Willets West Mall on Parkland

Memo to Council Members Ferreras, Comrie and Weprin:

Crain's is reporting your last-ditch maneuvers to make the city "guarantee payment of $70 million to erect ramps" to and from the Van Wyck Expressway, without which NO housing may be built at Willets Point.

Apparently, you are DISREGARDING a primary objection of the community to the entire proposed project: the 1.4 million square foot shopping mall that would be built on 30+ acres of Queens parkland. Opposition to that mall on public parkland includes the Queens Civic Congress, which consists of 100+ civic associations throughout Queens; the Roosevelt Avenue Community Alliance, which recognizes that a mall at that location will destroy and displace numerous family-run businesses in Corona and Jackson Heights; and Queens Community Board 3, which voted 30-1 to DENY this application in part because CB3 opposes the mall on parkland; among many other groups that are opposed because of the MALL.

Regardless of whether or not the City provides $70 million for highway ramps, the community DOES NOT WANT THE PROJECT, because of the mall on parkland. Therefore, if you respect the will of the people, you will vote "NO".

But even if you succeed in obtaining an ironclad guarantee from the City of $70 million for highway ramps – and we don't believe an ironclad guarantee is possible now – that alone still does NOTHING to guarantee the housing and affordable housing, which a large sector of project opponents wants to see built. That's because regardless of the
availability of $70 million, the project contract between Sterling/Related and NYCEDC still allows Sterling/Related to pay a cost-of-doing-business penalty of $35 million (in 2025), and build NO housing. Moreover, simply setting aside $70 million for highway ramps does not alter the text of the contract which states: "For the avoidance of doubt, in no event shall EDC or the City be required to construct the Ramps as part of the Development." [Contract Section 3.3.]

As long as those two clear contract provisions remain in effect, there still is NO CLEAR PATH to construct any housing or affordable housing at Willets Point. Thus, if you insist on ignoring the community's outrage over a mall being constructed on 30+ acres of Queens parkland, and want to push for housing, then you must not only obtain $70 million that is necessary for the Van Wyck ramps, but you must also REQUIRE that the project contract be revised so that the City guarantees to construct the Van Wyck ramps, and so that NO option exists for Sterling/Related to buy their way out of constructing the housing by paying a penalty. The construction of the ramps and the housing must
be guaranteed.

We repeat – Obtaining $70 million for highway ramps does not address the overriding problem with this project: the construction of a huge mall on parkland; AND, it alone does not and cannot guarantee that any housing will ever be constructed, because the project contract still contains escape clauses. It is the project contract that will
determine, years from now, what the parties are actually obligated to do.

The pending ULURP application of Sterling/Related has been rushed to coincide with the end of Mayor Bloomberg's final term, and the integrity of the Willets Point project originally approved by the City Council in 2008 – which involved NO mall on parkland – has been sacrificed. None of that is necessary. Denying this ULURP application of Sterling/Related will allow the next City administration to take a fresh look at this project, and to ensure that its goals – including
prioritized affordable housing – are respected, not evaded by a developer.

Sincerely,

The membership of Willets Point United Inc.

Wasteland

In an editorial (“Wasteland”) that would have been an accurate description of the intellectual vacuity of its own editorial page, Crain’s unsurprisingly signs on in support of the Willets Point boondoggle:

“As a crucial City Council vote on the massive Willets Point, Queens, redevelopment draws nigh, the opposition has become increasingly desperate, holding rallies and amping up its rhetoric. To hear them tell it, the project is a blatant bait-and-switch that enriches wealthy developers with city subsidies and turns treasured parkland into a parking lot and a mall. If that sounds too bad to be true, it is.”

We say unsurprising because Crain’s would support building a brothel in your backyard as long as it was being built by a connected real estate firm that the so-called paper is in business to shill for. And don’t expect honesty from these toadies: 

“Fortunately, save for a few misguided activists, Queens residents and community leaders see through the propaganda, and there is every reason to believe the council will approve the first phase of the plan as early as this week.”

A few misguided activists? Well, as we said, don’t expect intellectual honesty from an organ of Big Real Estate. We suppose that using eminent domain to take away people’s property and build a mall is what passes for good government in this house organ-and the idea that CB#’s 30-1 vote against the boondoggle is the work of a few misguided cranks when you’re in the business of promoting the 1%.

Here’s how the property owners are characterized:

“Willets Point, an industrial area near Flushing, is a stain on the city that many a politician has attempted to clean up. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is the first to get a plan going to accomplish that, yet he has had to overcome resistance from a few defiant industrial shops that prefer the status quo.”

Isn’t it amazing that there are property owners who prefer the status quo of keeping their property rather than having it turned over to the Mets and Related-for a $1 fee that Crain’s neglects to discuss?

