Zohran Mamdani met with President Trump on February 26 in the Oval Office. The New York mayor discussed the future of Sunnyside Yard, a 180-acre active rail yard in western Queens owned by Amtrak.
The pair also negotiated means for preserving public housing, modernizing regulatory pathways to safely accelerate construction, and releasing five students that have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
After the White House visit, the Mayor’s Office announced plans to build 12,000 housing units at Sunnyside Yard. Of that number, 6,000 units will be new “Mitchell-Lama-style homes,” the Mayor’s Office stated. New parks and healthcare clinics would also be built.
Mayor Mamdani requested $21 billion in federal grants to finance the project. “New York City is facing a generational affordability challenge. Working families are being priced out of the neighborhoods they built,” Mamdani said.
“To meet this moment,” the mayor continued, “we need a true federal partner prepared to invest boldly and act urgently. I appreciated the opportunity to speak directly with President Trump about building more housing in any single project than our city has seen since 1973.”
The funds would help build what the Mayor’s Office has called the “world’s largest deck” over the active rail yard.
At the meeting, Trump was photographed holding two copies of The Daily News—one real, the other fake. The genuine leaflet was the iconic “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD” front page, and the phony was a clever riff on the 1973 headline, “TRUMP TO CITY: LET’S BUILD.”
The mock front page also states “Trump backs new era of housing” and “Trump delivers 12,000+ homes, most since 1973,” when Co-op City in the Bronx was completed by the United Housing Foundation, designed by Herman Jessor.
I had a productive meeting with President Trump this afternoon.
I’m looking forward to building more housing in New York City. pic.twitter.com/XnPbt0KXYU
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) February 26, 2026
The front pages were brought by the Mayor’s Office and gifted to the White House, a tactic which seemed to please Trump’s media-frenzied ego.
The Mayor’s Office later stated President Trump is receptive to deploying federal funds to finance the project. An aid for Mayor Mamdani said this would be the “biggest federal investment in housing” in five decades.
Later, Trump notified Mamdani that Columbia University student Elmina Aghayeva would be released by ICE. Mamdani is still seeking the release of four other students: Mahmoud Khalil, Yunseo Chung, Mohsen Mahdawi, and Leqaa Kordia.
Former New York City mayor Bill DeBlasio shared plans to build approximately 11,250 housing units at Sunnyside Yard in 2015. FXCollaborative completed a feasibility study in 2017 for the “overbuild” project.
In 2018 PAU was tapped by the NYCEDC to lead the Sunnyside Yard Masterplan, which entailed decking over the rail yard to build up to 24,000 units.
In 2020, New York City and Amtrak issued the Sunnyside Yard Masterplan by PAU. Carlo Ratti Associati, HNTB, Langan, Nelson Byrd Woltz, Sam Schwartz Engineering, Thornton Tomasetti were listed as collaborators.
But planning was put on pause during the pandemic.
PAU founder Vishaan Chakrabarti told AN that PAU is not currently active on the Sunnyside Yard plan, but he affirmed he is enthusiastic to see the Mayor’s Office revisit the site.
A design team for the development project has not been named.
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