Tow truck company's practices being questioned

From PIX11:

A real-life parking wars situation is playing out in Elmhurst, Queens.

As one private tow company is making quite the bit of cash off of one lot, customers of two restaurants in the same location say they’re being targeted and towed despite following the rules on posted signs.

“Bianca” asked PIX11 not to show her face or use her real name since she is a city employee, but she told us she is furious and feels as though she and others are being scammed.

On Friday night, Bianca said she parked her car in a private lot located on 59th Avenue in Elmhurst, right next to the Queens Center Mall. With plans to meet her family inside Olive Garden, she says she decided to peek into Cheesecake Factory across the street to check out the line.

“That was literally a three minute layover. I literally walked across the street saw the line was crazy and walked right to Olive Garden,” explained Bianca.

Following dinner at the Olive Garden, Bianca says her car was gone and Done Deal Collision out of College Point had towed Bianca's car.

“He was like, 'yeah I took your car. You left the premises,'" Bianca recalled. "I'm like bro your sign says Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouses."

Despite showing receipts and trying to prove she followed the rules of the lot as stated. Bianca said she had to fork over $250, far more than what's indicated on this sign to get her car back that night.

DOT & DEP point fingers at each other as pothole remains

From the Queens Chronicle:

A sinkhole in a travel lane of Queens Boulevard has grown by about one-third since it was brought to the attention of city officials on May 26, and still was unattended as of Monday afternoon.

The hole, which appears to be at least two feet deep and filled with trash, broken asphalt and other debris, is in the lefthand travel lane on the southeast-bound service road, just past where the road forms a T-junction with Woodhaven Boulevard, across from the Queens Center Mall.

The Chronicle first brought the hole to the attention of the city’s Department of Transportation on May 26, the day after Memorial Day.

Pictures of the hole were published in some editions of the Chronicle on May 28.

2 chain restaurants open near Queens Center Mall

From the Daily News:

Diners in Queens can now have their fill of all-you-can-eat bread sticks.

Olive Garden, the popular nation chain, opened its first outpost in the borough along with LongHorn Steakhouse on a formerly vacant lot on 59th Ave. at 92nd St., across from the Queens Center Mall.

The new eateries, owned by Orlando-based Darden Restaurants, will employ about 250 workers at an average salary of $15 an hour, a representative said.

Last year, the Mattone Group paid out $3 million to settle a suit filed by the city Economic Development Corp. after the developer scrapped an agreement to build a movie theater on the lot.

I can only laugh at this. The EDC makes a deal for supersized chain restaurants to open in a borough known for its ethnic food.

Remembering Fairyland

From [the screams on hoffman drive] by Matthew Kremer


it is funny to walk past life
and figure it to be a place
unlike what it is.
for instance, mozy a
block northeast and find
yourself at the heart
of queens center mall,
one of the most profitable
in the entire united states,
according to those who
keep tabs on such things.
take back the clock
fifty or sixty years,
and the spot was an
amusement park for kids
known as 'fairyland.'
open year round, it seems
to have been a rinky-dink
spot you'd take the family
without having to travel
far or break the bank.
there was nothing
all that glamorous
about the rides.
from the pictures
i've run across,
there were boats
with little bells that
went round in a circle
and a wooden coaster
called the 'comet jr.'
that seems to have
been a main attraction.
the cost was predictably scant:
single tickets, good on any ride,
were priced at 14 cents
and were good for adult
or child admissions.
if the kids didn't act up,
you'd take them down to
wetson's for a milkshake.
the park was demolished
in 1968 to make way for
Hot Topic and Bling Bling.
you'd be hard pressed
to imagine the site
housing anything like
the squeals of children
in the nineteen sixties.

Someone needs a better hobby

From the Daily News:

An alleged firebug who ignited at least 8 small blazes at the Queens Center mall — including inside Macy's and Sears — was busted by cops on Monday, officials said.

The alleged arsonist went on a flame-sparking frenzy at the Elmhurst mall on Monday starting at 3:15 p.m. inside Macy's, cops said.

He then went on to light fires inside Sears, Bed Bath & Beyond, Old Navy and Burlington Coat Factory — where he was busted by cops as he tried to slip out the store, officials said.

About 60 firefighters raced to the shopping center to snuff the blazes out, officials said.

No one was injured and the mall was never evacuated, officials said.

