Dive Brief:

• Construction crews are scheduled to begin work today on a $407 million Queens, NY, mixed-use development that has been 10 years in the making, according to The Wall Street Journal.
• The Crossing at Jamaica Station will aim for LEED Silver certification and will include nearly 700 residential units, plus 35,000 square feet of retail next to the Long Island Railroad's Jamaica Station.
• The project was part of a 2007 rezoning, but the Great Recession kept it from getting off the ground. The Crossing is part of a $1 billion public and private investment initiative, which could ultimately result in more than 3,000 mixed-income and market-rate apartments, 2,200 hotel rooms and a 150,000-square-foot retail center.

Dive Insight:

While The Crossing project doesn't bill itself as a transit-oriented development, or TOD, it could be described as one because it is next to the high-traffic Jamaica Station, which sees approximately 250,000 commuters each day.

TODs are built around mass transit hubs, and developers all over the country are using these projects to deliver live, work and play neighborhoods to major metros. Of course, they're nothing new, architect Terry Willis told Construction Dive earlier this year, particularly in New York City where some residents never need to travel beyond the borders of their communities.

Each TOD project has a different focus. Some are anchored by residential developments, like The Crossing, and some are built around a professional sports stadium or offices, but all of them deliver a variety of services.

In addition, these developments encourage a high-density approach, which some residents in cities like Miami and Los Angeles have protested. However, the more people, the more built-in customers the TOD's transit component will have, which ultimately contributes to the success of the development.