Small Business Congress lays blame for Court Square Library closing and delay of SBSJA on Jimmy Van Bramer

SBC - The Small Business Congress      

E-mail  savenycjobs@gmail.com                Websites:  Savenycjobs.org

 Councilman Van Bramer’s  Favoring Big Real Estate over Commercial Tenants 

Is The Reason for Queens Closings!

Deadline NYC, Jan. 10, 2020:

Yesterday the Queens Public Library announced that their Court Square Library will close on Feb. 15, 2020 due to being unable to find suitable long term space and reasonable lease terms in an area with sky high rents.  Councilman Van Bramer disagrees with their reason for closing and blames the Library for dragging its feet in finding a new location. 

Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer made clear who was responsible, “This could and should have been avoided…...this is about the library failing to plan for this community.”  The truth is CM Van Bramer is fully to blame for this library closing as well as all Queens businesses willing and able to pay a reasonable rent but forced to close because they have no rights when their leases expired to negotiate reasonable lease terms. They have no rights because CM Van Bramer has fought against any legislation giving them rights. 

CM Van Bramer should be ashamed of the critical role he played in using his office to work to prevent a vote on the Small Business Jobs Survival Act, giving all commercial tenants rights when their leases expire.  Rights needed to remain long term in business and rights to equally negotiate fair lease terms that would allow owners to make a reasonable profit. Instead, CM Van Bramer actions has favored the real estate lobby’s interests and he has worked to “keep the status quo”, which is destroying the backbone of Queens local economy.

These are the facts CM Van Bramer does not want the Queens residents to know which shows how hypocritical his statement is, “This (closing) could and should have been avoided.”  All of the Queens business closings for the past decade could and should have been avoided, if not for lawmakers abandoning their progressive values and selling out to big real estate for their own political ambitions.

CM Van Bramer was the Majority leader of the City Council from 2014 thru 2017. A leadership role that offered a platform to be a strong voice for Queens small businesses.  Adding to this political influence was the fact the majority members of the Small Business Committee were Queens council members (5 of 9 members). Other than the Speaker, no council member was in a better position to influence legislation to save Queens small businesses than CM Van Bramer.  What did CM Van Bramer do with all this political power to

prevent the growing small business crisis from coming to main streets in Queens? 

For the entire term of CM Van Bramer he did absolutely “nothing” to save a single business, job, or give rights to businesses to survive.   Only once under the many Speakers in over 30 years has the Jobs Act not been allowed to have an honest hearing in council. That was under Majority leader Van Bramer’s term with the majority members on the Small Business Committee from Queens.  Not only was the Jobs Act denied a hearing but NO hearing was held under Van Bramer’s watch to address the sky high rents and the growing crisis forcing the closing of small businesses citywide, even when the crisis came to Queens. Just one honest public hearing on the Jobs Act would have shown the bill to be only solution to save small businesses.  The Queens desperate small business owners, especially the immigrant owners, would have NO Voice at City Hall under Van Bramer’s entire leadership. His recent sponsorship of the worthless Levin Commercial Rent Stabilization bill shows they still have NO voice.

CM Van Bramer is Chairman of the Arts and Cultural committee and not once as Chairman did he hold a hearing specifically on finding legislation to stop the closing of our city’s art and cultural tenants. 

Under CM Van Bramer’s watch no effort was ever made to have the Council’s legal department resolve any legal issues with the Jobs Act. For every legislation introduced in the council, the legal department will review and give recommendation to its legality and recommend amendments to resolve any real or potential legal issues. The one exception to this policy is the Jobs Act, whose unsubstantiated legal claims remain for over a decade.  CM Van Bramer claims he is a proud sponsor of the Jobs Act and yet never once did he use the power and influence of his office to insist that the legal department due their duty and treat the Jobs Act like other legislation by resolving any legal claims. During his entire tenure as Majority of Council, Van Bramer remained silent and complicit to the rigging by the Speakers’ Office and REBNY to stop the Jobs Act.

In May 2016,  87 Queens Associations signed a petition calling upon Queens lawmakers to stand up for small businesses as they face a crisis to survive caused by exorbitant rent increases. Community leadership signed this petition calling on Queens lawmakers to “ address the crisis quickly by passing the Small Business Jobs Survival Act,  which gives rights to owners to protect and preserve Queens’s businesses and jobs”. 

What was the Majority leader of the Council’s response to the largest Queens community groups’ plea to do something?  CM Van Bramer did not respond and continued his policy in the face of this crisis, to “do nothing.” 

