The Public Authorities Control Board recently approved a state plan by Governor Kathy Hochul’s administration for a sprawling mixed-use residential redevelopment of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center at 79–25 Winchester Boulevard in Bellerose, Queens. The project calls for 2,022 new market-rate and affordable rental and for-sale homes, as well as supportive housing for veterans and seniors. The plan would also include 10.3 acres of open space, a 120,000-square-foot public grade school, an 8,000-square-foot childcare facility, 16,000 square feet of recreational space for seniors, and an additional 67,000 square feet of retail space. A developer will be selected next year, according to Hochul’s office. The site spans nearly 50 acres and is generally bounded by the Cross Island Parkway to the north and east, Hillside Avenue to the south, and Winchester Boulevard to the west.
Above is a diagram oriented looking north at the approved site plan with the blue lines outlining the parameters of the redevelopment.
Below is a Google Maps aerial view with the same orientation, showing the current set of old structures. Some parts of the property that are open include the Living Museum, which displays various local artwork, and the SNAP Innovative Senior Center – Services Now for Adult Persons, Inc., an active senior citizen center.
Creedmoor Psychiatric Center. Image via Google Maps.
The Creedmoore Psychiatric Center, a portmanteau of the original landowners the Creed family and the British “moorlands,” has been in operation for more than 113 years and reached a peak capacity of 7,000 patients in 1959. A portion of the complex remains in use for mental health treatment, though much of the site has been abandoned and left to deteriorate for the last several decades.
Hochul’s administration first announced plans for Creedmoor’s redevelopment in December 2023 and plans to finance the project using the city’s $500 million Redevelopment of Underutilized Sites for Housing (NY-RUSH) initiative. Early concepts called for more than 2,800 new homes, but feedback from the local community board disapproved of the project’s large scale and density in eastern Queens. As a result, the State removed five eight-story buildings from the initial design, reducing the square footage by 27 precent and eliminating 588 units for purchase and 263 rental units, including 15 percent intended for individuals with mental illnesses.
The 2,022 homes will be composed of 977 rentals consisting of 412 senior units, 277 supportive units with 78 solely dedicated to veterans, and 288 generally affordable units. Homeownership units will total 1,045 and come in a mix of affordable and market-rate apartments. The open space will be divided into 4.4 acres of public space and 5.9 acres of private space.
Construction is anticipated to commence in 2027 with completion targeted for 2029. While no project cost has been outlined to date, the state fund is not expected to cover the total sum. The redevelopment is also reported to include five future phases that will collectively be completed by 2040.
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It made no sense to reduce the number of units. The people who oppose this project still oppose it and we lost the additional housing.
An early use of the Creedmore site was as a rifle range from 1872 under the auspices of the NRA. An early use of the telephone was here when it was used to communicate target scores to the firing line. This was provided by Hilborne Roosevelt, cousin of Theodore, who operated the first telephone company in NYC. The competition was moved elsewhere and the land became vacant.
Giving into the nimby neighbors and downsizing this is…
Eh hmm, crazy.
If anything this project should have seen a minimum of 5000 units.
I guarantee
You would become a NIMBY in 2 minutes if this was being built next to your home
Adding 5,000 units
Please stop speaking for me.
What I believe is people have the right to have a NIMBY attitude all they want, just like most folks that hang out on this blog have the right to be YIMBYs.
But I dont think NIMBYs should have any legal influence on an official city plan, crafted by trained professionals and approved by city council.
Yes I know all about the romance of the metaphorical Jane Jacobs standing up to the metaphorical Bob Moses, but so many of these “concerned citizens” are just misguided, often ignorant reactionaries with racial prejudices and they shouldn’t be allowed to sabotage the shaping of a city.
NFA
Great deflection.
So the people whose homes , investments and quality of life are affected by these projects should have no say ?
No one on this blog is a YIMBY
just a bunch of keyboard warriors, who like yourself would become NIMBYS INSTANTLY if any of the out of context , glass box skyscrapers , super dense developments they love was being built next to their homes
“So the people whose homes, investments and quality of life are affected by these projects should have no say ?”
Can you please explain what you mean by this? Because it just sounds like the fearful attitude of someone who doesn’t like newcomers or change of any kind. “Traffic” and “quality of life” are always used as All-American stand-in euphemisms for not wanting the kind of people you don’t like, fill in the blank, to move next door to you. A coast-to-coast tale as old as time. If it was really about traffic, residents of eastern Queens would be lobbying the MTA to finally extend the QBL Hillside Av subway as it was designed to be a century ago.
“No one on this blog is a YIMBY
just a bunch of keyboard warriors, who like yourself would become NIMBYS INSTANTLY if any of the out of context , glass box skyscrapers , super dense developments they love was being built next to their homes”
Something you don’t know followed by something that isn’t being proposed. On what planet is this modestly dense plan anything like a glass skyscraper going up next to your window? Hyperbole much?
Plenty of developments similar to this throughout East Queens. They are just fine.
If you don’t like living in a city that keeps building and won’t stop building, move to Ohio!!! Your repetitive rant is getting old and stupid like yourself, Arnelo, aka Guesser.
I can’t believe you would side with the NIMBY’s who were outraged and demanded FEWER homes for people to live in. Such inhumanity and disgrace for people in need and you should be fucking ashamed of yourself you shithead.
NFA
how much would you like to bet that you would instantly become a NIMBY
if this was built next to you ?
Enough Arnelo, I don’t see why you don’t stop answering so pretentiously, when clearly it’s never worked since your last screen name used to be Guesser.
I bet a building went up against your apartment and that’s why you are so rude, bitter, and triggered by seeing any new construction, whether affordable homes like this project, or luxury condos. Either way, your argument is irrational as you’ve grown to be and maybe you should’ve realized this city never stops building before you moved here.
So STFU and go retire somewhere else more low rise and mentally unsound like Oklahoma
“Ignorant reactionaries with racial predudices”? I think the neighborhood has been deverse for many, many years now. But don’t let that stop you from throwing in some racial division. It always helps the situation.
Fair enough. Let’s go with socioeconomic prejudices as the affordable component in the neighbors’ eyes will always bring in an “element of crime.” Or perhaps even closer to reality is an aversion to “any growth any where”, which is often the poster child NIMBY.
Far from any train, so everyone will need a car or two.
The Hillside (F) extension is just laying there, weighing.
waiting
It’s okay to build this level of density beyond a reasonable walk from a train station. Plenty of examples citywide and all over the world.