Willets Point Land Owners Rally Against Eminent Domain

By Conor Greene

With the city ready to begin the process of using eminent domain to seize private property at Willets Point, land owners are vowing to “fight to the bitter end” to retain ownership of their land.

Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside) and a group of Willets Point property owners gathered in front of Shea Gas Station on 127th Place on Monday to call attention to what they say is hypocrisy on the part of the city. Property owners claim the city told them that negotiations for properties in the project’s second and third phases are on hold, but has since signaled that it is moving forward with eminent domain.

The city plans to acquire the land at the 62-acre site adjacent to CitiField to pave the way for a glitzy redevelopment featuring housing, restaurants, retail, a hotel, convention center and other amenities. In November, City Council voted to approve the project, which just two members – Avella and Charles Barron – voting against it. Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village), who was not in office at the time of the vote, refused to discuss her feelings about the project or her opinion on the potential use of eminent domain.

While property owners have yet to receive a formal letter informing them that the city intends to seize the property, several say their employees were approached by representatives of Cornerstone Realty Group, which is assisting the city in its efforts to relocate the businesses. In addition, the city has scheduled a public hearing on June 22 in Flushing Town Hall, which is the first step in the eminent domain process.

“Here we go again to show the hypocrisy of Michael Bloomberg and the Economic Development Corporation (EDC),” said Avella. “While they keep saying they’re going to negotiate fairly… all of a sudden they have an outside consultant going door to door.”

He said that the EDC was on the phone with his office within 15 minutes after he announced the press conference last Friday. They wanted to assure him that the city is not yet proceeding with eminent domain, which led him to wonder who it is that is contacting the business owners. “It’s amazing the hypocrisy and how they talk out of both sides of their mouths… Michael Bloomberg is a traitor to the American dream and to democracy in this city.”

According to a May 26 press release, the EDC has reached deals for about 40 acres of the 62-acre site after striking agreements with two more property owners. The city “will continue to reach out to business and property owners in Willets Point to negotiate fair acquisition agreements,” the EDC said in the statement.

However, in many of those property owners’ minds, the city is not negotiating in good faith since it is holding the threat of eminent domain over their heads. “The only reason anyone has sold them property here is because of the threat of eminent domain,” said Jake Bono, who accused the city of threatening, “If you don’t sell your property, we’re going to take it.”

Avella agreed that the city is using the threat of eminent domain to force property owners’ into reaching a deal. “Holding over their heads the threat of eminent domain is not fair negotiating… This whole thing has been a joke and a disaster from the beginning.”

Property owner Irene Presti Giacomo said that the property is the sole source of income for her and her daughters since her husband passed away. She pointed out that Bloomberg has made helping women business owners a part of his campaign, and wonders why that doesn’t apply to her. “I’ve been paying taxes here for years for services not delivered,” she said. “My property is not for sale. If they take my property, what happens to me?”

Jerry Antonacci of Crown Containers took exception with Bloomberg campaign literature touting his programs to help small businesses, which the mayor claims is the “bread and butter” of the city’s economy. The “reality,” said Antonacci, is that the administration is steamrolling 250 small businesses, eliminating 1,500 jobs, condemning 59 properties in an effort to cater to politically-connected developers. “We’re the only one fighting. He isn’t fighting for us,” said Antonacci.

The property owners have filed a lawsuit in hopes of forcing the city to stop moving forward with eminent domain. “This is a land grab to give to the development community, and they’re going to make a huge amount of money off the blood, sweat and tears of the property owners, and that’s un-American,” said Avella. “This is going to be a fight to the bitter end.”

Trying Just Isn't Enought

By Steve Tiszenkel

Here's a fun experiment you can try at home: Start a blog dedicated to following and commenting on events in your neighborhood and see how long it takes for you to start getting endless press releases from organizations that have only the most tenuous connection — or none at all — to the neighborhood in question.

