With nearly half of its waterfront zoned for industrial use – by far the highest proportion among the five boroughs – Staten Island’s North Shore provides many development possibilities. At the decaying Stapleton District, the Department of City Planning and the Economic Development Corporation has a plan to build what they say is a miniature version of Manhattan’s Battery Park City. The plan calls for 350 housing units, retail space, a banquet hall, and a sports complex at a cost of $66 million. In October 2006, the City Council pushed the project through its final regulatory hurdle when it approved the $66 million blueprint for the former Navy base.
The city will use the money and an additional $1.1 million state grant to create streets, utilities, and a mile-long waterfront esplanade while soliciting proposals from private developers to build on six sites – three residential and three commercial – across the 36-acre base. City officials have said infrastructure work could begin in early 2007, and in May 2007, New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corporation became the winning bidder for a parcel of the district, on which a new hospital or the relocated Stapleton Child Health Clinic, will be located.