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A former NYPD parking garage in Jamaica, Queens, is going to become a mixed-use development with more than 350 residential units.
The conversion project, on a site at 168th Street near the major retail strip of Jamaica Avenue, will be developed by Omni New York after the city chose the developer's bid for the site, Crain’s reports.
Omni was among the respondents to an RFP the city released in 2015. The project is part of an economic development initiative called the Jamaica NOW Action Plan, which is aimed at kick-starting growth in jobs and retail development in the area. Much of the housing will be affordable, and the NYPD will use some of the parking Omni builds when it develops the site.
Jamaica has public transit infrastructure that is about as good as a neighborhood could ask for: four subway lines, the second-largest Long Island Railroad hub after Penn Station, and a short ride on the Air Train to JFK Airport.
A 2007 rezoning was meant to enable that infrastructure to create a renaissance in the neighborhood’s economy, including its commercial real estate. Yet, according to the city, job growth and economic activity in the area has declined since the rezoning.
Commercial development is getting a foothold in the neighborhood after years of trying, with the parking garage conversion, as well as an affordable housing project called the Crossing at Jamaica Station and a new Hilton Garden Inn, both of which are under construction. [Crain’s]
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