I'm guessing it won't be long before your inbox looks a little like mine. One day it's mayoral candidate Bill Thompson sending yet another harsh criticism of the Bloomberg administration; the next it's the Queens Public Library announcing that members of the Tuskegee Airmen will be giving a talk in Jamaica; the day after that it's the Willets Point chop shops writing to let me know they won't stand for their land being confiscated to build bars for rich people adjacent to Citi Field. None of it has anything to do with my stated coverage area of Rego Park, Forest Hills, Kew Gardens and Briarwood. When Anthony Weiner starts sending me harsh criticisms of the Bloomberg administration, then we can talk.

I remember exactly when all this started. It was back when About.com Queens guru John Roleke encouraged me, at the time a novice neighborhood blogger, to get a free lunch by e-mailing the Forest Hills Community House and getting press credentials for its excellent annual Taste of Forest Hills event. I was skeptical that this would work, but lo and behold, the Taste was thrilled to have me. And apparently also thrilled to have me was The Shops at Atlas Park, the Glendale open-air mall and Taste sponsor, which proceeded to assume I was interested in everything going on at a shopping center not exactly in my coverage area, not just a Forest Hills food festival it was somehow involved in.

The Shops at Atlas Park wrote to let me know about gala store openings. It wrote to tell me about giant bears it hauled out on its central green to lure kids in for Christmas, and about musical performances by bands briefly popular 10 years ago. Every few days, like clockwork, there was The Shops at Atlas Park — or more specifically, its expensive Manhattan public relations firm that also lists the Yankees and the Guggenheim, among many others, as clients — informing me of some exciting new development at Queens' most innovative retail destination.

Yes, no doubt Atlas Park wanted me to publicize each of the events it had organized to bring in elusive new customers. But there was also an underlying theme to all its missives: We Are a Very Professional Operation. And it was more than just the by-the-book press releases that gave that impression — a simple visit to the place, with its animated fountain, immaculate buildings and high-end shops not found elsewhere in the borough, confirms it.

Or maybe I should say confirmed it. The future of Atlas Park is now very much in doubt. Last week two banks foreclosed on Atlas Park, and Atco Properties and Management, which developed the “lifestyle center,” is no longer in charge. According to The New York Times, the mall's stores recently got a letter stating that the banks would choose a new management company. But who that management company will be and what it will choose to do with the property is still a mystery. Will we still see the dedication Atco had to bringing a touch of class to a section of Queens just blocks from Archie Bunker's house? Will the quality of the retail drop significantly? Will it even continue as a mall? The possibilities are many, but improvement doesn't seem like one of them.

I've often suggested, in this space and elsewhere, that the only reason our area doesn't sport more consistently excellent retail, attractions and culture is simply a reluctance for forward-thinking people to try. But now the national economic crisis seems to have thrown the first major wrench into that theory.

True, Atlas Park had some obstacles to overcome. It was ill-accessible from public transportation, so much so that it was the subject of a controversy when the MTA—run by Atco chief and the father of Atlas Park mastermind Damon Hemmerdinger—rerouted a bus to serve the area. Maybe its traditionally blue-collar environs weren't ready for a shopping experience that looked like it dropped in from an upscale San Fernando Valley suburb. But you could never fault the place for trying.

So I suppose it's official: Trying just isn't enough anymore.

The writer, Steve Tiszenkel is the host of the Website, Queens Central. Log on to www.queenscentral.com to read more about Forest Hills and surrounding neighborhoods.

Willets Point Group: Use City Money Elsewhere

A group of Willets Point business and land owners is arguing that $400 million the city has set aside to redevelop the gritty industrial area near Shea Stadium could be put towards better use, given the current economic crisis.

During his most recent budget announcement, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the city must take severe measures, including drastically cutting vital services, in order to balance the city’s finances. According to the group Willets Point United Against Eminent Domain Abuse, the $400 million set
aside by the city to acquire private property should be put towards better use to soften the blow of impending budget cuts.

A partial list of proposed cuts includes $48.9 million from police, $20.1 million from libraries, $17 million from the fire department, $5.3 million from senior centers, $91.2 million from education, $3.3 million from ambulance services, $5.6 million from parks and $3.4 million from jails, according to the group’s first press release, issued last Thursday.

