By Stephen Stirling
A deepening rift has emerged between tenant businesses at Willets Point as they struggle to negotiate with the city for more funding for relocation expenses.
The Willets Point Defense Committee, which represents about 200 tenant businesses in the Iron Triangle, met last Thursday with Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber, Borough President Helen Marshall, City Councilman Hiram Monserrate (D−East Elmhurst) and members of the city Economic Development Corp. to discuss relocation assistance for the group.
But they are not all standing together.
Willets Point Defense Committee President Arturo Olaya said a faction of his group is hoping to get the $3 million fund, which was set up to help the more than 200 tenant businesses currently at Willets Point, divvied up among about only 60 of the businesses.
Splitting the relocation fund among 60 of the businesses rather than 200 could give each of the businesses between $36,000 and $60,000 to attempt to relocate their businesses elsewhere in the city.
Olaya has contended that $3 million is not enough to spread across all of the businesses at Willets Point, but said leaving more than 70 percent of the group out of negotiations is not an option.
The defecting group, which also claims to be the Willets Point Defense Committee, said Olaya was deposed as leader of the business collective after his relationship with Monserrate soured in the wake of the Council vote.
Olaya said he has legal documentation proving he is the leader of the committee and is considering legal action to force the defecting group’s leaders, Sergio Aguirre and Marcos Nadia, to stop using the name.
“We legally represent this committee and the city knows that. Sergio doesn’t even have a business here. He is here putting different ideas into the mind of the people here. He’s a real poisonous man,” Olaya said.
Calls to Aguirre and Nadia were not returned for comment.
Monserrate appears to be one of the key points of contention between the feuding groups. Olaya said he wants Monserrate to have no part of negotiations with the city, while Aguirre and Nadia believe his support remains crucial.
Olaya said he believes Monserrate “sold out” the tenant businesses at Willets Point by agreeing to support the city’s plan to redevelop the area, and the two had harsh words the morning of the Nov. 14 Council vote. Communications were further strained when Monserrate began meeting with Aguirre and Nadia’s group on the morning of the vote without Olaya.
During one of Monserrate’s meetings, Olaya was briefly held by police from the 110th Precinct after NY1 broadcast a video showing Olaya using red paint to cover Monserrate’s name on a flatbed truck often used by his campaign.
Olaya blamed Monserrate for his detention, but the councilman−turned−state senator denies he had any involvement.
Olaya also said he vehemently disagrees with Aguirre’s and Nadia’s hope to split $3 million in funds set aside for relocation assistance of the tenant businesses.
“They want the money for just 60 businesses. My posters say, ‘Justice for Willets Point,’ not justice for a small group,” Olaya said. “We represent everyone here.”
Reach reporter Stephen Stirling by e−mail at sstirling@timesledger.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 138.
