For years, a standard complaint in Jackson Heights went roughly like this: it is one of the most crowded neighborhoods in the city, its children speak dozens of languages, and they have nowhere to swim. On Oct. 14, Gov. Kathy Hochul came to P.S. 398Q on 34th Avenue to announce that this is going to change, eventually.
The governor announced a $10 million state grant for the neighborhood’s first community center, to be built and run by the Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens. With other public and private commitments, the project now has $33.8 million, according to the governor’s office. The grant will be administered by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York.
Who is paying
The list of contributors reads like a roll call of every elected official with a stake in western Queens. Council Member Shekar Krishnan and the City Council secured $9.3 million. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand brought $2 million in federal money, and Representative Grace Meng $1 million. Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas secured $1 million in state funds. Assembly Members Steven Raga and Catalina Cruz each added $250,000.
The single largest private check came from Metropolitan Park, the casino project next to Citi Field. It gave the club $10 million to acquire the site, at 70-02 34th Avenue. Michael Sullivan, a Metropolitan Park representative, told QNS that the money is part of the $1 billion in community investments that helped the project win a downstate gaming license last year. Sean Caffery, chief of staff of Hard Rock International, the casino’s partner, called it “the kind of investment that can make a difference for generations to come.”
There is a certain Queens poetry in the location. The building at 70-02 34th Avenue, QNS reported, housed BQE Billiards, a recently closed pool hall across from P.S. 398Q. One kind of pool is leaving the block. Another is coming.
What is planned
According to the governor’s office and QNS, the center will cover about 30,000 square feet and include the neighborhood’s first community swimming pool, an indoor gym with basketball courts and an auditorium-style theater. Programming is to include after-school and summer programs, early childhood education, senior services and workforce development. The governor’s office says residents will be invited to help shape possible additional uses, among them affordable housing, child care, outdoor recreation and a rooftop farm. Concept images by SHoP Architects were shown at the announcement.
Costa Constantinides, the club’s chief executive, said it could serve “probably 5,000-10,000 kids per year.” He called the center the “holy grail” of the local community and said the idea began about five years ago, when former Council Member Danny Dromm asked whether the club would open a location in the neighborhood. Mr. Krishnan, Mr. Dromm’s successor, took it up.
“We have the least amount of green space and open space in all of New York City,” Mr. Krishnan said at the event, according to QNS. “We don’t have a single community pool.”
The site sits on the 34th Avenue Open Street, which Jackson Heights has turned into a car-free promenade known as Paseo Park. “I couldn’t think of a better place to have this than on Paseo Park,” Mr. Krishnan said.
The rest of the money
There is a gap between an announcement and a building, and here it is about $26 million wide. Mr. Krishnan told QNS the project needs roughly $60 million in total. The $33.8 million covers acquiring the site and the next phase of planning, design and community engagement. The club plans a capital campaign to raise the rest. Mr. Krishnan said he wants work to start “as soon as possible,” and the club hopes to finish “toward the end of the decade,” QNS reported.
“Building a world-class community center will require the support of additional public, private, corporate, and philanthropic partners,” Mr. Constantinides said in the governor’s release, which is a polite way of saying the hat is still being passed.
The calendar
The governor was asked whether the timing had anything to do with the calendar. She faces Republican Bruce Blakeman in next month’s election, and reporters wanted to know whether the announcement was part of a “Rose Garden strategy” of using the power of office to win votes. She denied it, according to QNS. She pointed to the $8 million the state gave last year for the club’s expansion in Astoria, and said her administration had been “supportive, in a way that no governor has been before, of real neighborhood projects.”
The Astoria project, which the governor’s office describes as part of a broader $300 million redevelopment with more than 200 affordable apartments, is under way. The Jackson Heights center is part of the governor’s “Unplug and Play” initiative, which includes the NY SWIMS pool-building program and the NY BRICKS community center grants.
Council Speaker Julie Menin, who attended, made the case for the pool in public-health terms. “We know that in so many Black and Brown communities, our young kids do not know how to swim,” she said, according to QNS. “Swimming is something that literally changes the course of their lives.”
Jackson Heights has heard promises before. This time it has a deed, a design firm and a little more than half the money. That is further than the neighborhood has ever gotten.
Featured image: 34th Avenue Open Streets in Jackson Heights, Queens, June 2026. Photo by CastIronSeasoner via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
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