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After four decades of weeds, wetlands and what-ifs, the long-dormant Flushing Airport site in College Point is finally getting its next chapter—and it’s looking residential.
Mayor Eric Adams announced this week that the city will transform the former municipal airfield into a mixed-use community with 3,000 new homes, roughly 60 acres of public green space and a dash of economic revitalization. The $3.2 billion development will be led by Cirrus Workforce Housing and LCOR Incorporated and is slated to begin construction in 2028, pending environmental and land use review.
Flushing Airport, New York City’s first airfield, closed in 1984 and has been slowly reclaimed by nature ever since. But under Adams’ “City of Yes” housing initiative, the city is reclaiming the land right back, with a plan that includes affordable, market-rate and “deeply affordable” housing, all built with union labor and funded in part by union pension dollars.
“For too many decades, this valuable land has sat vacant,” Adams said. “Now we are excited to create around 3,000 new homes at the site of the former Flushing Airport.”
The city’s Economic Development Corporation says the redevelopment will generate over 1,300 construction jobs and 530 permanent positions, while preserving the site’s natural wetlands. Think workforce housing meets eco-conscious design: mass timber construction, native landscaping and walking paths woven into the existing marshland.
While the project still faces a lengthy planning runway, Adams is betting big on its long-term impact—especially for middle-income New Yorkers, first responders and union families increasingly priced out of the boroughs they serve.
To prepare for the added traffic, a new .7-mile stretch of 132nd Street has already been completed, laying the infrastructure groundwork for what officials hope will be a neighborhood renaissance.
“This is a win for New York’s working families,” said Paul Capurso of the NYC Carpenters Union. “It will deliver the kind of affordable, quality housing our city desperately needs.”
After 40 years stuck in neutral, the Flushing Airport site is finally cleared for takeoff. And with a blueprint that blends housing, nature and equity, it just might help Queens land a brighter future.