Council Member Julie Won joins city officials and private partners for Tuesday’s groundbreaking. Photo: Shane O’Brien
June 17, 2025 By Shane O’Brien
City officials and community leaders gathered Tuesday morning to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Baseline, a long-anticipated public open space located beneath the Queensboro Bridge in Long Island City’s Court Square.
Council Member Julie Won, Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development and Workforce Adolfo Carrión Jr., Queens Borough Commissioner Nicole Garcia, representatives from developer American Lions, and Community Board 2 marked the start of construction on the one-acre park, which aims to transform two underutilized parcels of land into green space and recreational areas for the local community.
Formerly known as LIC Ramps, the Baseline project will address the critical lack of open space in the rapidly growing Court Square neighborhood. The site sits beneath and adjacent to the elevated road ramps leading onto the Queensboro Bridge, which converge above Jackson Avenue.
The new park will convert a 17,000-square-foot lot on Dutch Kills Street—currently used by a DOT contractor for vehicle parking—and an adjacent 33,000-square-foot NYPD School Safety parking lot. While the DOT lot sits entirely beneath the bridge structure, the NYPD lot is mostly uncovered, offering a rare opportunity for sunlight and plantings in an otherwise shaded corridor.
Photo of rendering: Shane O’Brien
Construction on the new open space is scheduled to begin in August, and the park is expected to open in spring 2026.
The Baseline, designed by Studio V and LVF Landscape Architects, includes plantings, seating, a temporary art space, a dog run, a multipurpose play yard for sports, and a new children’s playground featuring a 30-foot-tall dragon as its centerpiece. The dragon will feature climbing areas and a slide, officials said Tuesday.
Renderings for the new one-acre “Baseline” park. Photo: Shane O’Brien
The park is funded by a $5.5 million contribution from American Lions, a joint venture between developers Fetner Properties and Lions Group, and a $2.4 million NYS Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant awarded by Gov. Kathy Hochul, with $1.63 million of the American Lions funding going toward continued maintenance of the site over a 15-year period.
American Lions, which owns the adjacent land at 26-38 Jackson Ave., formed the nonprofit Friends of the Baseline Inc. to build and maintain the open space and raise charitable funds for its continued maintenance.
American Lions will develop the park as part of an agreement related to the adjacent development.
Carrion said Baseline Park is the “best manifestation” of public-private partnership, highlighting the strength of collaboration between city agencies and private corporations.
“We’re going to deliver a magical space for New Yorkers that would otherwise be a drag and a negative space that would be a wasted opportunity,” Carrion said at Tuesday’s groundbreaking.
“The potential here was untapped,” he added, pointing to the development of 500 housing units in the adjacent site.
Photo of rendering: Shane O’Brien
Won, meanwhile, said the park addresses a growing need for open space in an area experiencing rapid population growth.
“With one of the largest populations in Queens, there has been a huge drive for playgrounds, for open space, for green space, for dog parks and so much more. And we are so glad to be standing here,” Won said Tuesday.
CB2 chair Anatole Ashraf said the park has been a “long time coming,” adding that it will become a vital asset for the local community. Ashraf added that the inclusion of the 30-foot dragon in the newly designed playground speaks to the community’s cultural diversity.
The city first committed to the LIC Ramps project in 2018, and Tuesday’s groundbreaking was a “direct result” of years of community advocacy.
Won also said the OneLIC neighborhood plan had played a critical role in Tuesday’s groundbreaking. The Baseline is not part of the neighborhood plan, which is currently making its way through the city’s Universal Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), but Won said the rezoning plan acted as an incentive for developers and the city to deliver on their promises from 2018.
She said the groundbreaking also proves that the city can ensure that the neighborhood plan delivers its promised amenities, such as open space and new schools. Critics of OneLIC have stated that there is no guarantee that public amenities will be delivered, but Won stated that Tuesday’s groundbreaking proves that the city can incentivize public and private agencies to work together and deliver for the community.
The area under the ramps will be transformed into open space. Dutch Kills Street (R) and the adjacent area (L) (File Photo: Michael Dorgan, Queens Post)
Won noted that the OneLIC plan includes converting several other city-owned lots beneath the Queensboro Bridge into open space for the public.
“The groundbreaking of The Baseline shows the power of our collective advocacy to develop open spaces under the Queensboro Bridge through the OneLIC Plan. This is a positive step to ensure that we provide LIC residents with world-class parks and community amenities in their own backyard,” Won said in a statement after Tuesday’s groundbreaking.
“We look forward to continuing our work with our partners at the city and state level to transform more spaces under the Queensboro Bridge and its ramps and meet our goals for OneLIC.”
State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez said she was “so proud” to have voted in favor of funding for the Baseline.
“Our community deserves world-class park space, a children’s playground and an art space,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “I’m happy to see shovels in the ground and am proud to have helped deliver for Long Island City.”
Dan Garodnick, director of the Department of City Planning (DCP), said the agency has consistently heard calls from the public for more open space as part of OneLIC.
“With the development of The Baseline, LIC will gain an engaging, multi-use public space that neighbors can enjoy for years to come,” Garodnick said in a statement. “We’ll keep working to deliver wins like this one for the LIC community as the OneLIC public review process progresses.”
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Won’s aim in colluding with developers to change Long Island City’s light manufacturing designated area, uses the Koch Bridge under belly “Play and Parks” candy—that will be deserted drug and crime-filled in the blink of an eye—candy, to pretend the area is suited to high rises luxury buildings. Which is all Won and the developers/builders want. Cute. Throw thousands of workers, hundreds of businesses to the curb. Somebody, please run against Won!