By Chris Fuchs
A Flushing businessman who introduced the city to his trendy chain of Wok and Roll fast-food restaurants in the mid-1980s said Tuesday he had purchased the shuttered Wendy’s on Main Street earlier this month but had not yet finalized plans for developing the property.
Ben Wong said he had bought the notorious Wendy’s at 40-12 Main St. Feb. 2 from Victor Nevins, a Whitestone Realtor, who had owned the property for nearly 50 years.
But, he said, he was not sure whether he would turn the former Wendy’s, where five workers were killed and two wounded by two gunmen in May, into a Wok and Roll, a chain of 15 Chinese fast-food restaurants throughout the United States.
“I was thinking of something for Americans,” he said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “Flushing is heavily Asian. But I see the people leaving the subway, and they are very underserved. Our company caters to the American people.”
In purchasing the property, Wong considered the notoriety attached to the former Wendy’s. Last May, around closing time, seven workers at the restaurant were marched into the basement, bound and gagged and then shot execution-style during a robbery.
In January, Craig Godineaux pleaded guilty to a 50-count indictment under which he and a second man, John Taylor, were charged in the murders. Taylor, however, pleaded not-guilty and is awaiting trial.
“I think this had happened in a few places in Chinatown in the 1980s,” Wong said. “There were a lot of shootings going on there. Image is a concern, but I think the world has to go forward.”
Neither Wong nor his attorney, Glenn Lau-Kee, would say how much the property was sold for.
“That’s a little personal,” Wong said. “I’m not Donald Trump. Just like I told my nephew recently, ‘I’m selling Coca-Cola and egg rolls.’”
Reach reporter Chris Fuchs by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 156.
