Thousands of new apartments and tens of thousands of jobs could be in New York City’s future after a surprising and seemingly sunny meeting between Mayor Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump may bring a long-stalled housing project back on track. Mamdani said the of his meeting with the pr esident on Thursday was to discuss the decades-old Sunnyside Yards project in Queens. “I proposed working together to build more than 12,000 new homes in our city, which will be the single largest housing development New York City has seen since 1973,” said Mamdani. “The president was interested in the idea, and I look forward to the ensuing conversations about how to build more housing in a city that doesn’t have enough of it.” Trump Administration 11 hours ago Mamdani shares few details on Trump meeting that helped lead to Columbia student's release New York City Feb 26 NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani makes housing pitch to Trump in second White House visit New York City Feb 25 Have a bad landlord? Mamdani wants to hear about it at his ‘rental ripoff' hearings As part of his pitch to the president, Mamdani’s team presented a mock-up of a newspaper headline in the style of a classic New York Daily News front page: “Trump to City: Let’s Build.” Of the 12,000 apartments, half would be made affordable housing. The project — which has been pitched multiple times going back to the 1960s, most recently by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2015 — would rely on $21 billion in federal grants. That’s where Mamdani would need help from Trump’s federal government. “In a city where we know that land is so precious and so finite, here lies an opportunity to create more of it by creating the largest rail deck the world has ever seen. And then on top of that rail deck, more housing than we’ve seen since the construction of co-op houses and Co-op City,” said Mamdani. Queens State Sen. Michael Gianaris says that despite this plan having been theorized for more than 40 years, it’s never come to fruition due to the complexity of the matter. “The reason why it’s always been so difficult is so many players involved. Amtrak is involved. The MTA is involved,” said Gianaris. The railroads declined comment Friday. But labor unions are major supporters of turning these railyards into a major construction project. And some think that might generate the political pressure to finally get it done.  As for a construction timetable, experts told NBC New York that it would begin in four years — and that would be best-case scenario. But even then, the project may not be completed until 2040. ...read more read less