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Uncertainty Clouds Future of Willets Point and Its Oil-Stained Streets

Uncertainty and frustration hang heavy over Willets Point these days as the once-thriving ecosystem of body shops, salvage lots, tire warehouses and windshield-repair workshops in the lee of Citi Field has been eroded by evictions, property transfers and condemnations amid a city-backed plan to redevelop the area.

A mall and 2,500 new apartments are part of plans for Willets Point, near Citi Field in Queens, where many shops have shuttered.New York City Declines to Fight in Court for Complex Near Citi FieldAUG. 19, 2015
The project — which would include construction of a mall, hotel, convention center and housing — suffered a setback in early June when a state court ruled that the city could not build the mall on parkland next to the baseball stadium. The plan was thrown into further question last week when the city declined to appeal the ruling.

The developers behind the project — Related Companies and Sterling Equities, which were chosen by the Bloomberg administration — filed an appeal on their own to the state’s highest court. The city’s withdrawal, however, could undermine the developers’ case and ultimately lead to the scope and terms of the project being renegotiated more in keeping with the priorities of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration.

But in the rutted, unpaved streets of the auto-repair district east of Citi Field — a sector affectionately known to its denizens as the Iron Triangle — news of the city’s decision last week barely registered. Few people, it seemed, had heard about it; fewer still knew what it meant. And nobody much cared.

In interviews this week, the consensus seemed to be that even if the current plan collapsed, another would prevail eventually. The end result for the community of repair shops and junkyards would be the same: gone.

“Let me tell you something: They’re not going to leave the project like that,” Arturo Olaya, an upholstery specialist, said. As the president of a local business group, the Willets Point Defense Committee, he was more attuned than most to the recent legal developments.

Mr. Olaya pointed out that the city had already spent $400 million to buy land and make other preparations for the development. “Let me tell you something,” he added, “the city is saying that because they’re probably doing a trick.”

The 13-block zone has been a de facto auto repair district for decades, but it has also been a canvas for redevelopment fantasies for a succession of mayoral administrations. It also stands as an example of municipal neglect, as the unpaved, pitted and frequently flooded streets attest.

The Bloomberg administration first approved the the neighborhood’s redevelopment in 2008. Four years later it struck a development deal with Related Companies and Sterling Equities.

Since then, at least a third of the businesses by some estimates, mainly those in so-called Phase 1 of the redevelopment area, have closed as the city bought out landowners and offered tenants incentives to leave.

Some businesses have moved elsewhere in the area; others have simply vanished, workers and business owners said.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/28/ny...eets.html?_r=0