Don’t Worry — That’s Just 20 Minutes Of War In Iraq

If authorities can first figure out how to kick out a bunch of auto mechanics, Queens’ eminent Iron Triangle will be the domain of a lucky developer who only has to invest more than $3 billion to get the project going:

The envisioned transformation of Willets Point from a scruffy haven for scrap yards and auto shops into a residential, retail and convention megadevelopment will cost “north of $3 billion,” a city official said yesterday.

The estimate was given by Robert Lieber, president of the city’s Economic Development Corp., which is gearing up to submit the Willets Point development plan to the governmental approval procedure known as ULURP — uniform land use review process.

“It will be a lot,” Lieber said when asked about the costs during the City Council’s first public hearing on the mammoth redevelopment plan announced May 1 by Mayor Bloomberg.

That drew laughs from a dozen Council members who participated in the hearing by the Council’s Economic Development and Land Use committees and scores of spectators, most of them representing Willets Point’s landowners, businesses, workers and Queens civic officials, including Borough President Helen Marshall and her predecessor, Claire Shulman.

Lieber added, “This is a big project, you know, you’ve got 60 acres of land to develop, with very large density of what we’re going to do, but you know it’s not unrealistic to think that this would be a project that is north of $3 billion . . . in excess of $3 billion.”

. . .

Lieber said the developer, or team of developers, that will bid to build the Willets Point of the future will “bear the bulk of the costs for this.”

“It’s very early on in the process,” Lieber added. “I don’t think we’ve come up with a specific budget yet or figured out what the costs are — what the city is going to pay.”

He ventured a “guesstimate” the public costs might be in the $100 million-to-$200 million range.

Location Scout: Iron Triangle.