City signs deals with two Willets Points land owners
Willets Point
The city Economic Development Corp. has signed its first agreements to acquire property from landowners in the gritty Willets Point section of Queens, it announced today in a statement.
The two property owners who agreed to sell their property in the so-called "Iron Triangle" were Sambucci Bros Inc. Auto Salvage, with 52,000 square feet, and BRD Corp., with 22,000 square feet.
The news comes a week after several unions agreed to support the Bloomberg administration's $3 billion plan to redevelop the 62-acre site because the project will create union jobs.
The city has been battling community groups and legislators over a massive mixed-use redevelopment planned for the area next to the new Mets stadium. The public review process has begun, and Community Board 7 in Queens will hold a public meeting tonight
The remaining landowners remained defiant, said Daniel Feinstein, president of Feinstein Iron Works and a member of the Willets Point Industry and Realty Association, which is fighting the mayor's proposal. He called the announcement that two out of 260 businesses would sell their property was a sign of desperation.
"We believe the people have had enough of the administration's attempts to bully" the property owners, he said.
In April, the association and 10 large property owners announced they were suing the city, which they claimed "has been waging a campaign of intentional neglect to create and perpetuate an eyesore for the eventual justification of the use of eminent domain."
Comments
Anonymous
sick!
Comment #1 Posted By: Anonymous 06/18/08
Ray S
The proposed ‘takeover’ of Willets Point for the purpose of private profitable development is abominable at its core and patently immoral.Private property ownership is the most fundamental right of all people. Without the freedom to own and use private property, all our other rights are meaningless.If a private company believes it can make better use of someone else' private property, then let them enter into a purchase contract without assistance or coercion by any government agency or official. The fact that the prospective buyer may have to deal with a large number of private owners (any one or several of whom might hold out for more money) is and rightfully, be of no interest to the government. Bargaining is a vital and ordinary part of private property ownership.
It is an unimpressive argument to assert that the US Supreme Court decided that taking of private property to turn over to developers so that the tax base would be improved, thereby making the seizure a "public" purpose.
For very similar economic reasons, the US Supreme Court decided that a Black man was worth three-fifths of a white man, and that slavery was legal. And, slavery was the ultimate eminent domain.
Comment #2 Posted By: Ray S 06/19/08
Anonymous
lighten up Ray -
- the area is a cesspool and a blight..
it needs to be razed, cleaned up from the toxic waste the current landowners have been dumping and remade into a vibrant community for ALL NYC residents to enjoy.. not remain the dumping ground of a few squatters looking to make a buck
Comment #3 Posted By: Anonymous 06/19/08
Kennedy
How could someone who really cares about our borough
of Queens truly opposed this project.I believe its the
people with the same motivation that opposed the
rehabilitation of 42nd street...Everyone always seem to have their own selfish adgenda.
Comment #4 Posted By: Kennedy 06/21/08
Pissed off
Every picture that the city releases shows flooded and unpaved streets. The company that owns those streets should be heavily fined and forced to pave the streets and put sewers in. What do you know! New City owns those streets
Comment #5 Posted By: Pissed off 06/21/08
Anonymous
get over it
Comment #6 Posted By: Anonymous 06/27/08
Anonymous
Agreed. this place looks like the third world
Comment #7 Posted By: Anonymous 06/28/08
Leave a Comment:
irrelevant or repetitive, as well as inappropriate comments about anyone's personal appearance. The Real Deal
does not endorse any comments posted on its Web site.