The 23-year-old man, whose name was not immediately released, started terrorizing the mall on Friday, where he lit one small fire inside Sears and then got away, cops said.

He then lit two other fires on Sunday, one inside TJ Maxx and another inside Staples, cops said.

Officials are still trying to figure out why the man had sparked the fires.

Details of shady Mattone deal being FOILed

From the Queens Chronicle:

Convinced that something is amiss in an Elmhurst real estate deal, community board members and civic association leaders are investigating the history of a 2.3-acre property located between the Queens Center mall and the Long Island Expressway, where the Mattone Group plans to build three restaurants: Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse and Joe’s Crab Shack. The Newtown Civic Association filed a Freedom of Information Request with the city’s Economic Development Corporation for all documents related to the site, last Wednesday. If the EDC’s records confirm their suspicions, the civic association will bring its findings to the city’s Department of Investigation.

Newtown Civic Association President Tom McKenzie, a longtime member of the Community Board 4 Planning Committee, remembers when the city sold the land, which was then a municipal parking lot, to the Mattone Group for $2.2 million in 2001.

Mattone signed a contract with the EDC, promising to build a movie theater on the lot within four and half years and to buy the dilapidated Elmwood Theater across the street and donate the proceeds to the Catholic Medical Center of Brooklyn and Queens, which operated nearby St. John’s Hospital. If those conditions were not met, the city would be able to buy back the property for $1.

Mattone had originally planned to have Loews operate the theater, but Loews declared bankruptcy and Mattone struggled to find a replacement. The lot has been used for commercial truck parking until recently, when Mattone erected a fence around the property. Mattone never purchased the Elmwood Theater and therefore no proceeds were donated to the Catholic Medical Center. The theater was sold to the Rock Church and St. John’s Hospital went bankrupt in 2009.

In 2010, the EDC issued an eviction notice and Mattone sued the city. The judge ruled in favor of the EDC, but Mattone appealed and reached a settlement with the agency for $3 million and signed a new contract with it on Feb. 6, 2013, modifying the zoning requirements so that Mattone could build the restaurants. The money went straight to the agency and the promises made to the community evaporated.

Mattones return to screw Elmhurst again

From the Queens Chronicle:

A former parking lot between the Queens Center mall and the Long Island Expressway has been empty for the past 12 years and now the developers who own it want to build three restaurants there.

The College Point-based Mattone Group presented its plan at an informational Newtown Civic Association meeting in Corona Tuesday night. The company would bring in an Olive Garden, a Longhorn Steakhouse and Joe’s Crab Shack, which will cover approximately 25,000 to 30,000 square feet, surrounded by free parking spaces. If the plan moves forward, they predict that the establishments will open in April or May 2014.

Most of the meeting focused on the civic association members’ parking and traffic congestion-related concerns, but Robert Valdes-Clausell, an officer of the Newtown Civic Association and a member of Community Board 4, brought up the property’s history and the developer’s history of shortchanging the surrounding community.

Valdes-Clausell also noted the meeting’s unusual timing, in the summer, when many community members are away.

“This has all the trappings of something that is not kosher,” he said of the new plan.

The city’s Economic Development Corp. sold the property, which was a city parking lot, to Mattone on Dec. 17, 2001 for $2.2 million. The City Council, including the area’s former Councilman John Sabini (D-Elmhurst), approved the deal, overriding the objections of CB 4 and disregarding the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.

Mattone’s contract with EDC contained several restrictions. The developer was supposed to build a movie theater, which Loews would operate, within four and a half years and buy the dilapidated Elmwood Theater, and give the proceeds to Catholic Medical Services, which then operated St. John’s Hospital according to Valdes-Clausell. If those restrictions were not met, the EDC was entitled to buy back the property for $1.

The Mattone Group did not comply with the restrictions, but the EDC did not repossess the property. Loews declared bankruptcy shortly after, and Mattone never found a replacement as the movie-theater business was in decline. Therefore, Mattone never purchased the Elmwood Theater and Loews sold it to the Rock Church instead. St. John’s Hospital filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

On Feb. 6, 2013 Mattone signed a new contract with the EDC, in which the developer paid $3 million to modify the original deed from 2001, allowing it to build the restaurants on the property.

Mattone claims that they did not need to seek community approval because the proposed restaurants are in accordance with area zoning laws and that informing the community before beginning construction was merely a courtesy.

