ASTORIA — The massive Hallets Point development will break ground this week on the Astoria waterfront after years of planning, according to the developer behind the project.
The Durst Organization will hold a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday for the $1 billion project that will be built over the next seven years on a 7-acre parcel of land along the East River near 26th Avenue, First and Second streets.
It will have seven buildings containing more than 2,000 apartments, 20 percent of them affordable, as well as 68,000-square-feet of retail space with a supermarket, a waterfront esplanade and space for a school, according to the plans.
Plans for Hallets Point have been in the works since at least 2012, and the City Council approved zoning changes for the project in fall of 2013.
The Durst Organization — which bought a large stake in the project last year from the original developers, Lincoln Equities — said work will start first on a building on First Street and 26th Avenue.
The development is the second planned for the Hallets peninsula in the coming years. Another project, called Astoria Cove, is expected to bring five buildings with more than 1,700 apartments to the waterfront, 27 percent of which will be affordable.
