Willets Point businesses may get evicted from the Bronx

From NY1:

An 80,000-square-foot warehouse in the South Bronx was just renovated.

It was supposed to house a collection of 45 auto-repair businesses, but it stands empty. There is not a car in sight.

For years, the 45 businesses operated in the shadow of Shea Stadium, and then Citi Field, in Willets Point, Queens. But Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration wanted them out to make way for a $3 billion residential and retail development. The city paid them $7.6 million to move to the South Bronx, but their money ran out before their new home - that warehouse - was completed.

The 45 businesses operate as the Sunrise Cooperative. Their money gone, the businesses face eviction by the owner of the warehouse, but they have filed for bankruptcy hoping to prevent that. They want the city's Economic Development Corporation to provide $3 million more so they can pay their bills and finish construction.

And the auto workers aren't asking for a handout. They are willing to pay the city back to simply complete the project.

But the EDC tells NY1 the businesses should look elsewhere to borrow money.

Salamanca says it's the city's responsibility to help these mostly immigrant businesses.

"These businesses didn't ask to be put in this position," he said.

Willets Point business owners got nothing but broken promises

Photo from WilletsPoint.org

From the Times Ledger:

A group of auto-shop owners in Willets Point led an unsuccessful hunger strike protesting the eviction.

The strike ended on June 5, just four days after almost a dozen auto shop owners swore off food. The strike was led by the coop’s president Marco Neira. Since then, Molina and others in the area are being barraged with tickets for working on cars on the street that they cannot pay for as the city increases pressure for the mechanics to leave the area.

In March, the city gave the group about $5.8 million to relocate their operations from Willets Point to the Hunts Point Section in the Bronx.

But according to Neira, the 17-auto repair shops were supposed to have been fully constructed in Hunts Point by July 1, but so far nothing has been built. According to the city Department of Buildings, construction has not started because the Sunrise Coop has not filled out the necessary paperwork to get things moving.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. at a meeting of editors for Community News Group, parent of the TimesLedger, said the Bronx could not proceed with the Hunts Point project until Queens completed the certificate of occupancy application and other requirements.

But none of this really matters – or makes any sense – for the dozens of auto shop owners who were forced to close down their businesses June 5.

The agreement specified that the EDC would pay $4.8 million and the Queens Development Group, the site developers, would provide $960,000. The Sunrise Co-op was expected to contribute $143,000 and the group would have to leave the site by June 1.

“The group got a raw deal,” Diaz said. “The city should have given them more resources—sizable subsidies.”

Now members of the Sunrise Coop will move to Hunts Point early next year, according to Neira but for the time being, the mechanics have nowhere to go nor do they have any place to store their hefty equipment.

Willets Point businesses protest being screwed

Sunrise Cooperative, consisting of tenant businesses being evicted from Willets Point, Queens, calls upon Council Member Julissa Ferreras to not abandon Sunrise's effort to relocate to the Bronx, Mayor Bill de Blasio to intercede, and alleges a lack of diligence by the Urban Justice Center concerning the Bronx relocation site, at this press conference held on June 1, 2015 in Willets Point. In English and Spanish.
Recording © 2015 LoScalzo Media Design LLC. Reproduction prohibited.

Noteworthy portions include at 11:55, the plea that Council Member Julissa Ferreras "cannot abandon us" (In Spanish) and at 20:47, the Q&A leading to Sunrise's allegation that Urban Justice Center "did a wrong job" (in English). The Bronx relocation site cannot be renovated due to a lack of permits, but a contract between NYCEDC and Urban Justice Center provided $150,000 to Urban Justice Center for tasks that were supposed to include relocation "due diligence" and "permitting." Despite the lack of permits necessary to renovate the Bronx relocation site, Urban Justice Center oversaw Sunrise agreeing to vacate Willets Point Phase One by June 1, 2015.