Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Dina Levy announced that a long-empty lot in Hunter’s Point South, Queens will be transformed into The Orion, a mixed-use development that will create nearly 1,000 new homes across three buildings, with two-thirds to be affordable to extremely low to moderate-income households.
This is the latest step in the evolution of Hunter’s Point South, a previously industrial 30-acre area along the East River waterfront. After a failed bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, the City launched a plan for development of this waterfront as a mixed-use, mixed-income community. As part of a multiagency effort, the area has transformed into a new community with over 3,000 new homes, commercial retail stores, community facilities such as the Queens Landing Boathouse and Environmental Center, and three new schools; an award-winning waterfront park; and infrastructure and roadway improvements.
The City is designating the site to a development team consisting of Slate Property Group, The Hudson Companies, and Volunteers of America. Marvel Architects will serve as the project’s architecture and design firm, and local nonprofit Commonpoint Queens will lease and operate a daycare, workforce development center, and a community pool.
“With our city in the midst of an unprecedented housing crisis, The Orion and its more than 650 income-restricted units out of nearly 1,000 total homes is exactly the kind of investment we need in neighborhoods like Long Island City, where the cost of living continues to rise,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. “We must leave no stone unturned as we seek to increase our city’s housing supply, and I am thrilled that this long-vacant lot will be turned into beautiful new homes for hundreds of Queens families. Thank you to all our public and private partners in getting this plan off the ground.”
“Housing costs are one of the driving factors of New York City’s affordability crisis,” said State Senator Kristen Gonzalez. “43% of renters are classified as rent burdened, and in 2025, average rents increased 4.7%, well above the rate of inflation. Our city desperately needs additional housing, specifically we need affordable, safe and dignified housing. I commend Mayor Mamdani, Deputy Mayor Bozorg, and HPD Commissioner Levy for their focus on affordable housing.”
“I am thrilled to see that after sitting vacant for years, this site will be transformed into the affordable housing that Queens families actually need,” said Assemblymember Claire Valdez. “Pairing 658 affordable homes with childcare and job training is exactly the kind of meaningful investment our communities deserve.”
A long-empty lot in Hunter’s Point South will be transformed into The Orion, a mixed-use development that will create nearly 1,000 new homes across three buildings, with two-thirds to be affordable to extremely low to moderate-income households.