Vacant JFK Airport hotel has homes for homeless people

A vacant hotel near Kennedy Airport has been transformed into below-market-rate rental apartments, with more than half the units reserved to give homes to homeless people, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office announced Thursday.

Located in South Jamaica, Queens, the vacant JFK Hilton is to reopen as the 318-unit Baisley Pond Park Residences, her office said in a news release. 

Tenants will start moving in early next month, Hochul spokeswoman Kassandra White told Newsday. 

The project cost $167 million.

The apartments are intended to be affordable — with rent regulated and typically below the going market rate — for households that make up to 60% of the area median income, and there are 191 "supportive" apartments for people formerly homeless. On-site social services will be available.

The JFK Hilton was built in 1987 and had 350 rooms but was remodeled to become apartments.

"The development also includes units that are accessible and equipped for people with mobility impairments, as well as hearing and visual impairments," the release said.

According to a developer’s website, the project will have about 1,164 square feet of “community space.”

The development also includes yoga space, a computer room, “gym space, bicycle storage, indoor garden, mailroom and laundry room,” as well as an outdoor “recreation courtyard with seating areas and landscaped green spaces.”

The development is one of several government programs designed to encourage the conversion of buildings to new uses.

“The Baisley Pond project is the latest example of how we’re reimagining what’s possible in New York City by taking an underused, long-vacant airport hotel and turning it into 318 permanent, affordable homes for the Queens community,” Ahmed Tigani, the acting commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development agency, said in the release.

Mayor Eric Adams’ administration is shepherding the conversion of vacant and underused workplaces in Manhattan into apartments, intended to address two crises in the city simultaneously: not enough housing and too much office space.