NEW YORK CITY—A big mixed-use project in Willets Point, Queens has taken a giant step forward in its development. All legal charges that had brought against the developers—the Related Cos. and Sterling Equities—by a group of 50 automotive shops being pushed out of the area have been dropped and a settlement agreement was reached for nearly $6 million, according to Crain's New York Business.
The businesses, known as the Sunrise Cooperative, have agreed to vacate Willets Point by June 1, though many have already left. In return, the city will pay a total of $4.8 million into an escrow fund, while the development team of the Related Cos. and Sterling Equities will chip in $960,000. The cooperative, a collection of nearly 50 businesses that have operated along the unpaved streets in a part of Corona, also will be required to contribute $143,000 into the fund.
“We are gratified to have reached a resolution and excited that a revitalized Willets Point is another step closer to becoming a reality,” a spokesman for Related and Sterling says in a statement.
Related and Sterling are spending $3 billion to build a 1.4 million square-foot mall to the west of Citi Field, along with retail and about 2,500 apartments on about 22 acres to the east of the stadium in Willets Point. But in February 2014, Sunrise filed suit in state Supreme Court, alleging that the displacement of the businesses violated several laws.
“The relocation of the Sunrise Cooperative represents a critical step in the advancement of the Willets Point development, which will bring thousands of jobs, units of housing and square feet of retail space to northern Queens,” says Economic Development Corp. president Kyle Kimball.
The co-op will use most of the fund to build out a facility inside an existing building at 1080 Leggett Ave. in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx, according to the Urban Justice Center's Harvey Epstein, who represented the group in court., though the cash can also be used by Sunrise to pay rent to the site's landlord. The group plans to convert the one-story property into an auto mall with stalls for each of the businesses within six months, and will also borrow $550,000 from the city to cover some of those costs.
It was unclear exactly how many more businesses need to be relocated, but the city estimated that nearly two-thirds of the 130 shops have now received some form of compensation.
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Rayna Katz
Rayna Katz is a seasoned business journalist whose extensive experience includes coverage of the lodging sector, travel and the culinary space. She was most recently content director for a business-to-business publisher, overseeing four publications. While at Meeting News, a travel trade publication, she received a Best Reporting award for a story on meeting cancellations in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
