New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday pitched President Donald Trump on a plan to build 12,000 units of housing over Sunnyside Yard in Western Queens, according to senior city housing official Cea Weaver and three other people who were briefed on the Mamdani administration’s plans but not authorized to speak publicly.
The pitch came during an unscheduled Oval Office meeting. While they are ideological opposites, the Republican president and democratic socialist mayor have enjoyed an unexpected bonhomie since Mamdani’s election last year. Trump, a Queens native, lived in New York City for most of his life.
In a statement Thursday evening, the mayor’s office said Mamdani is seeking more than $21 billion in federal grants to build a platform over the rail yard, which it described as the world’s largest deck, to construct 12,000 affordable homes. The administration said 6,000 of those units would follow a Mitchell-Lama-style model.
Weaver, director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, said the project could deliver thousands of units of affordable housing, while bridging sections of Western Queens separated by the railyard.
“It’s a barrier between some of the most diverse neighborhoods in Queens,” Weaver said. “And so I think it’s important that we’re able to connect neighborhoods.”
But she said the city can’t handle the massive project on its own.
“It’s extraordinarily expensive, and we need federal support in order to be able to do it.”
The idea for housing on the site was first floated under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, but stalled under Mamdani’s predecessor Eric Adams. In March 2020, officials at the city Economic Development Commission estimated the project to construct a platform and thousands of new affordable units, along with offices and public space, would cost about $14 billion.
The mayor’s office did not explain the difference between that estimate and the new $21 billion federal funding request.
The statement also said the new proposal would create 30,000 union jobs and include parks, schools and health care clinics. Both sides agreed to continue discussions in the coming weeks.
Weaver said the city would not necessarily rely on the plan issued by the de Blasio administration nearly six years ago.
“We’re looking to take a fresh look at the project and make sure it delivers for the things that New Yorkers really need,” she said.
Earlier in the day on Thursday, Mamdani’s spokesperson Joe Calvello told reporters that the mayor and Trump discussed a plan to build 12,000 new housing units. Calvello did not specify where the housing would be located.
“The last time the president and the mayor met, the president asked him to come back with some big ideas on how we can build things together in New York City,” Calvello said about Mamdani’s previous meeting with Trump at the White House in November. “The president was very enthusiastic about this idea.”
At one point, the mayor held up a mock Daily News front page with the headline “Trump to City: Let’s Build.” City Hall aides did not confirm whether the mayor specifically referenced Sunnyside.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Any construction on the site would require federal approval because Sunnyside Yard and the surrounding rail infrastructure are owned by Amtrak.
The MTA in 2016 dropped previous plans for a new commuter rail station atop Sunnyside Yard, which would have been a centerpiece of a new housing development. The new station would have served Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North trains that will operate in and out of Penn Station through the MTA’s ongoing Penn Access project.
The station was initially a part of the MTA’s long-delayed East Side Access project, which wrapped in early 2023 and created a new LIRR station beneath Grand Central Terminal. The planned Sunnyside station was abandoned as the East Side Access project faced delays and cost overruns.
It’s unclear if the plan floated by Mamdani at the White House would revive the Sunnyside station plan.
This story has been updated with new information.
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