City unveils plan for Long Island City vacant lot to become 980 new apartments, majority affordable
Rendering credit: Marvel
One of the last remaining vacant waterfront parcels in Long Island City will become nearly 1,000 new homes, a majority of which will be priced below market rate. The city on Wednesday announced that Slate Property Group, The Hudson Companies, and Volunteers of America-Greater New York will build The Orion, a three-building development with 980 apartments, of which roughly 66 percent will be affordable for New Yorkers earning extremely low to moderate income. Designed by Marvel, the development will also include community facility space, including a daycare and a workforce development center, an indoor community pool, and new commercial retail. The project will rise on the sixth of seven sites of the city’s ongoing 30-acre Hunter’s Point South redevelopment.
“Solving our affordability crisis will require creative solutions and a roll-up-your-sleeves approach to create housing that works for all New Yorkers and allows them to live in dynamic, diverse, and desirable neighborhoods,” David Schwartz, principal and co-founder of Slate Property Group, said.
“The Orion checks all those boxes and more: it will deliver nearly a thousand new homes for New Yorkers across the income spectrum and provide essential supportive services to those who need it most, all while making Long Island City more resilient to climate change.”
The Department of Housing Preservation and Development selected the team after releasing a request for proposals (RFP) in June 2025. Plans to transform the large swath of the Long Island City waterfront stem from the city’s failed bid to host a portion of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. After the proposal was rejected, the city launched an initiative to redevelop the area into a mixed-use, mixed-income community.
As 6sqft previously reported, five of the seven parcels (A, B, C, F, and G) have been developed, bringing 3,000 homes, new retail, three new schools, an 11-acre public park, and the Queens Landing Boathouse and Environmental Center.
Parcel E measures about 70,000 square feet at 54-42 2nd Street. Plans for the lot were shaped by community input, including meetings and presentations with Queens Community Board 2, outreach to local community-based organizations, flyering and tabling events, and a community visioning workshop.
According to the city, many residents across various income levels struggle to find housing in the neighborhood, especially families with children. In response to that feedback, about a third of The Orion’s 980 apartments will be two-bedrooms or bigger. About 658 apartments will be income-restricted, including 150 supportive housing units.
Community members also expressed a desire for active recreation and flexible gathering spaces. In response, local nonprofit Commonpoint Queens will lease and operate an affordable daycare, workforce development center, and community pool within the development.
Amenities will be found throughout the three buildings, with each including laundry facilities, a fitness center, a community room, bike storage, and a rooftop terrace. Ground-floor amenities will include indoor pools, children’s playrooms, and interior courtyards with playgrounds.
The Orion will be the first project to use HPD’s Mixed Income Market Initiative framework, a new structure that leverages market-rate units to help finance affordable housing. The framework combines extremely low-income and formerly homeless households with moderate-income and market-rate residents in the same building.
“The Orion marks the next step in the transformation of Hunter’s Point, bringing hundreds of new homes, a new child care center, workforce development, and retail space to a long-vacant lot,” Leila Bozorg, deputy mayor for housing and planning, said.
“This project shows how we can use public land to deliver mixed-use projects that benefit future residents and the surrounding community alike.”
Before construction can begin, the development team must also secure financing.
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