But nothing underscores the ass-kissing inanity of Crain’s than its praise for the brain dead councilmember from Corona:

“Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras is still negotiating for the best package of community goodies she can get from the developers, the Related Cos. and Sterling Equities, but to her credit, she seems driven to get a deal done rather than sabotage a much-needed project that has eluded the city for decades.”

Crain’s goes on to damn the Willets Point business owners with faint praise:

“It is a testament to the pluckiness of these folks that they have carved out profitable operations there, but they must accept that a first-class city cannot tolerate the conditions that characterize the area's infamous Iron Triangle: dirt streets with cavernous potholes, no sewer system and unfathomable contamination.”

There an old saying that there was a German who, while passing a Jewish ghetto set up by the Nazis, turned to his companion and said, “Boy, don’t these Jews smell.” To which his companion replied, “That’s not the Jews that smell, its Nazism.”

The neglect of the Iron Triangle and the deprivation of basic city services is what has characterized city policy for 60 years. That does not mean that you add injury to insult to injury by taking the property away from the victims of this neglect-and then turn it over to friends of the mayor without any real charge.

And what about the promise to relocate the businesses? Thousands of workers and minority entrepreneurs sent packing to the four winds. Can you say anti-immigrant income inequality better than this?

Crain’s goes on the bloviate about the great new neighborhood that it supposes will be created:

“The proposed mixed-use, $3 billion project, which requires at least two phases and will be carried out over several administrations, promises not only to clean up and modernize the polluted site, but also to deliver a new neighborhood in northeast Queens. It's as ambitious as it is complicated, given the high cost of the remediation and of ultimately making 35% of the housing units affordable to satisfy the community.”

The fact is that the remediation-contrary to original assertions from the Deputy Mayor at the time-will be paid for by the tax payers, But Crain’s needs to throw off its wet suit and dive completely into the deception tank with the following howler:

“Various changes to the plan, portrayed by opponents as evidence of a devious plot, were in fact necessary adjustments to make the project economically viable. For example, the mall and parking lot—slated not for green parkland but for what is already a parking lot—will generate revenue to fund decontamination of the land. The residential component was pushed back because housing wouldn't sell in a wasteland.”

No mention of the fact that the developers can buy their way out of the deal, or the fact that there was no mention of any mall in the original approval. We can say without equivocation that there will never be housing at Willets Point if this current development is allowed to stand in the next administration. It is, and will always remain, a mall and a parking lot to aggrandize the bottom line of the billionaires that Crain’s ass kisses for every single day.

Malling Crain's

In this week’s Queens Tribune, Len Maniace, First Vice President, Jackson Heights Beautification Group, deconstructs the Willets West development-just another one of those disgruntled and isolated gadflies who happens, unlike the editorialists at Crain’s, to truly understand what the city is trying to do over at the Iron Triangle:

“A s we approach a City Council vote expected for October, give the developers of a massive shopping mall project called Willets Point West credit for this: together they possess a fabulous imagination. They predict their project will lead to a revitalization reminiscent of 42nd Street. The mall proposed for the Citi Field parking lot will transform Willets Point into a destination, a magnet for shoppers who then will provide spillover benefits when they dine at the restaurants of Corona and Jackson Heights.

But how likely is that vision? Not very on either point. That’s because the scheme presented by the developers is an anti-city plan that would result in more cars, congestion, air pollution, and wasted energy.”

Maniace understands just how grotesque a contradiction this development is to the Bloomberg sustainability vision:

“While Brooklyn, other parts of New York City, and indeed cities around the world look to sustainable, smart, transit-oriented growth, Queens is being served up a leftover dish of 1960s auto-dependent development. If a 1.4 million square foot shopping and entertainment center is going to be successful, it’s going to need a lot of people coming and going. That’s truckers transporting goods to be sold, sales people selling them and shoppers buying them – lots of shoppers.

How do the builders plan to move all these people – along with residents of the already approved 5,500 housing unit, also by Sterling Equities and Related Companies?”

As Clark Gable might have said, “Frankly, they don’t give a damn.” Certainly it will not be by mass transit: 

“The nearby No. 7 train that stops at Citi Field is already overcrowded. At a City Hall public hearing earlier this month, the developers didn’t spend much time on transit improvements. Even minor improvements such as additional exits from the elevated station didn’t seem likely. “The Willets Point station is not a priority for the MTA,” one official told members of the City Council.”

And where will all of these shoppers come? We must by now be running out of those shoppers that EDC always claims are going to be diverted from leaving town to shop: “The developers should know better. Malls suck business out of nearby commercial areas, such as downtown Flushing. And it’s highly unlikely that mall shoppers would bypass the food court, cross over the Grand Central Parkway and search out restaurants in Corona and Jackson Heights. This is nothing like patrons at Lincoln Center strolling across Broadway to dine at Upper West Side eateries.”