“The taxpayer money set aside for property acquisition at Willets Point could easily be redirected towards these agencies to prevent these cuts,” said Jerry Antonacci, president of the coalition of business and land owners. “There would also be enough left over to install a sanitary sewer system to fix the roads at the Iron Triangle and allow the property owners to stay, expand their businesses and let the area redevelop naturally.”

Last November, the City Council approved a plan that would remove existing businesses from Willets Point and allow a private developer to build a convention center, hotels, retail and housing on the 64-acre site near the new stadium being built for the Mets. The city has said that, if necessary, it will use eminent domain to take possession of the private properties and then turn the land over to a yet-to-be-chosen developer.

Willets Point United Against Eminent Domain Abuse represents more than two dozen property owners who are fighting the city’s plan to acquire their property. Antonacci, owner of Crown Container, had reportedly struck a deal last year to sell his 23,000-square-foot property to the city. Under the agreement, the waste transfer company started by his father in 1959 would have moved from 34th Avenue in Willets point to a property in Maspeth. However, the deal was never formerly announced by the city and eventually fell apart last September.

“Why is there $400 million set aside to force business and property owners off their land while jobs for police, fire and teachers are being eliminated?” asked Jake Bono, owner of Bono Sawdust Supply Co. and a group spokesman. “Why in an economic downturn is the city spending money not only to destroy businesses and jobs, but to destroy the American dream of owning property? Government-abetted private land grabs were not what our founding fathers envisioned when they wrote the Constitution.”

Marshall Focuses on Economy and Redevelopment During Annual Address

Seniors, Transit, Public Safety and Culture also Discussed

By Conor Greene

Borough President Helen Marshall covered a wide range of issues in her annual State of the Borough address on Tuesday, but not surprisingly given the current economic crisis, much of her focus was on several redevelopment projects underway across Queens.

Before a crowd of nearly 1,000 in Queens College’s Colden Center, Marshall touted projects she has funded at local libraries, parks and cultural centers, while asking residents to elect her to a third term in office.

“With your help we will build on the foundations that I have created during my tenure,” she said. “To continue the work, I will ask the good people of Queens to allow me four more years to get the job done.”

Residents Honored

While the borough’s economic woes surfaced throughout the speech, Marshall began on a positive note by honoring some of the Queens residents who made news this year for the right reasons.

Marshall congratulated Digna and Victor Carpio – a city Housing Authority employee – on the recent birth of sextuplets. She also thanked NYPD Officer Patrick Plunkett, who apprehended a bank robber in Maspeth in October while off duty.

“And talk about bravery, I think all of us have admiration for a Queens resident who represents courage and resiliency in the face of danger,” said Marshall. “Eighty-six-year-old Vivian Squires, despite having been stabbed by an intruder in her home just nine days ago, fought back, had surgery and was just released from the hospital… And, can you imagine – is here today.”

Marshall also thanked three FDNY fire marshals who arrested the man suspected of setting a Whitestone shopping center on fire several months ago. Also honored was the Francis Lewis High School girl’s volleyball team, which just won its second citywide championship. Marshall noted that Francis Lewis “is the city’s most sought-after school.”

Redevelopment Projects

With the city’s capital budget “battered and stretched by credit crunches and the losses by many of our financial institutions,” Marshall spent much of the 90-minute speech on several major redevelopment projects planned across Queens, including at Willets Point near Flushing and Hunters Point South on the East River in Long Island City.

Combined, those two projects are expected to create more than 10,000 housing units, a convention center, retail space, community facilities and two schools, according to Marshall. “It has been said that construction is the engine that drives the economy,” she said. “In this ailing economy, we can create jobs, we can build housing and we can boost businesses. Naysayers beware, we will move forward.”

New Schools and a Hometown Favorite

Marshall boasted that six new schools opened this past September, including PS 305 in Ridgewood, PS 307 in Corona, PS 244 in Flushing, PS 306 in Woodhaven, PS 303 in Forest Hills and the Elmhurst Educational Campus.

During her tenure in office, Marshall said she has “worked to create more than 27,000new seats in 48 new schools or additions.” Seven more schools with more than 2,700seats are expected to open in September, followed by the new Metropolitan Avenue campus in Forest Hills and the Gateway High School for Health Care Professionals.