Valdes-Clausell accused Mattone of putting the cart before the horse, by making a new deal with EDC without informing or asking the community about it first.

Moreover, the $3 million in the recent contract went straight to the EDC, not the community.

Queens Center Mall owners buy Atlas Park

From the Daily News:

The firm that runs Queens Center Mall, among the nation's busiest shopping centers, landed a struggling rival complex at a recent foreclosure auction.

Sources revealed yesterday that mall giant Macerich was the mystery bidder that snared the Shops at Atlas Park for about $54 million at a highly anticipated sale last week at Queens Supreme Court.

That places two of the borough's largest malls in the same hands.

Though Macerich President Edward Coppola attended the sale on Friday, the group's involvement was initially unknown because it had created a shell corporation named WMAP LLC to bid.

Atlas Park was unveiled in 2006 as an outdoor "lifestyle center," but its mix of restaurants and boutiques slumped through recent years. Some residents complained the stores were too upscale in the middle-class area.

Its owners, the family of ex-MTA Chairman Dale Hemmerdinger, defaulted on a $128 million loan to two French banks in 2009, initiating foreclosure.

Storeowners hope Macerich can turn around Atlas Park by employing the same strategies it used to lure tenants to Queens Center after buying the mall in 1995. It now boasts the highest revenue per square foot of any mall in the U.S.

New plan for traffic around Queens Center mall

From the Daily News:

In an effort to untangle the snarled traffic that drivers often encounter around Queens' most popular mall, the city Department of Transportation has unveiled a plan to ease congestion and make the area safer.

The agency's proposal would make a stretch of road behind the Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst one-way, diverting traffic to a less-crowded block nearby, Queens Transportation Commissioner Maura McCarthy said during a Community Board 4 public hearing Tuesday night.

"There are two reasons for doing this," McCarthy said. "One is to ease congestion and the other is to reduce the vehicle-pedestrian conflicts."

The plan would make 57th Ave., where the entrance to the mall's parking garage is located, one-way westbound between 90th and 92nd Sts. - both of which are already one-way.

This change would divert eastbound traffic onto 56th Ave., a residential block north of the mall, which is already one-way but would be converted from one lane to two.

"It will be two lanes so [residents] should not notice any additional traffic," McCarthy said.

The proposal is based on a traffic study of the area conducted during June and July. The study determined that in one hour on a typical weekday, 1,065 vehicles travel westbound on 57th Ave. and 137 drive eastward. On a weekend, 1,051 drive westbound and 530 travel eastbound.

McCarthy estimated that 1,140 vehicles would travel westbound on 57th Ave. if it was converted to a one-way street, and 56th Ave. would see about 300 more cars during an average hour.

Untangling the traffic mess at Queens Center

From NY1:

Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus drivers say it feels like a game of real-life bumper cars when they try to make their way around livery cabs outside the Queens Center Mall.

"You can't get into the curb. You have to honk the horn. [Cars] don't move. Passengers get off the bus and they have to weave in between the cars,” said one bus driver.

For riders, stepping as far as two lanes into Queens Boulevard can be just the start of the adventure.

“Sometimes it is very hard for me to get up into the bus. So it's really very hard,” said a bus rider.

A half-dozen bus lines stop outside the main entrance to the mall. The buses compete with cars, vans, and the livery cabs trolling for shoppers.

Police are trying to do something about it. The New York City Police Department says the 110th Precinct gave out more than 200 tickets in September alone. MTA managers can write summonses, too. And the Taxi and Limousine Commission has issued more than 600 of its own and seized 30 cabs.

But, locals say the curb gets crowded again the instant officers leave.

Street vendors a problem or just scapegoats?

From the Queens Courier:

Another quarrel has erupted over street vendors, but this time it’s outside of Queens Center Mall.

Eduardo Giraldo, vice president of corporate and government affairs of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Queens, said the abundance of street vendors outside the mall and around Queens has become a problem, particularly on weekends when police street enforcement is low.

“The city does not want to do anything,” Giraldo said. “Politicians do not want to take sides.”

Jeffrey Owen, senior property manager at Queens Center Mall, said he can’t speak on behalf of the retail stores inside the mall, but that management is aware of the number of vendors surrounding the mall. There are over 50 street vendors around the mall.

