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Auto shops will vacate Queens' Willets Point, paving way for new mall
Some 50 businesses agreed to vacate the Corona section of Queens, which is slated for a $3 billion mixed-use project, in return for $5.8 million that will go toward their new Bronx home.

JOE ANUTA
MARCH 26, 2015

A group of Queens automotive businesses who held up a huge mixed-use development in Willets Point have settled a lawsuit with the city and the project's developers, removing a sizable obstacle for the first phase of construction.

Under the agreement dated March 19, all litigation was dropped and a $5.8 million escrow fund was created to aid in the businesses’ move to the Bronx.

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, will also be required to contribute $143,000 into the fund.

"Sunrise is happy that they got to an agreement," said the Urban Justice Center’s Harvey Epstein, who represented the group in court. "We look forward to building a large auto co-op, and to everyone in New York starting to use it."

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 Mr. Epstein, 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.

“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,” said Economic Development Corp. President Kyle Kimball.

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.

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.

“There were many layers of negotiation that needed to take place,” said City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras, who represents the area and helped hash out the agreement.

But a representative of about 20 shops still left in the footprint said many owners couldn’t afford to pay dues to join the Sunrise Cooperative, and are now pondering their fate as the project moves forward.
“We are legal businesses that have been paying taxes here for decades,” said Arturo Olaya, president of the Willets Point Defense Committee of Small Businesses and Workers. “What is going to happen with us?”

The Willets Point developers hope to move forward with the project, which requires cleaning the soil at part of the site before construction can begin.

“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 said in a statement.