In other words-much like everything that this administration has done over the past twelve years-this is a neighborhood small business disaster. A disaster that will bring Queens traffic to a gigantic stop: 

“Instead, the developers are counting on road improvements, including new and hugely expensive highway ramps. That means more cars, congestion, air pollution, and wasted energy, not just in the immediate area, but also along nearby highways, which are also overcrowded.”

But Mr. Maniace is wrong here since there are no plans to build these ramps-and there may never be any. So the congestion he foresees is without any ramp mitigation and will be an unholy mess for local roads and highways.

If, as Crain’s alleges, this mall is a genuine linchpin for the future housing and other amenities, how is this future being monetized and assured? Why hasn’t the city forced the developers to put, let’s say, $200 million in escrow-a sum they will forfeit if the ramps and housing don’t get built. Why are all of the risks being borne by the tax payers? Haven’t we seen what has transpired already over at Hudson Yards?

In short, this development does little more than reward the Wilpons for engaging in an illegal lobbying scheme-a multi-billion dollar reward that should have been obviated by an indictment.

A "Rare" opportunity

Crain’s has been erroneously reporting on the land use process in the run-up to the city council’s vote on the reconfigured Willets Point development. The online version of the magazine is telling its readers that there will be a first hearing on the city’s plan this Monday:

“The ambitious plan to put up a mega-mall next to Citi Field in Willets Point, Queens, will face its first hearing before the City Council on Monday. The session, under the auspices of the council's subcommittee on zoning and franchises which is chaired by Queens Councilman Mark Weprin, will be the first test of the council's willingness to approve the controversial project. Mr. Weprin has himself, publicly supported the project.” 

The reality is that the subcommittee had its first and only hearing September the 3rd. At this hearing, WPU was prohibited from presenting its Power Point critique of the city’s plan-and speakers were restricted from testifying for more than 2 minutes; while the developers were given all the time in the world to misinform the council members about the plan’s benefits. The fairness of restricting property owners who will be displaced and favoring the developers doing the eminent domain-inspired displacement, says all that needs to be said about the fairness of the process.

As WPU’s Jerry Antonacci has written in a letter to the Queens Chronicle, “The Fix is in.”

“The circumstances of the hearing were also newsworthy. With minimal advance notice, it was scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on the morning after Labor Day, when many people were away. Less than half of the committee members were present for the Willets Point portion of the hearing. Subcommittee Chairman Mark Weprin only allowed each speaker two minutes, and prohibited Willets Point United from showing its PowerPoint presentation — even though people would have ceded their time for it. In our opinion, all this demonstrates the Council’s contempt for public comment about the proposed development.”

Crain’s goes on to cite unmanned development “experts” who see the plan as a boon to the city:

“Economic development experts and many elected officials insist that the development represents a rare opportunity chance to breathe new life into a run-down area long populated by auto repair shops. The mall will be built by a partnership between the Related Cos. and the owner of the Mets, Sterling Equities.”

C’mon, Crain’s, can’t we get any real reporting on this project? Like an even cursory discussion of the bait and switch that has left tax payers holding the bag for a $200 million gift to Related/Sterling Equities-a gift that should be labeled, “Bloomberg’s Folly.”

Can’t we get any reporting on the fact that the city engaged in an illegal lobbying scheme that was exposed by the NYS AG? And this throwaway line about housing needs to be more fully examined: “Neighborhood advocates have also complained about revelations in recent months that the 2,500 units of housing slated as part of the project won't be constructed until years after the mall opens.”

The fact is that the housing-and the disappearing living wage promise-was the linchpin of the deal that was crafted in 2008; and nowhere in that deal was there any mention of a mall being built on parkland. Keep in mind, that the original plan was premised on the city’s use of condemnation and the promises made in 2008 were in recognition that there needed to be some genuine public benefits in the plan to justify the taking of private property.

If, however, the city had told the council that the plan was for a 1.4 million square foot mall and a parking lot, this would have gone down in flames-even with Speaker Quinn shilling for the mayor. This is a bad deal for the city-and we haven’t even discussed the dishonest city treatment of the hundreds of immigrant businesses owners who are being dispersed into the netherworld by a callous Bloomberg administration that claims a concern for immigrants in theory, only to treat them with disdain in practice.

So, indeed, this is a rare opportunity-but one where the city council gets a chance to tell the Bloomberg administration that we are not going to be played like suckers. We’re not going to allow you to use the tax payers’ dime to gift property-bogarted from little guys-to some of you undeserving rich friends.