Whatchoo Talkin’ ‘Bout, Willets?

Before the City Council agrees to Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to transform Willets Point by building housing, retail, hotels and a convention center at the site, can someone explain why anyone would want to build housing, retail, hotels and a convention center on an apparently highly polluted site in the flightpath of planes landing at LaGuardia? Because I’m really, really curious about that one:

City hall officials struck an eleventh-hour deal Wednesday to transform gritty Willets Point into what they called the city’s next great neighborhood.

The City Council is expected to ratify the agreement by today’s deadline by granting a host of zoning and other measures required under the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.

The $3 billion redevelopment plan will turn the heavily polluted 62-acre tract near Shea Stadium in Queens into a modern complex of residential, retail, entertainment and commercial uses, including a hotel and the city’s first convention center built outside Manhattan.

Mayor Bloomberg hailed the agreement with Council officials “as one of the big, important wins for New York City’s economy” at a time when it needs it the most.

He said it will create 18,000 construction jobs and 5,000 permanent jobs and will generate $25 billion in economic benefits in the next 30 years, including $1.3 billion in direct tax revenues.

The redevelopment, which will take a decade, is to include 5,500 units of housing, and the new deal calls for boosting the affordable housing component to 1,920 units, or 35% of the total. That’s up from 1,100 units, or 20%, in the original version. Some 800 of the affordable units will be targeted to families earning less than $37,000.

Location Scout: Iron Triangle.