In addition, Marshall said that it has “been a pleasure and thrill to work with legendary hometown hero Tony Bennett to open the new Frank Sinatra High School in Astoria, just blocks from where he grew up.” The school originally opened in 2001 and is moving into a new building this year.

With that, Marshall welcomed Bennett to the stage to introduce the Frank Sinatra High School Concert Chorus, which performed two songs for the audience. “Mr. Bennett may have left his heart in San Francisco, but I can tell you his soul is still right here in Astoria,” said Marshall.

After traveling around the world, “I still come back to Astoria and like it more than any other place in the world,” said Bennett. “It is the most exciting place to explain the greatness of the United States of America.”

Health Care and Seniors

While recognizing that “challenge and hope is felt no more acutely than in our health care delivery system,” Marshall delivered the bad news that one Queens health facility – Parkway Hospital in Forest Hills has been forced to shut its doors, while two others, St. John’s in Elmhurst and Mary Immaculate in Jamaica are currently threatened by bankruptcy.

However, there was some good news regarding local hospitals, as Elmhurst Hospital Center opened its new Hope Pavilion, a comprehensive cancer care treatment facility in July and the borough’s largest hospital, LIJ Medical Center, broke ground on a $300 million project that will feature a women’s hospital housed in a 10-story pavilion. In addition, New York Hospital Queens is planning to build a new seven-story wing that will add 80-acute care beds when completed next year.

Marshall also took time to speak against the city’s proposed changes to the Meals on Wheels program, slated to take effect in February. Under the new plan, frozen meals would be delivered to seniors instead of a fresh, hot meal. “It is obvious to me that the new system is designed to allow a caterer to deliver frozen – not hot – meals once or twice a week,” said Marshall. “And there is no menu of options for seniors in this, America’s most diverse county. Everyone gets the same meal.”

Public Safety and Fire Response

"Our city could not sleep restfully or get up every morning and function were it not for the commitment and dedication of our uniformed forces,” Marshall said, noting she is “deeply concerned that the average response time to structural fires in Queens is longer than in any other borough.”

She also said she is concerned about the “lack of Fire Department resources in western Queens, where almost 10,000 units of new housing are under construction, recently completed or planned.” As a result, she made reopening of Engine 261 a condition for her support of the Hunters Point South plan.

The borough’s crime rate dropped almost four percent in 2008, but the homicide rate in Queens South jumped a “staggering” sixty-five percent. “Despite reductions in the latest police class and pending budget cuts, we cannot accept the increase in murders from 43 to 71 lost lives,” said Marshall, adding that gunshot victims rose by twenty-six percent compared with 2007.

In addition, despite a more than seven percent increase in subway crime, the NYPD Transit Task Force was dismantled earlier this month, noted Marshall. “Because crime traditionally increases in times of economic pressures, it is clear to me that the police department cannot sustain any additional cuts,” she said.

Libraries and Culture

During her time in office, Marshall has provided more than $81 million in funding for local libraries and has worked on at least 18 library capital projects, but is “not finished yet.”

Recent efforts include an expanded children’s room in Ridgewood, and new branches in Corona, Long Island City and Cambria Heights. Moving forward, expansions are envisioned in Kew Gardens Hills, Elmhurst, East Elmhurst, Glen Oaks, Rego Park, Jackson Heights, Queens West and Far Rockaway. In addition, ground was recently broken for a project Marshall described as one of her favorites – a new children’s discovery center in Jamaica.

Culturally, Marshall bragged that Queens Botanical Garden’s new visitor and administration center was rated high by the U.S Green Building Council for its use of environmentally-friendly materials. She also called her allocation of more than $16 million to the New York Hall of Science for an expansion “a good investment,” especially considering the facility attracted a record half-million visitors last year. In what was one of her “largest capital investments” since taking office, Marshall looks forward to this summer’s groundbreaking for the Queens Museum of Art expansion, which will double its size and add new galleries, classrooms and event space.

