World's below average borough

 Queens Chronicle

The U.S. economy only grew by 2 percent in the third quarter of 2021, the federal Commerce Department reported Oct. 28. The crawl marks the smallest gain in a year, when the country began its slow economic recovery from the pandemic.

Tom Grech of the Queens Chamber of Commerce doesn’t have equivalent numbers for the borough, but if he had to estimate, he’d say Queens’ margin of growth is even smaller than the country’s.

“I would think it’s below the national average,” he told the Chronicle Nov. 4. “It’s more difficult than ever to get things done in New York City and Queens. Everyone’s gone through a hellish 18 to 20 months. It’s a hard environment.”

The QCC president doesn’t expect the city to be back to “normal” until spring 2022. On a scale of one to 10 — 10 being totally recovered — Grech would put Queens at a seven.

“The thing that’s holding our companies back from doing well is the inability to hire people,” Grech continued. “There’s been an inflation in wages. It’s harder than ever for people to go back to work. Small businesses live and die on a small margin.”

He also said strict rules and regulations from even before the pandemic are hindering businesses, such as limitations on overtime. But speaking two days after Election Day, Grech said he’s been greatly encouraged by Eric Adams’ win in the mayoral race and hopes there will be an overhaul in the favor of small business owners.

Despite the slow recovery, Grech did say there has been a great number of new businesses cropping up around the borough and filling the vacancies left behind by those that the pandemic put out of business. Last May, he had estimated that 1,000 of Queens’ 6,000 restaurants had closed for good, but he’s finding that a fair number have been replaced by new ones.

Myrtle Avenue Business Improvement District Executive Director Ted Renz places its vacancy rate at 7 percent, which is the same as it had been pre-pandemic. The Ridgewood strip lost between 25 and 30 businesses during the pandemic, most of them being retail clothing stores, he said, but gained back the same number of new businesses.

Just because the vacancy rate mirrors the BID’s pre-pandemic one does not necessarily mean Myrtle Avenue is back to normal though, Renz asserted.

Contractor defaults on Fresh Pond bridge replacement project

From QNS:

For residents of Ridgewood and Middle Village, the reconstruction of a railroad bridge in a high-traffic area has caused headaches for commuters after repeated delays to the project, and things just got worse.

On Friday, a Department of Transportation spokesperson confirmed to QNS that its contract with Mugrose Construction to rebuild the Metropolitan Avenue and Fresh Pond Road bridge over the Montauk line of the Long Island Rail Road has defaulted. The project that was once projected to have its first phase completed by January 2018 has now been completely stalled.

The DOT cited delays that were beyond its control, and is now working closely with the bonding company to get the project completed as quickly as possible, the spokesperson said.

Construction contracts typically involve a contract surety bond to protect the owner of the property (DOT, in this case) from the risks associated with construction projects. The bonding company assumes that burden, and in the event of a defaulted contract their options are to re-bid the job for completion, bring in a replacement contractor, provide financial or technical assistance to the existing contractor or pay the penal sum of the bond.

Therefore, a defaulted contract doesn’t necessarily mean the contractor has been ousted, but the DOT offered no further details.

City seeks contractors to negotiate homeless hotel rates

From the Daily News:

The city is looking for contractors to rent out the thousands of hotel rooms it uses to house the homeless, in the hopes of cutting down the sky-high cost of the accommodations.

As the Daily News first reported, the city is shelling out $400,000 a night for commercial hotel rooms for the homeless, an audit by City Controller Scott Stringer found — with some rooms in Times Square costing more than $600 a night.

Now, a request for proposals set to be released Thursday seeks nonprofit vendors to enter into contracts with the city and then rent out hotel rooms on the city’s behalf. That would replace the emergency procurement process the Department of Homeless Services has been relying on.

Mayor de Blasio has vowed to stop using hotel rooms altogether, but with the homeless population continuing to surge, officials now admit that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon.

The bid expects contractors to find up to 3,900 hotel rooms, with 2,500 of them used for families with children.

The city believes the move will save money because contractors will be able to negotiate flat monthly rates, avoiding spikes in hotel room rates that happen at peak times. Officials don’t have an estimate of how much will be saved.

Parking on Bell Blvd is just impossible

From the Queens Courier:

Confirming what many Baysiders already believed to be true, a study concluded that Bell Boulevard needs nearly one thousand more parking spaces to meet the needs of shoppers, commuters and residents alike.

