After decades marked by blight and lackluster economic growth, Jamaica, the large, south-central Queens neighborhood, was poised to benefit from new zoning rules in 2007, but then the bottom fell out of the real-estate market.

Community leaders say development is only now beginning to move forward with new construction. Examples of new work set to begin include an apartment building with 500 units as well as retail space, and a hotel with more than 200 rooms.

The neighborhood has long benefited from several economic tentpoles, such as courthouses, a college campus and more than a dozen landmark buildings, though they haven't added up to a cohesive whole.

It also benefits from Jamaica Station, a regional transportation hub that serves most Long Island Rail Road lines and has an AirTrain station to John F. Kennedy International Airport, which is just south of the neighborhood.

Jamaica's boundaries aren't universally agreed upon, but under commonly used borders, it stretches roughly from Hillside Avenue to the north, Linden Boulevard to the south, the Van Wyck Expressway to the west and 191st Street to the east.