Owen said the city requires that property owners clean the sidewalks next to their property. Property owners who do not clean the sidewalks bordering their property, including 18 inches from the curb into the street, may be issued a summons. That’s why Owen said they pick-up any garbage, even if it was left behind by a street vendor, especially when it is windy.

Jose Perez, secretary of the Union of Street Vendors of Queens, which claims 60 members was formed this past February to defend street vendors against what they call attacks from local businesses. Perez said many of the people working outside Queens Center mall have been there for years and that it is not until now that there have been complaints.

A community affairs officer at the Precinct 110th said local politicians and businesses have complained about the street vendors, who some are licensed and unlicensed. He said some street vendors have been issued summonses, tickets and even arrested.

More shenanigans at Queens Center Mall

From the Daily News:

A manuever by parking attendants at Queens Center Mall that diverts drivers into their garage on the busiest shopping days has locals up in arms.

The setup, which often happens on weekends and holidays, blocks off through-traffic for motorists going eastbound on 57th Ave. Instead, a line of traffic cones funnels drivers into the parking garage - even if they have no desire to enter the mall.

This was the case for Forest Hills resident Elaine Eisenberg on a recent Sunday. She pulled out from her metered space on 57th Ave. and found herself blocked in by cones directing her into the garage.

The garage costs $3 for the first hour and $1 an hour after that. It's free for those passing through in less than 10 minutes.

This stretch of road behind the mall is the same one where parking attendants were called out by the Daily News in March for posting bogus no-parking signs bearing an unauthorized NYPD emblem on meters to lure drivers into the garage.

The city Transportation Department said that the mall did not need a permit to use traffic cones on 57th Ave. because the NYPD granted permission.

After The News began asking questions about the setup, mall officials said they will now allow drivers past the cone barricade at the garage entrance.

Parking in Elmhurst a nightmare

From the Daily News:

Elmhurst Hospital Center, bordered by Broadway, 41st Ave. and Baxter Ave., is surrounded by meters. Employees and patients say that street parking fills up by 7 a.m. and is full until the end of the workday.

City Councilman Daniel Dromm pointed to the Queens Center Mall as another trouble spot.

The city Department of Transportation met with mall officials, the community board and police department representatives last week to discuss plans to study pedestrian and traffic safety near the mall, an agency spokesman said.

The area is also backed up with drivers trying to find a spot at the neighboring Queens Place Mall, home to Target and Best Buy.

Dromm said he has been working with the DOT to have muni meters installed on the streets in Jackson Heights and plans to push for the same in Elmhurst.

“It would open up at least a space or two per block,” he said.

Hard to find bookstores in Queens

From the Daily News:

Queens may offer some of the best shopping in the city - and is home to the most profitable mall in the nation - but it could be the worst borough to find a good read.

With only five chain bookstores boroughwide and one notable independent retailer, most residents must trek to Manhattan or Long Island to find the latest best-seller, or buy it online.

Rising rents and dwindling profits have forced many branches to shut down completely...

Even Queens Center Mall, which boasts the highest revenue per square foot of any shopping center in the nation, is deemed a bad location for selling popular tomes. Not one of its 150 storefronts is a bookstore.

Many residents have requested a book haven in the mall, said spokeswoman Dawn Simon. But retailers haven't looked for a space since Walden Books left about 10 years ago, she said.

With only five major bookstores - one of which is a Borders in Terminal 5 at JFK Airport - for the entire borough of Queens, and the recent closings of 14 library branches on Saturdays, some say the demand is only growing.

Well, we could have had one at Flushing Commons. But the City decided that it was ok for a developer to put more luxury condos there instead.

Queens Center Mall caught using bogus 'no parking' signs

From the Daily News:

Parking attendants at a Queens mall have been caught red-handed posting phony no-parking signs on street meters that lure drivers into their garage.

The neon-hued signs were marked with an NYPD emblem and taped to meters outside the garage entrance of the Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst.

The signs may have looked official, but they're not, said NYPD spokesman Sgt. Carlos Nieves.

"The precinct was not aware that these signs were being put up," he said in response to inquiries from the Daily News. "The only people that are allowed to put these signs up are the NYPD."

The bogus signs, often reinforced by traffic cones and sawhorses, blocked off 12two-hour meters on 57th Ave. They often appeared on holidays and especially Sundays, when metered parking is free, angry shoppers said.

