The former Sports Authority site. (Photo: QueensPost)
Sept. 12, 2019 By Christian Murray
The City Council is expected to give the School Construction Authority the green light to go ahead and build a 3,100-seat high school on Northern Boulevard when it comes up for a vote Thursday.
The high school is slated to go up on the corner of Northern Boulevard and 54th Street, on a 137,000 square foot lot that includes the former Sports Authority retail store and an adjacent parking lot.
The proposal was recently approved by the council’s Land Use committee and will be going before the council for a full vote this afternoon.
“I am fully supportive of this and I am sure my colleagues are too,” said Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer who represents the district where the school will be built. “The truth is we need more high schools, we need more seats.”
The school will go up in District 30, which incorporates Long Island City and Astoria, as well as parts of Sunnyside, Woodside and Jackson Heights. The city aims to open the building by September 2023.
The SCA plans to open three schools in the one building, according to Van Bramer. For instance, one might include a District 75 (special education) component.
The sporting goods store closed in 2016, when the Colorado-based company liquidated all of its U.S. locations. The property and the parking lot is owned by Pine Tree Realty Corp.
The School Construction Authority had originally planned to build a 1,000 seat high-school at the location–on a smaller piece of land.
The Northern Boulevard site is divided in to several parcels and the SCA only thought it was able to acquire the piece that was occupied by the sports store. In later negotiations, it worked out a deal with Pine Tree to acquire the adjacent parking areas.
The school building will now officially accommodate 3,079 seats.
The proposed site for the high school, outlined in red. (Google Maps)
Van Bramer said the public will get to weigh in on what type of high school it will be and other factors soon.
The City has completed other buildings for high school students in western Queens in recent years. The City completed a middle school/high school campus at 1-50 51st Avenue in Long Island City in 2013 that includes the Academy for Careers in Television & Film.
The SCA is currently building a 969 seat high school building at 40-11 28th St. in Long Island City. The building will be the new home for the Academy of American Studies.
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13 Comments
This intersection has 15 lanes, hard to imagine 3000 kids crossing it every day.
These comments are perplexing. District 30 schools are extremely overcrowded and grow more so every year. These stats are public and can be easily found online. I don’t understand this whole “to heck with kids” attitude, either. I mean sure, teenagers are annoying and can act dumb. But I promise you cramming them all into Bryant ain’t gonna help!
Judging by the like/dislike ratio to Bingham’s comment, there are quite a few NIMBYs in the so-called “progressive paradise” of Astoria. Just one more piece of evidence that all leftists are hypocrites.
Why? Bryant highschool is literally up the block
If you are not doing well academically and can’t get into a better school, yeah great. Go to Bryant. Otherwise, why would anyone choose Bryant?
there is enough high schools to accommodate the astoria population. the annoying high schoolers will ust trash the dollar tree next door.
Oh great a school on Northern Boulevard – a busy avenue with lots of businesses. I can see the madness around the block when its time to pick up kids and other careless kids blocking traffic.
This is a high school, parents will not be driving there to pick up their children. I’m sure it would be pretty humiliating for the student if they tried.
It’s a good plan! Glad to see this space go to good use. Hopefully there will be some changes to Northern Blvd to make a safe crossing too. Maybe even a pedestrian overpass…
Schools are not over crowded in our district. Many students are bused in from other areas. What about affordable housing?
Kathy- We already have affordable housing Astoria Houses, Ravenswood, Woodside Houses, Queensbridge, The old Mets now the Cosmopolitans in Woodside and numerous welfare hotels. Do we really need more of these violent drug and crime riddled developments? Be careful, you may get what you wish for.
I dont know if you live around the “affordable housing” but cramming so many bodies is asking for violence. Living on the strip of 21 Street I am really so fed up with all the affordable housing that’s popping up, not to mention the new income based housing that’s coming up on 14 Street. We def don’t need anymore unless our own rent is going to be affordable.
Good Idea