Staten Island residents push back on plan for up to 2,500 apartments at Empire Outlets and the old Wheel site

Hundreds of Staten Island residents packed a town hall at Curtis High School in St. George on Saturday to push back on the city's plan to replace much of Empire Outlets and the never-built New York Wheel site with up to 2,500 apartments, SILive reported. More than 40 people lined up at the microphone during the four-hour meeting, hosted by Assembly Member Charles Fall.

What the city is proposing

• The sites: two city-owned waterfront parcels next to the St. George Ferry Terminal. Empire Outlets opened in 2019 with 100 storefronts, and more than half of them sit empty, according to the Economic Development Corporation. The 8-plus-acre Wheel site was meant for a 630-foot Ferris wheel before that project was canceled.
• The plan: up to 2,500 new homes, expanded public open space, neighborhood stores, and space for arts and community groups, the EDC says. Current zoning allows only outlet-style retail, a hotel, restaurants and the Ferris wheel, so the sites must be rezoned first.
• The buildings: at Saturday's meeting, EDC vice president Judah Asimov presented renderings of seven towers: two 30-story buildings on either side of SIUH Community Park, two 22-story buildings, and buildings of 25, 17 and 13 stories, SILive reported. In June, Asimov told the local community board that the heights are maximums the rezoning would set, and that exact unit counts and heights would be settled later with a developer, SILive reported then.

What residents said

Speakers raised crowded schools, parking, transit and environmental worries, according to SILive. A longtime St. George homeowner said no one at the city's listening sessions had asked for 30-story buildings. Another resident questioned why the city did not simply rezone the site to allow a grocery store, calling the link between a supermarket and the housing plan a "Trojan horse." Officials from the Education Department's District 31, the departments of Environmental Protection, Transportation, City Planning and Parks, and Small Business Services answered questions.

What happens next

• Environmental review: the project is in the city's environmental review (CEQR No. 26DME018R). The EDC held a scoping meeting on Sept. 29 and posts documents on its review page.
• Timeline: the EDC's project page lists ULURP, the city's public land-use review, starting and finishing in 2027, with a developer picked in 2027–2028 and construction starting in 2029–2030. That review includes hearings at Community Board 1, the borough president, the City Planning Commission and the City Council.
• Wider push: in September, Council Speaker Julie Menin and Majority Whip Kamillah Hanks, who represents the North Shore, released a broader "NorthShoreNYC" vision for housing from St. George to Stapleton and announced more than $38 million in local funding, including $10 million for Richmond Terrace street work and a Tompkinsville esplanade, according to the City Council.

Hanks and Borough President Vito Fossella backed the new planning process when the EDC launched it, the agency says.