By Stephen Stirling
New York Mets fans fired up grills underneath the Van Wyck Expressway Monday ahead of the team’s debut at Citi Field. Just across the street, Willets Point stirred.
After announcing it had restructured its plan for redeveloping the area the city restarted land acquisition talks with some Willets Point property owners this week, but on Monday elected officials panned what they say is the calculated city harassment of several other businesses.
City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (D−East Elmhurst) and state Sen. Hiram Monserrate’s (D−East Elmhurst) chief−of−staff, Wayne Mahlke, joined workers outside Citi Field Monday to protest what they said was city harassment of local business owners.
The rally came in response to a multi−agency “sweep” of the area during the last several weeks, during which the city has placed vacate orders on three separate properties, effectively closing more than a dozen businesses.
Attendees at the rally, which took place only hours before the Mets home opener, blasted the incursion as a strong−arm negotiating tactic and demanded the city make good on its promise to try and relocate the more than 250 renting businesses in the area.
“If you close these businesses, now you put a different kind of pressure on the land owner because they don’t have that income without any tenants,” Ferreras said. “I do not think it is a coincidence.”
“We believe this is a systematic attack on the part of the city against these businesses,” Mahlke said.
The city Economic Development Corp., which has led the charge to transform Willets Point into a sprawling residential and commercial neighborhood, said in a statement that there was no connection between the city raids and property negotiations.
“In no uncertain terms, NYCEDC has absolutely nothing to do with the enforcement actions in Willets Point,” the statement said.
According to city Department of Buildings records, officials from the NYPD, FDNY, city Department of Environmental Protection and DOB raided Willets Point and issued vacate orders that closed 11 businesses operating out of 126−58 and 126−75 Willets Point Blvd on April 2.
Just a few weeks earlier, on March 22, four businesses were closed when the city issued a similar order to 37−03 126th St.
Meanwhile, several property owners told TimesLedger Newspapers this week that the city has been contacting them to gauge interest in selling their land — the first such contact since the Council approved a massive redevelopment of the area in November.
“They are putting out feelers to see what people are thinking,” said Jerry Antonacci, co−owner of Crown Container Co. and president of Willets Point United Against Eminent Domain Abuse. “They called some guys over by Citi Field and asked them what they thought about the deals they got offered last year. They called me and told me I didn’t really need to worry about it because I wasn’t in the first phase of the project.”
The city said last week that it plans on focusing on the southwestern portion of the site, and sources told TimesLedger that property owners outside of this area have been told the city will not approach them regarding the sale of their land until at least spring of 2010.
