FWRA Flushing Waterfront Economic Impacts Study

To inform the local community of the proposed project’s impacts, the FWRA development team commissioned Urbanomics to prepare an economic impact study and presented testimony for the NYC Planning Commission to evaluate the broad economic benefits expected from the 13 tower $1.1 billion development project in the Flushing Creek area of Queens.

Urbanomics’ analysis found that the project would yield $1.6 in one-time economic output/business revenues within Queens for every dollar spent on construction, and would create 9,000 construction jobs. The addition of more than 1,000 new permanent resident households would contribute to $273 million in annual business output and support 2,700 annual jobs. Annual tax benefits for the completed project were estimated to include $115 million in additional tax revenues as well as $18 million in other state and local taxes. The economic impact analysis was modeled using IMPLAN software at the County and neighborhood level based on key project assumptions collected from the development team. Local business activity data were inputted into the model to determine the project’s likely impacts from commercial operations. Tax benefits were modeled based on Urbanomics’ estimate of the fair market value of the proposed project based on expected residential condo sales prices and construction costs for other land uses in the proposed development. For purposes of comparison, Urbanomics collected property assessment roll data from the NYC Department of Finance for several comparable properties in the City to evaluate whether the estimated fair market value was in line with the City’s estimates.