ON March 3, 2020, two weeks before Covid would shut down the world, the Sunnyside Yards Master Plan was published. At the time, I noted “the release yesterday discusses that the timeline for fully building it out is decades,” and acknowledges that “the plan is a nonbinding document,” followed by “it’s not worthy of your time or mine, to dig into the details as the plan delivered yesterday is really just a very loose blueprint for the future. It’ll be up to successive administrations and generations to give the green light.” And finally “For the time being though the ‘affordable’ declaration assuages the noisemakers, and the non-committal timeline assuages critics like me who are willing to let sleeping dogs lie…”
As it turned out, I wasn’t really quite ready to let it lie after digging into the report two days later and being completely exasperated by it. So I drafted a post with some random thoughts and figures, headlined as is and topped by the flippant cartoon above, with the intent of pulling it all together shortly thereafter. I don’t know if it was the approaching Covid storm or the feeling that I was beating a dead horse, but I never did pull it together.
Fast forward almost exactly six years when I came across the NYT story below titled “Can Mamdani (and Trump) Build a Neighborhood Over a Queens Rail Yard?” and I knew it was time for ‘pulling it all together.’ Sunnyside Yards is a really, really bad idea, and it’s time to stick the knives in. Here’s a slightly cleaned up and slightly updated version of my thoughts at that time.
After sifting through a glowing but vacuous presentation, with lots of big renderings, a few small photos, and platitudes {that feel really dated in 2026 for a city with an unexpected and not insignificant budget shortfall – the first time since the Great Recession} such as:
Sunnyside Yards Must Be Carbon Neutral|SY embraces circularity in urban systems|SY Can Help W. Queens Adapt to the extreme effects of climate change
I finally hit pay dirt on page 76 (of 91 total) where this question is posed in print: “How much will this cost and how will it be built?” To which the immediate response was:
“The Sunnyside Yard Master Plan takes a fundamentally different approach than other decking projects of the past by first addressing critical issues voiced by stakeholder groups and then assessing cost. It is about creating a community-driven plan that benefits neighborhoods and the city by delivering public goods.”
Oy gevalt! It would take another five pages of sifting before I would actually get the answer. And then in the tiniest font ever:
“the cost to deck over Sunnyside Yard to support housing and other development is estimated at approximately $5 billion, which when spread across the full proposed development program (including 12,000 affordable new homes) amounts to $250 to $300 per buildable square foot – slightly higher than the cost of buildable land in Long Island City today”
It doesn’t stop at that amount, there’s more:
• Deck to support streets and open space: $5.4 billion• Streets and fill (to create surface level): $1.1 billion• Open Space: $240 million• Utilities (electrical, gas, telecom, and renewable energy): $1.8 billion
Finally, just underneath the above but not including a bullet point (but still in very tiny font) : “Additionally, building a deck structure above the busiest rail yard in the nation requires some modifications to tracks and other existing infrastructure as well as new mechanical systems for lighting and ventilation. These costs are estimated at $1 billion.”
These nice round numbers total the headline number $14.4 Billion. Divide by 12,000 apartments and you get a cost of $1.2 million per apartment. Which by the way is before a single building is constructed.
And that is where I left it six years ago. Today, the estimated ‘decking’ cost has ballooned to $21 billion ((a 6.5% annual compounding rate for those keeping track)). I hope you can now understand my initial exasperation.
We have lots more on this story/bad idea if it persists…
//ADD another closure to Hunters Point: Jackson’s Eatery on Jackson Avenue and 50th Avenue.
//NOT CLOSING BUT MOVING: KNR Auto Repair on 5th Street. We profiled Rick five years ago. The landlord is having him vacate at the end of the month in order to sell the building, we’ll keep you apprised as to where he lands…
Can Mamdani (and Trump) Build a Neighborhood Over a Queens Rail Yard? – NYT last week
Original 91-Page Sunnyside Yards Summary Proposal – from March 2020, see page 81 for yourself, exasperating!
Beloved LIC mechanic shop losing its location after decades
Parked rental trucks are taking over Queens streets, Long Island City businesses say
Inside the hidden world of Mad King George in Long Island City
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