Redevelopment plan for NYCFC stadium in Queens unanimously approved by New York City Planning Commission
NEW YORK -- New York City is very close to getting its first professional soccer stadium.
It'll serve as home base for New York City Football Club, or NYCFC, and this is just part of what that new construction will bring to the Queens community.
The city skyline is hoped to shine a little brighter with the addition of its first soccer stadium.
"Obviously, we do great with baseball with the Mets. We do great with tennis with the US Open. Soccer has been lacking," Flushing resident Jason Osborn said.
What's known as the world's sport is a step away from having its official home in Willets Point, right across from Citi Field. On Wednesday, the City Planning Commission unanimously approved the redevelopment plan.
"It will be like new city, new neighborhood right here," real estate agent Leon Ye said.
"We've been lucky to play at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field in our time here, but there's really nothing quite like having your own home," said Jennifer O'Sullivan, COO of NYCFC.
The 25,000-seat stadium would be the home of NYCFC. The site will also house a school, retail and 2,500 affordable housing units. Construction is underway now for the housing portion; building the stadium takes one more approval vote.
"It's an exciting thing for soccer, but it's also an exciting thing for the city of New York and this community to be part of a project that is so transformational," O'Sullivan said.
But the construction came at the cost of some small businesses. Back in 2022 when the project was first announced, we spoke with one of the last mechanics on the block.
"I don't know what's going to happen. I'm so worried. I have my own family. They're only giving me a couple months to leave. I don't know what to do," he said at the time.
His and other nearby businesses have since been shut, acquired by the site's development group. They were offered another co-op space in the Bronx.
Local parents, like Osborn, are upset about this, but say it's necessary to build the school, stadium and overall neighborhood for generations to come.
"That's a concern. If there's some other way that we can support them, I think that's important, too. Balancing the need to develop the neighborhood," Osborn said.
A final vote on the stadium and additional construction on the affordable housing units is slated to take place in April, and the stadium would be scheduled to open in 2027 if all goes well.