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About 700 new homes could be coming to Downtown Jamaica on the site of what’s now a massive parking garage, as part of the agreement by Resorts World New York City and Cirrus Real Estate Partners to deliver nearly 50,000 units across the five boroughs, Crain’s has learned.
The joint venture has purchased the 1.8-acre development site and parking garage at 92-30 165th St. for $46.1 million with plans to turn the lot into housing, according to Cirrus and Ripco Real Estate, which brokered the deal.
The seller was the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, through the entity Jamaica First Parking LLC. Ripco’s Kevin Schmitz and Stephen Preuss Sr. represented the seller in the transaction.
The acquisition comes about a year after Resorts World, in partnership with Cirrus Real Estate, announced a joint initiative to build up to 50,000 units of workforce housing across the city, following Resorts World’s successful bid for one of three casino licenses in the city.
In September, a community advisory committee voted unanimously to advance the $5.5 billion project coming to Southeast Queens. Resorts World, part of Malaysia’s Genting Group, operates an existing small-scale electronic gambling facility at Aqueduct Racetrack in Jamaica. The full-scale, 5.6 million-square-foot casino — which will allow for 6,000 slot machines, 800 gaming tables, 2,000 hotel rooms and a 7,000-seat arena — will be built over three to four years and completed in 2031.
As the single-largest employer of Hotel and Gaming Trades Council members, Resorts World vowed to build housing that its own workers can afford to live in and teamed with Cirrus to deliver that promise. The deal marks the first acquisition under the partners’ workforce housing initiative.
“The acquisition of this property demonstrates our commitment to transforming well-located sites into high-quality workforce housing that creates lasting value for communities,” Joseph McDonnell, managing partner of Cirrus Real Estate Partners, told Crain’s. “As the first project under our workforce housing initiative with Resorts World, this development will set the tone for what we hope to achieve across New York City: creating attainable housing in transit-oriented locations while supporting long-term neighborhood growth and economic opportunity.”
The roughly 246,000-square-foot lot at the corner of Archer Avenues allows for more than 600,000 square feet of buildable space.
The property, which is less than a mile from Jamaica Station, also sits within the Jamaica Neighborhood Plan, a sprawling rezoning passed by the City Council last year that paved the way for nearly 12,000 new residences across 230 blocks.