The study commissioned by the Bayside Village Business Improvement District (BID) and funded by City Councilman Paul Vallone continues the process of finding a solution to overcrowded parking conditions on the boulevard.

According to the report released this week, approximately 3,400 spaces are needed in total to accommodate all of the parking needs, but only 2,500 of those spots are currently available. Issues of short parking supply on Bell Boulevard arise from the multiple different functions which the strip serves in the community, attracting thousands of people and their vehicles to the area every day.

Of the total 3,400 needed spots, an estimated 1,400 are generated from commercial and office uses on the boulevard. Another 1,033 spots are needed for commuters, with 23 percent of Long Island Rail Road users connecting to the Bayside station by driving themselves alone and parking their cars in the neighborhood.

Update on 149th Street bridge project

I found this info which seems to be stating the open contractor bid will start March 24 and due deadline April 23 but states "deck replacement" only. Sounds a bit funny to me. Does that mean the concrete only or the steel which supports the concrete deck?

If it's the concrete only maybe they are willing to take their chance it may not crack a second time. Also, June 12 2014 queens papers stated an engineer has already begun designing a new bridge for a complete rebuilding.

Pushing Jamaica as a tourist destination

From DNA Info:

Jamaica could be New York's next tourist hotspot — at least that's the dream of the new head of the neighborhood's Business Improvement District.

Rhonda Binda is planning to organize tours around the neighborhood and launch a series of pop-up installations that would highlight local history and cultural achievements.

Binda, 37, a former White House employee who got her law degree at Georgetown University, became the BID's executive director last month.

A Jamaica native who currently lives in the area, she said she is teaming up with the Queens Tourism Council to organize themed tours around the neighborhood for both locals and travelers who have long layovers at JFK.

“We can have people come for a walking tour or a shopping tour,” she said.

During the tours, participants would be able to learn about places important in jazz and hip-hop history, visit old churches or eat at restaurants serving a variety of ethnic cuisines, she said.

Oh brother. Tourists with layovers at JFK? Concentrate on locals. How about starting with cleaning the place up? People used to travel from Brooklyn, Nassau and all over Queens to shop on Jamaica Ave at one time. Now you couldn't pay them to go there.

The NYPD's questionable no-bid contract

From the NY Post:

The NYPD is poised to issue a no-bid contract to a Martha’s Vineyard-based firm who’s boss is a pal of Bill Bratton who worked with the police commissioner when he was a private consultant, records show.

The department plans to sign the deal with Strategic Policy Partnerships to fulfill Bratton and Mayor de Blasio’s mandate to fix community policing in the wake of the Eric Garner case.

The firm would help high-ranking officers mend community relations and enhance cadet training among other tasks, according to a Dec. 19 notice in the City Record, the city’s official publication for procurements.

The consulting firm is run by Bratton friend Robert Wasserman. Bratton — who ran his own law-enforcement consulting firm, the Bratton Group, before taking over the NYPD’s top job last January — raked in more than $53,000 while working with Wasserman on a contract with the Baltimore Police Department in 2013.

Their firms also worked together as law-enforcement consultants in Oakland, Calif., where Bratton earned $125,000.

Last year, Wasserman’s firm had a contract “involving the transition of the Bratton administration in 2014” that was funded through the nonprofit Police Foundation, according to NYPD Deputy
Commissioner Stephen Davis.

But the new contract will be with the NYPD and will be paid for by taxpayers.

The NYPD refused to disclose the amount of the contract, and Police Foundation President Susan Birnbaum did not return calls.

Really tall buildings are the price for saving hospital

From Crains:

The highest-scoring bid for Long Island College Hospital captured the support of surrounding Brooklyn communities and elbowed aside a deep field of competitors by pledging to preserve a full-service hospital at the Cobble Hill site.

But that pledge comes at a cost. The would-be real estate developers of the medical campus are counting on high-rise residential towers of a scale never before seen in an area at the heart of Brownstone Brooklyn in order to make the deal pencil out, according to emails among executives involved in the bid.

Brooklyn Health Partners envisions raising at least two soaring residential buildings of up to 50-stories on the campus of low-rise buildings that comprises LICH. BHP has plans to build a 40- to 50-story condo tower on the site of a large parking garage on the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Hicks Street that is part of the LICH campus, according to emails from a financier involved in the bid and obtained by Crain's.

