{"id":320263,"date":"2026-08-13T11:02:59","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/320263\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T11:02:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:02:59","slug":"a-burst-of-enthusiasm-over-sunnyside-yard-queens-project-followed-by-yawning-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/320263\/","title":{"rendered":"A burst of enthusiasm over Sunnyside Yard Queens project, followed by yawning silence"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seemed like a watershed moment in February when Mayor Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump locked hands and eyes in the White House<\/a> and posed with a mock Daily News front page with the headline \u201cTrump to City: Let\u2019s Build.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Mamdani aide said at the time that Queens-born Trump was particularly interested in one project: the long-stalled Sunnyside Yard development, a $21 billion plan to build a massive platform over a railyard \u2013 largely owned by Amtrak \u2013 and 12,000 housing units. \u201cThe president was very enthusiastic about this idea,\u201d Mamdani spokesperson Joe Calvello said.<\/p>\n

But what’s followed in the months since has not inspired confidence, Queens leaders said. The mayor’s office has reported scant progress, and the White House has said little publicly to match City Hall\u2019s assessment that the president was interested in the idea. City Councilmember Julie Won, who represents the area, said in a statement that she is no longer taking the project seriously, as she hasn\u2019t gotten a single update in months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe project is not shovel ready, no major stakeholders have been engaged, and absolutely no one has identified the $21 billion needed just to build the platform over the tracks,\u201d Won said.<\/p>\n

The project, which became the talk of Queens after the political opposites, Mamdani and Trump, clasped hands in the White House, re-emerged recently when Mamdani was asked about Sunnyside Yard during a tour in the Bronx about affordable housing initiatives in that borough.<\/p>\n

The mayor replied that the Sunnyside Yard project \u201ccontinues to be the subject of conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opportunity to turn land, which is currently a railyard, into somewhere that housing could be built, is one that we’re always going to be interested in talking about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But his office has declined to comment further.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what else to know about the Sunnyside Yard initiative.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Sunnyside Yard?<\/p>\n

Queens’ Sunnyside neighborhood is home to 140 acres of trainyard, where Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit trains come and go. Mamdani wants to build a deck over the yard, which is right next to North America’s busiest railroad interchange, creating a whole new landscape for development.<\/p>\n

Some 12,000 affordable housing units have been proposed. Half would be Mitchell-Lama-style, sprawled among several high-rises and other structures. The project would bring an estimated 7,000 permanent new jobs, 60 acres of new public open space, schools, libraries and a regional rail hub to Sunnyside.<\/p>\n

Who started this talk anyway?<\/p>\n

Mamdani isn\u2019t the first to be interested in such an undertaking. Amtrak, the primary owner of the land, approached the city about a potential development in 2014, and in 2020, the New York City Economic Development Council published a master plan for the project. Even still, Mamdani said the concept dates back even further.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis idea has been an idea for frankly close to a century, and now we’re doing the work to try and make it into a reality,\u201d the mayor said during the Bronx tour.<\/p>\n

The master plan calls the development a \u201cgenerational opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

What does Trump have to do with it?<\/p>\n

When Mamdani visited the White House in February, he pitched the development to the president, asking for $21 billion in federal grants, the estimated price tag of building the deck atop the yard. That price tag doesn\u2019t include the construction of housing and other buildings.<\/p>\n

The conversation was in response to Trump’s request for the mayor to approach him with \u201dbig ideas,\u201d Gothamist<\/a> reported earlier. On social media<\/a>, Mamdani called the meeting with the president \u201cproductive\u201d and said he looks \u201cforward to building more housing in New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House, however, had little to say publicly \u2013 then<\/a> or now. The White House did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

What else are local leaders saying?<\/p>\n

Jenny Dubnau, the board co-chair of the Western Queens Community Land Trust, a leading nonprofit active in land-use issues, said the project would be \u201c\u200aa huge misallocation of funds,\u201d and expressed skepticism that the proposed housing units will actually be affordable.<\/p>\n

The larger worry, she said, is \u201cwhat kind of housing will be built there and who will it be affordable to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Won said she was surprised when word of Trump\u2019s potential backing emerged. But now she is ready to change course.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur neighbors need affordable housing, and I welcome every real opportunity to build it,\u201d Won said in a statement. \u201cThis is not a real opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. also has not received any formal update from the city, according to his spokesperson, Chris Barca.<\/p>\n

The office reiterated the stance Richards took in February: “Sunnyside Yard\u2019s untapped potential as New York City’s next great community is even more immense now than it was a decade ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

He encouraged a \u201ccomprehensive, community-centered planning process\u201d in the event that a significant federal investment is secured.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next?<\/p>\n

No quick resolution is in the offing for an undertaking that requires approvals from multiple layers of government \u2013 even if each one of them were in agreement. For project proponents there may be a glimmer of hope: Mamdani recently announced that Anthony Shorris, first deputy under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, was recently named president and CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation.<\/p>\n

The Sunnyside Yard proposal first emerged under the de Blasio administration.<\/p>\n

The development office declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Kim contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It seemed like a watershed moment in February when Mayor Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump locked hands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-320263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}