Mass Transit

Marshall argued that “on the mass transit front, MTA must do more,” especially in eastern Queens, which needs “new bus routes, increased service and more express bus services.” She also called for the reopening of the Long Island Railroad stations in Queens neighborhoods such as Elmhurst to relieve subway overcrowding, something she has “been asking for since I became borough president.”

She opposes “any plan to toll East River bridges” since “too many of us here in Queens are victims of government’s failure to provide viable mass transit options.” She also called it “simply unfair to raise the fares while reducing services” and said she opposes the MTA’s doomsday budget.

Marshall also mentioned a recent fight to prevent the MTA from eliminating the residential rebate program on the Cross Bay Bridge linking Broad Channel and Rockaway. Pointing out that it is the only intra-borough toll in the city, Marshall noted that “shoppers on Fifth Avenue don’t pay a toll to drive to Madison Avenue.”

There was some good news in the past year on the transit front, as subway cars on the E line dating back to the 1960’s are being replaced with new cars. Working with several other local officials, also Marshall helped push for the installation of an elevator at the Union Turnpike/Kew Gardens station on the E and F lines, making it accessible to all riders.

Looking Ahead

While her speech touched on a wide range of topics, it constantly reverted back to themes of job creation and economic development. She pointed to examples such as Aqueduct racetrack in Ozone Park, where a developer plans construction of a gaming hall featuring 4,500 video lottery terminals, and the construction of a huge shopping center in Rego Park that will include the borough’s first Century 21 department stores.

“Almost everything I spoke about today is related jobs, jobs, jobs,” said Marshall. “I have talked about job loss, job creation, difficult economic times and transforming adversity into opportunity and hope… Though the stock market may resemble a roller coaster ride in an amusement park, and Wall Street has caused tremors on Main Street, every family and every level of government is finding new ways to maximize.”

Marshall ended her speech on a positive note, expressing hope that President Elect Barack Obama, who spent five years in New York and credits a local librarian with helping him to get a job as a community organizer in Chicago, “knows our problems.”

“In one week, we will inaugurate a new president who has also inspired us with amessage of change and a promise that help is on the way with millions of jobs, improved health care and an improved America,” said Marshall. “He has told us that the road ahead may be long and steep;

The Forum Newsgroup/photos by CONOR GREENE

Willets Point Critic Agrees to Maspeth Relocation

Crown Container Inks Deal with City EDC

By Conor Greene

One of the most vocal opponents to the city’s plan to redevelop Willets Point has reportedly agreed to make way for the project and relocate to a Maspeth site.

Jerry Antonacci, owner of Crown Container, has agreed to sell his 23,000-square-foot property to the city, according to several published reports. Under the agreement, the waste transfer company started by his father in 1959 would move from 34th Avenue to a location in Maspeth.

The city’s Economic Development Corp, which is overseeing the city’s ambitious plan to redevelop the industrial area near Shea Stadium into housing, retail and office space, has yet to formally announce the agreement with Crown Container, which was first reported last week.

Antonacci was on vacation this week and unavailable to comment on the reported deal. However, he told Crain’s New York Business, “All I can say is it’s a very good deal… The last couple of weeks we put a lot of time in, and we got it done.”

The deal with Crown Container would mark the fifth agreement the EDC has signed with the approximately 250 businesses based in Willets Point. Many owners have publicly expressed concern that the city will use eminent domain to seize their land if they don’t enter into an agreement.

While the exact location in Maspeth hasn’t been announced, it will likely be in an industrial area near Grand Avenue and 48th Street near the Newtown Creek, currently home to a number of businesses.

Sources are speculating that the city will wait until after Labor Day to announce several deals at once, according to a recent report in Crain’s.

Up to this point, Antonacci had been one of the most outspoken members of the Willets Point Industry and Realty Association, which is a group of landowners opposed to the city’s redevelopment plan. He has withdrawn from that group now that he has reached a deal with the city, but said he is still concerned about the threat of eminent domain.

“I don’t want to see eminent domain used on anybody,” he said. “I hope the city treats everyone else as good as they treated me. If they do, maybe you won’t see so much fight,” he told Crain’s.