CM Van Bramer should be embarrassed by allowing the Small Business Committee to have NO members on it representing Queens small businesses. It is bad enough to allow, without protest, CM Mark Gjonaj, a real estate owner and an anti small business chairman, but to also allow a vital committee that in a time of crisis will determine the future of every Queens small business owner and the future of their employees to have NO representative is a disgrace.  Clearly, CM Van Bramer is going along with the rigging by REBNY to stop the Jobs Act.

CM Van Bramer’s statement on the Court Square Library closing, “I believe they dragged their feet and now we’re in a crisis where this community is faced with the loss of a public library.”  No lawmaker has dragged his feet more than CM Van Bramer in pressuring the Speaker to make the changes in the Jobs Act and bring it to a vote.

On Oct 22, 2018 at the hearing on the Jobs Act, Speaker Johnson repeated many times the Jobs Act would be changed to not include or protect big Fortune Companies like Goldman Sachs, and then moved to a vote. In the face of a growing small business crisis Speaker Johnson, when questioned on the progress of the Jobs Bill repeatedly said, “it’s being tweaked and fine tuned.”  The changes to the Jobs Act that Speaker Johnson pledged to make would take one hour to make. A simple change in the definition of who the bill covers, one paragraph. Yet, 14 months after the hearing and no changes to the Jobs Act have been made!!  With Queens businesses closing monthly, why didn’t CM Van Bramer go to Speaker Johnson to encourage him to “ stop dragging his feet” and make the changes so the Queens commercial tenants, like the Court Square Library would have rights to renewal their leases for 10 years, which would stop the closings?

The reason CM Van Bramer did not “push” Speaker Johnson to make the changes to the Jobs Act and move it to a vote and begin saving Queens businesses was because CM Van Bramer was promoting another bill written by the real estate lobby.  On December 13th, Councilman Van Bramer held a rally in Sunny Side Queens proclaiming his endorsement of Councilman Levin’s new bill, Commercial Rent Stabilization.  A bill touted to save small businesses by having a commercial rent guideline board set rent increases for businesses,

This bill is an insult to every business owner in Queens and an affront to good government. What CM Van Bramer has done was throw Queens businesses under the bus by promoting legislation to kill the Jobs Act.  CM Van Bramer was promoting legislation that would substitute for the only real solution to save small businesses, and promote legislation that would keep the “status quo.” destroying small businesses.  This new bill was written by REBNY to keep all the rights solely in the hands of the landlords and would give NO rights to business owners.  CM Van Bramer along with CM Lander and CM Levin were serving big real estate interests by stopping a Tenants Rights Bill ( Jobs Act) and substituting a Landlords Rights Act (Levin Bill). 

How does CM Van Bramer explain why the simple change to the Jobs Act was never made and instead, 14 months later end up in another bill which was written by the real estate lobby?  How does CM Van Bramer explain how the council ends up with two bills at the same time dealing with Commercial Lease Renewal Process?  In the long 34 year debate on the Jobs Act, never once has two bills been in play, but today CM Van Bramer is promoting one of bills while he is a proud sponsor of the other.  The public may be confused by CM Van Bramer’s actions but the small business advocates who wrote the Jobs Act are not. Sung Soo Kim, Godfather of immigrant businesses, “ CM Van Bramer has joined in the rigging to stop the Jobs Act.”

How shameful that CM Van Bramer remains silent on the small business crisis for his entire term and only now speaks loudly in support of a Landlords Bill that was created for only one purpose, to kill the Jobs Act, and with it the hope for survival for countless Queens businesses.   

* Sung Soo Kim, recognized as the “godfather of immigrant businesses” and major advocate for over 30 years.  He is the founder of the oldest small business service center in NYC, the Korean American Small Business Service Center, and was chairman of the Mayor’s First Small Business Advisory Board, appointed by Mayors Dinkins and Giuliani. He is co-founder of Small Business Congress and sole creator of the Small Business Bill of Rights.  He has spent every working day for 30 years addressing the problems of immigrant small business owners. He never took a salary from government as Chairman of Small Business Advisory Board nor in consulting on numerous regulations. He turned down offers to run a BID in Queens and turned down government funding for his business service center.  In 30 years he has personally negotiated and re-negotiated an estimated 50,000-55,000 commercial leases for his Korean/Chinese members. He has gone to court twice a week for over 30 years to fight for his members in court.