Queens Center Mall spokeswoman Dawn Simon said eliminating street parking was meant to "facilitate traffic flow" during the mall's busiest days.

Garage employees began posting them in 2004 with police approval when the mall was expanding, she said. But when construction ended at the end of that year, so did the validity of the signs.

"Initially, the signage was provided by the Police Department," Simon said. "Rather than have them re-issue the signs over and over, we created signs."

Officers from the 110th Precinct have since informed garage employees that the signs should be taken down, Nieves said.

"We have discontinued them," Simon said. "We will not be putting the signs up anymore."

Group demands living wage for Queens Center workers

From the Village Voice:

As shoppers scurried to snatch up last minute gifts inside the Queens Center Mall, local elected officials and community organizations painted the shopping destination's landlord, Macerich, as the latest Grinch in the ongoing fight for living wages -- just days after the city council rejected a Kingsbridge Armory plan that had no living wage requirement.

Most of the 3,100 retail workers in the sprawling urban mall earn $7.25 an hour.

Standing on a snowy corner of Queens Boulevard, Santa symbolically held gift-wrapped boxes marked "living wages." A menacing green Dr. Seuss character represented the mall owner. Activists from Make the Road New York, a citywide organization focusing on economic justice, demanded that the landlord place a living wage clause in its leases -- which would require stores to pay $10/hour with benefits, or $11.50 without.

Yesterday the group released its Dickensian report, "Queens Center Mall a Poverty Wage Center in Elmhurst," illustrating the travails of low-income New Yorkers and arguing that the millions of dollars in tax abatements received by Macerich should translate into benefits for its employees, including a living wage and the right to unionize. They also beseeched the owner to create community space.

Like many major commercial property owners in New York, Macerich saved $48 million in taxes through the Industrial and Commercial Abatement Program between 2004 and 2009. Make the Road New York predicted that by 2018 those abatements will total $129 million.

Andrew Friedman, the group's co-executive director, said the city shouldn't dole out abatements without requiring a living wage as some municipalities across the nation do.

Queens Center is vibrant, diverse!

From the NY Times:

The Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst, a short walk from the Woodhaven Boulevard stop on the R, V or G train, has 70 stores, including most major chains, and is anchored by Macy’s and J. C. Penney. But it is also a microcosm of its surrounding borough, one of the most diverse places in the country: Colombian teenagers bump up against elderly Chinese, Indian women in saris shuffle past Filipino toddlers. The mall offers translation in nearly 50 languages. And what other mall allows for a nosh on empanadas, Italian ices or halal food just outside the air-conditioning?

Yes, go to the mall for the empanada truck outside and the chain stores inside. It's funny but you read this and say, "Gee, this diverse mix of people is shopping in the same place, but it doesn't sound like they're interacting with each other much." So, in that sense, yes, the mall is a microcosm of its surrounding borough.

Seriously, it's time for these papers to find another angle on their reporting of Queens. This one is sooooo 1980s.

Queens Center one of country's best malls

From The Real Deal:

One of the country's most profitable shopping centers is in Elmhurst, Queens. The Queens Center was the only New York City-based mall on U.S. News and World Report’s top 10 list of most profitable shopping centers. Queens Center posted an average occupancy rate of 98 percent, and sales of $876 per square foot, according to the magazine, which ranked malls by analyzing sales figures, occupancy rates and quality grades for about 650 of the largest shopping centers.

Mall victim back in hospital

From NY1:

The teenager who was injured when a woman jumped from a railing in the Queens Center Mall has returned to the hospital.

Sources say Derrik Munoz is being examined by doctors after his head wounds reopened and he began vomiting.

The Long Island teen needed 23 staples to close a three-inch wound on his head.

Update Saturday - He's back out of the hospital and the family has hired an attorney. Cha-Ching!

Suicide at Queens Center Mall

QUEENS (WABC) -- A person apparently committing suicide jumped from a railing at the Queens Center Mall and landed on a boy on the ground floor.

The person plunged from a third floor inside the mall, in the Elmhurst section of Queens, just before 2:30 p.m.

The jumper landed on a 17-year-old teen who was walking on the mall's ground floor.

The teen was rushed to Elmhurst Medical Center with head trauma.

The jumper was pronounced dead at the scene.

The condition of the teen is unknown.