The building would be 80% market rate and 20% affordable. The financing group, HKS Capital Partners, indicated in the Brooklyn Health Partners proposal that it plans to raise the roughly $600 million that BHP estimates it will need to acquire the hospital, keep it running and refurbish it, as well as to develop up to 2 million square feet of residential space, according to the emails.

The BHP developers envision raising another tower that could be similar in height and size, but would feature rental apartments, 40% of which would be affordable housing.

BHP currently is negotiating with the State University of New York on a contract to buy the LICH campus. The group scored the highest number of points in a bidding process concluded by SUNY earlier this month. A coalition of community groups and unions sued the school system to revamp its bidding process for LICH, opening the door for BHP’s last round winning bid. As a result of a court settlement, the bids were scored to award higher points for proposals that included building a full-service hospital at LICH.

Come hang out under the 7 train!

From the Sunnyside Post:

The areas located under the 40th Street and 46th Street subway stations—once known for pigeons, dirty newspaper stands and food vendors – are in for a makeover.

Sunnyside Shines, through a program with the Department of Transportation, will be converting these areas into plazas — through the NYC Plaza Program.

The program provides the BID with the ability to design a new space under the two stations in consultation with the community.

The designs can incorporate features such as planters, bike racks, benches and moveable tables and chairs. The plazas are also likely to be transformed into public gathering spaces.

Ridgewood-Bushwick charity suddenly okay again

From Capital New York:

After Bill de Blasio's mayoral campaign attacked an opponent for funding a troubled nonprofit connected to a tainted former assemblyman, de Blasio's administration is now giving millions of dollars in city business to that same organization.

Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, which was founded by embattled ex-assemblyman Vito Lopez, received a $3.6 million, three-year contract beginning July 1 for providing an "innovative senior center," according to a notice published last week in the City Record and additional information provided to Capital by a city official.

As public advocate and a contender for mayor last year, de Blasio admonished City Council Speaker Christine Quinn for allowing taxpayer-backed money controlled by the council to fund Ridgewood Bushwick. He lobbed his criticisms in light of ethical charges Lopez was facing for sexually harassing several of his female staffers, as well as previous investigations by law-enforcement agencies for allegations of corruption and fraud at the nonprofit.

"It's ridiculous after all we've learned about Vito Lopez and the way he manipulated the system. I have no doubt in the world that Chris Quinn could have stopped it if she wanted to," de Blasio told the Daily News last year, after it was revealed that Ridgewood Bushwick received $421,964 in so-called member items.

At the time, Quinn, who lost her mayoral bid to de Blasio in September, had said she did not support the allocation but deferred to two local Brooklyn councilmen who requested the funding.

"People should be outraged," de Blasio said last year.

He even said New Yorkers "should demand this money not go to this organization."

Ridgewood Bushwick, a sprawling social-services empire that Lopez started in 1973, responded to a solicitation issued on Oct. 16, 2013, before de Blasio became mayor, to provide expanded services for senior citizens. City Hall sent notification to providers who won the awards on Jan. 14, two weeks after de Blasio took office.

An administration official noted that Ridgewood Bushwick, which won its current contract through a competitive bid, entered into a "corrective action plan" on Jan. 17, 2012 to address "business integrity issues" so it could continue offering services to the city.

Corona merchants wary of BID

From the Daily News:

An ambitious proposal to create one of the city’s largest business improvement districts in mostly immigrant Jackson Heights and Corona would hasten gentrification and spoil the area’s Mom and Pop character, business owners charge.

The 82nd St. Partnership currently encompasses eight blocks and 125 businesses — but the proposed Jackson Heights Corona BID would cover Roosevelt Ave. from 82nd St. to 114th St. and include roughly 1,000 businesses, said Partrship executive director Seth Taylor.

That potential expansion has some immigrant merchants concerned they will be priced out of the neighborhood and the area will lose its trademark character.

“They are going to standardize Roosevelt Ave.,” crowed Freddy Castiblanco, owner of Terraza 7, a bar and jazz club. “They want to clean Roosevelt Ave. of that diversity.”

Castiblanco and other local Hispanic entrepreneurs formed the Roosevelt Avenue Community Alliance to block the BID plan.

