Food court to replace Willets Point businesses

From the Daily News:

Fledgling businesses will be able to avail themselves of some incubator space at the massive Willets Point development, officials said Tuesday.

The 18,000-square-foot space — to be split between two different sections of the development — will be operated by the Queens Chamber of Commerce.

“You’re giving businesses a chance to learn the ropes while they’re actually conducting business,” said Jack Friedman, the Chamber’s executive director.

The companies will receive a 30% to 40% discount on rent at the space and receive free trainings and other services, he said.

The plan for the incubator was a little-known detail buried in the list of concessions agreed upon by the developers, the Related Co. and Sterling Equities.

The duo will give the Queens Chamber $165,000 to help fund the start-up costs for the entrepreneurial space.

One possibility, he said, would be to utilize the space as a local food court, which would enable area eateries to share one industrial-sized kitchen and save on costs.

The Queens Economic Development Corp. operates a similar food incubator in Long Island City.

If space permits, the incubator could also house smaller storefronts, which would be occupied by merchants who hope to appeal to the area’s ethnic enclaves. For example, an Indian Sari shop from Jackson Heights.

This makes a whole lot of sense, doesn't it? Evict currently operating businesses that provide something useful in order to open a fast food court and recreate 82nd Street. What would we do without innovative ideas like this?

Do we really need more transient housing?

From the Queens Chronicle:

Advocates are pushing for the passage of legislation in the City Council that would permit the licensing of residential hostels in the city.

The bill, which is sitting in the Committee on Housing and Buildings, would authorize the construction and regulation of hostels. Jack Friedman, executive director of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, said he predicts that the flourishing of hostels in Queens could bring in more revenue for the borough.

“Countless tourists, who can’t afford luxury hotels in Manhattan, are drawn to Queens when they visit our city and inevitably spend tourism dollars on restaurants and other amenities in our borough,” Friedman said.

Hostels are dwelling units where guests can rent a bed and share the bathroom, kitchen or lounge with other guests. It’s an alternative to hotels and usually cheaper.

The legislation is an effort to correct the damage wrought by the 2010 illegal hotel bill that forced hostels in the five boroughs to close. Friedman said the closings were an unintended consequence of the bill, which was implemented to clamp down on illegal hotels, apartments designated as permanent residences that were improperly rented out on a nightly basis.

Friedman said hostels would contribute to Queens local economy by attracting tourists to the borough and creating jobs. He noted that studies have shown that New York City is losing $150 million annually since hostels were forced to close.

“Millions of dollars, taxable revenue, can be generated in the Queens economy,” he said. “When we welcome [tourists and travelers] to someone’s home they’re going to spend money at local restaurants and retail stores.”

The bill defines a licensed hostel as a “multiple dwelling providing lodging, food and other services to tourists, travelers and others requiring temporary accommodation.” The bill also states hostels may contain private rooms, but not apartments, and should not be occupied by the same individual for more than 29 days in a 12-month period.

“[Hostels ] would mean more to us than any other borough because we have two airports. We can attract more travelers,” Friedman said.
Despite the money hostels are projected to bring to the borough if the bill is passed, some Queens residents are worried that these facilities will attract the wrong people.

“We have enough cheap hotels already,” Ram Garib of the Queens Village Civic Association said. “If you attract the wrong people, you will attract the wrong problems in the area.”
Cynthia Curry of the Wayanda Civic Association in Jamaica said she doesn’t think the additional revenue hostels would bring in is worth risking the safety of Queens residents.

An air accident waiting to happen?

From the Queens Courier:

A panel of aviation experts trashed the city at a recent town hall meeting for not dumping a nearly completed waste transfer station project they say would be detrimental to the safety of fliers and quality of life for Queens residents.

“It’s just an accident waiting to happen,” said Jack Friedman, executive director of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, at the September 20 meeting held at the Flushing Library. “It would be a tremendous, tremendous mistake to keep on going. Just because we started doesn’t mean we can’t stop it.”


The North Shore Marine Transfer station, currently under construction in College Point, is close to three-quarters done, with expected completion in 2013, officials said. But nearing the eleventh hour, critics say the project — located approximately 2,206 feet away from one of two major runways at LaGuardia Airport — still should never have been approved.


“The North Shore Marine Transfer Station will endanger all who fly here and all who live here,” said James Hall, a former head of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). “Why has the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) allowed this to happen? We don’t know and they won’t say.”


Hall joined a nine-member panel of experts who called for Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to pull the plug on the project.

Even allies think the EDC is full of crap

From the Queens Chronicle:

Although plans for Willets Point, also known as the Iron Triangle, were leaked last month, Bloomberg outlined a timeline at the Laguardia Marriott Hotel in East Elmhurst for development initially along 126th Street and eventually in the Citi Field parking lot. The first phase of the Willets Point development is expected to take up to 15 years.

Following completion, the developers will erect “Willets West” on the existing Citi Field parking lot and turn it into a million- square-foot retail and entertainment center with more than 200 stores, movie theaters, restaurants, a parking structure and surface spaces for 2,500 cars.

This is the part of the project that has some in the community scratching their heads. Gene Kelty, chairman of Community Board 7, who attended the breakfast, said he isn’t sure of the plan’s legality. Citi Field and its parking lot sit on public parkland, and Kelty doesn’t think putting up a commercial shopping center is the proper usage.

Jack Friedman, executive director of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, who organized the breakfast at the mayor’s urging, thinks such a use of the parking lot could be alienation of parkland.

But Seth Pinsky, president of the city’s Economic Development Corp., said following the mayor’s speech that a 1961 agreement with the Mets allows for development.

Really? Well then why hasn't it already been done? They waited this whole time to build a mall on the parking lot when they got approval for it more than 50 years ago? As usual, what's coming out of city officials' mouths smells like crap.

Islanders to Willets Point: Here we go again

From the Daily News:

Queens leaders are renewing a push to score the New York Islanders after Nassau County voters downed a $400 million bond referendum on Monday for a new hockey arena and minor league ballpark.

A day after the measure for a new Nassau Coliseum failed by a 57% to 43% vote, efforts to lure the Islanders to Willets Point - creating a sports complex with the Mets and U.S. Open - gained momentum.

"I really believe this is the time for Queens County to open up their arms," said Jack Friedman, executive director of the Queens Chamber of Commerce.

Friedman has pushed since 2009 for the city to include an Islanders arena in its vision to redevelop Willets Point, a maze of auto body shops near Citi Field.

A spokesman for City Controller John Liu said the NHL club would fit well in Queens because it has "a strong fan base here."

Friedman suggested the Islanders arena could also be built next to the planned Aqueduct racino in southeast Queens.

This might happen sometime in the year 2075.

This is one of Queens' "business experts"...

Jack Friedman, executive VP of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, tells GlobeSt.com that the [living wage] measure would all but kill development, which has already been hit hard in the region. “I can’t imagine Willets Point going forward if the living wage mandate goes forward,” Friedman says. “Because what retailer in their right mind is going to agree to sign leases in a place where they’re going to have to pay their employees 50% more than the people down the block?”

This business genius apparently has forgotten that "living wages" were mandated for the Willets Point project, which he relentlessly cheered for. So with this incredible statement, he's basically admitting that "NYC's next great neighborhood" will never happen.

Photo from the Daily News