Far Rockaway to Get Nearly 800 New Affordable Housing Units

January 14, 2020

By Michael Herzenberg (Watch the video segment on NY1)

"God has been good to me. I'm not going to complain about it. Obviously now it's a little bit slow, but I'm not going to complain," said Tino Venezia, of Tino's Unisex Hairstyling.

Tino has seen good times and bad in Far Rockaway. He was just four when his dad opened his salon in 1954. Tino took over the business 40 years ago.

"In the 80s, when everybody was moving out of here," Tino said.

But now there's a promise people will move back, and you can see it and hear it: all over downtown, the construction of apartments — a lot of them.

"The future is now," said Kevin Alexander, of Rockaway Development & Revitalization Corp. "After 40 years of not a lot of commercial revitalization and affordable housing, it's here now."

The city just closed on three deals to finance the construction of nearly 800 affordable apartments.

"We essentially plugged that gap for the developer," said Perris Straughter, the assistant commissioner for New York City's Housing Preservation & Development department. "Land that they wouldn't be able to develop, they come to us, use our financing programs, and then they can build these wonderful projects."

The first development: two 10-story buildings on Cornaga Avenue:

The next development: another 10-story building, this time on Beach 21st:

And the third is the next phase of Rockaway Village, on the site of a long-vacant strip mall at Mott Avenue and Beach 21st Street that was torn down last year:

Including all these new units, the de Blasio administration has helped to finance more than 1,300 affordable apartments in Far Rockaway since it pushed through a rezoning of commercial land in 2017.

10 percent of the new units are to be set aside for the homeless. The rest are for people with limited income.

"It's in the range from roughly about $28,000 for a family of three to $80,000 for a family of three," Straughter said.

The rezoning also includes a $288 million appropriation for infrastructure improvements.

"This is truly transformational," Democratic Queens Councilman Donovan Richards said. "You're talking about a community that had blight, that was desolate for nearly 40 years."

"I like what I see," Tino said. "Far Rockaways are coming back like it used to be a long time ago."

Tino Venezia said he has been thinking about retiring.

"I'm not going to be here forever," he said. "I want to enjoy my grandchildren."

But the changes outside his door have him reimagining his plans.

"I'll see what happens," Tino said. "I have to ask my wife."