The group rallied Sunday against the sweeping overhaul — which would require each shop owner to pay a fee for sanitation, security and other services once provided exclusively by the city with regular tax money.

The BID expansion is a component of Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras’ “New Deal” for Roosevelt Ave., which focused on cleaning up the corridor, which cuts through several Queens neighborhoods. Ferreras cites safety issues, poor lighting and cleanliness as the top complaints among residents.

“The current problems on Roosevelt Ave. hurt everyone,” Ferreras said in a statement. “This is why I believe a business improvement district is a solution to this problem.”

So the short answer is yes, they want to gentrify Corona.

City can't find anyone to build LIC library

From LIC Post:

Construction of the Hunters Point Library is likely to be delayed yet again following the city’s inability to find a developer willing to build it for the $28 million that was budgeted.

Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, speaking at the Hunters Point Civic Association meeting last night, said the city has had to modify the design plans to keep the construction cost below $28 million. He didn’t say what those design changes would be, other than saying they would merely be “cosmetic.”

Well, it does seem that a facelift is exactly what this building needs.

Ratner wins Coliseum bid

From the Queens Courier:

Nassau Events Center, LLC an affiliate of Barclays Center builder Forest City Ratner Companies, announced Thursday that it won the bid to renovate Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Nassau Events was picked over the Madison Square Garden Company, and will oversee a $229 million renovation of the Long Island sports arena.

Terrace on the Park contract up for bid

From the Queens Courier:

Terrace on the Park operators want to upgrade the facility and are looking to get a new lease on the popular and historic Flushing Meadows-Corona Park catering hall to do so.

Their contract with the city’s Parks Department expires next March, officials said.

The department has issued a new Request for Proposals (RFP) for the 52-11 111th Street site.

“While the current concessionaire has invested more than $8 million in capital improvements, exceeding the requirements of their license agreement, it is clear that additional infrastructure investments are needed,” a Parks spokesperson said.

George Makkos, co-owner of Terrace on the Park, said they have invested $12 million so far to better the catering hall.

But the 100,000-square-foot building needs “millions” of dollars more in capital improvements which cannot be done under the looming lease expiration date, Makkos said.

“Given the size and complexity of the building, the money that we will need to spend will never be recovered in the time, in the lease that we have left,” he said.

Makkos said he and co-owner Jimmy Kaloidis want to retain and upgrade the catering hall.

Here's more on the current owner:

http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/pushcart-emperors-live-high-pay-article-1.552540

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/food_filth_fight_goes_round_round_3pdSFZ9AHQUXsdBPwFUO3O

http://www.citylimits.org/news/article_print.cfm?article_id=3019

http://www.ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/press-releases/archived/nov23a_04_attach1.pdf

LPC violators rewarded with a city grant

From the Queens Chronicle:

In a year’s time some of the buildings on 82nd Street between Roosevelt and 37th avenues will be restored to their historical prime, 82nd Street Partnership Executive Director Seth Taylor said this week.

“The block has some best examples of Neo-Tudor style in the city,” Taylor said, referring to the street’s peaked roofs and grided stone, wood and stucco facades.

According to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the tenants and business owners on 82nd Street are one of the least compliant in the city with historical district rules. The block has about 52 outstanding violations, LPC spokeswoman Lisi de Bourbon said.

“Fines of up to $5,000 may be assessed if owners do not address the illegal conditions or ignore the violation,” de Bourbon said. “However, this is not the case in Jackson Heights because we are working in partnership with the BID and the owners to ensure the work is legalized.”

To incentivize those businesses the 82nd Street Partnership was awarded a $50,000 Storefront Improvement Program grant by the city’s Department of Small Business Services. The money will allow the partnership to work with between five and seven store owners on the block, Taylor said.

Phase one will be to create a design that eliminates their LPC violations, and will be paid for in full by the grant.

Phase two implements the plan, in keeping with the neighborhood’s architectural style. Owners will split the cost of construction with the 82nd Street Partnership. Taylor estimates each project will cost about $5,000 in total and take about two months from start to finish.

Flushing BID's website promotes "shame of Flushing"

I don't know if it's a mistake or if their website has been hacked, but the homepage of the Flushing BID is currently promoting (or calling itself) the "shame of Flushing."