the scope of the studies to be undertaken in analyzing this project and certainly economic impact is one of the issues to be reviewed."

"We are gratified by the broad base of support from local residents, small businesses, community and cultural organizations and civic groups who recognize this is the type of project needed right now to reenergize the economy of Western Queens and add amenities they have long asked for to this vibrant neighborhood," they added.

In response to criticisms that the hearing was not adequately publicized, which several people who oppose the project mentioned in their testimony, Joe Marvilli, deputy secretary of the DCP, said: "DCP takes its public noticing duties extremely seriously and yesterday's scoping meeting was no exception."

A notice about the meeting was posted on the DCP website, NYC Engage, in the City Record. Queens Community Board 1, which includes the area where Innovation QNS would be built, listed the project on the agenda for its land use committee meeting on May 26.

"While we heard from dozens of members of the public on Innovation QNS, for those who couldn’t attend or were unaware, comments remain open through June 24. This was just one of many upcoming public meetings for Innovation QNS. We anticipate equally robust and well-attended hearings during public review," added Marvilli.

Comments can be emailed to 21DCP180Q_DL@planning.nyc.gov, and more information about sending comments in the mail can be found here.