Investigation into luxury tower development that flooded the Court Square Station is on

Crains New York

The state attorney general’s office is scrutinizing the work of two construction firms following a deluge at a Long Island City subway station Wednesday that nearly pulled a passenger onto the tracks. 

Attorney General Letitia James said Friday that her office has launched an inquiry into New Line Structures and Civetta Construction, the companies building a residential tower near the Court Square-23rd Street station. 

 The inquiry comes in response to a viral video filmed at the station Wednesday. In the video, water broke through a temporary construction wall and gushed onto the platform. The brownish fluid erupted so quickly that it knocked a passenger off his feet. He managed to stop his slide just before reaching an incoming train. 

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said the scene was caused by contractors of a residential tower nearby. The construction firms hadn’t been named before James’ announcement. The construction appears related to the 67-story Skyline Tower condo development. 
New York City Transit President Andy Byford addressed the video during an MTA board meeting Monday morning, calling it “quite shocking.”

“That developer, unbeknownst to us, had removed a pump from the big pit that they were building as part of the construction,” Byford said. “Which meant the pit filled up with water and the pressure eventually overwhelmed the hoarding that was there to protect the worksite.” 

"Temporary" wall put up by luxury tower developer at Court Square Station collapses from downpour and nearly kills a commuter

Ok this one is scary. Wall gave out last night during a rush of water while a train was coming and took someone out #subwaycreatures pic.twitter.com/WtzgY1FuWv

— Rick (@SubwayCreatures) July 18, 2019

Gothamist 

In a lengthy statement, MTA spokesperson Shams Tarek blamed the flooding on a "shocking lapse" by contractors working for a nearby private development, which is also building a new entrance and elevator at the Court Square Station. The property is luxury condo Skyline Tower, soon to be the tallest skyscraper in Long Island City, and developed by United Construction & Development Group. 

The building did not have the proper pumping system in place during the storm, Tarek said, leading to the "absolutely unacceptable and avoidable incident."

"Their worksite was inundated with rainwater during severe thunderstorms, causing water to build upat their worksite and breach plywood separating their worksite from the station," according to the MTA's investigation. There were no reported injuries as a result of the breach.

This is the thing that commuters have to sacrifice their safety on the subway for:

 

Huge hotel coming to Court Square...some day

From LIC Talk:

AND so Christmas is over, let’s get down to business. Which in Long Island City almost inevitably revolves around real estate. Though this time of year is normally slow on the local news front, we here at LICtalk are extremely adept at finding seemingly innocuous updates, rehashes, or snippets, and performing alchemy. In other words, making a mountain out of a molehill. Today’s version, comes to us via a new-spin-on-an-old-story in The Real Deal, which is kind of interesting.

Basically they declare that the largest hotel in the outer-boroughs is coming to LIC. The 50-story Toyoko Inn is slated to have 1,260 rooms. While the announcement of the hotel’s development is not new news, having been previously announced in TRD back in September 2016, it’s ranking as #1 ex-Manhattan and #9 in the city overall had previously escaped notice.

Most interestingly for locals from my perspective, is the location: 24-09 Jackson Avenue. More specifically, this is the empty lot adjacent to the Court Square 7-train station entrance. In other words it’s perfectly located for quickly getting into the heart of Manhattan via subway – a tremendous boon for budget travelers, which is this hotel chain’s focus. Of course another aspect of budget travel is tiny hotel rooms, which given the small lot size is almost a given despite soaring to 50-stories.

LIC residents want park, not another tower

From LIC Post:

A local development company filed plans to build a new 18-story residential and commercial tower in Long Island City yesterday, but a community group is looking to fight the project.

Rockrose Development, a company with several projects in Long Island City, filed plans yesterday to build an 18-story, 123-unit residential tower, with retail space on the first floor at 43-12 Hunter Street. The site is known by residents as ‘The Lot.’

According to the plans filed with the Department of Buildings, the project would have an outdoor terrace and amenity room for residents on the tenth floor, and another terrace and lounge on the 18th floor, as well as an exercise room. There would also be a lobby, laundry room, and mailroom on the bottom floors.

The new building would be 228 feet tall and would have 4,054 square feet of retail space. It would also have 86,562 square feet of residential space, meaning each apartment would average just over 700 square feet.

The Court Square Civic Association is attempting to fight back against the development, as the site has long been used as a public gathering space, despite the fact that it is privately owned.

The group has launched an online petition today calling for elected officials to work with Rockrose to save the property as open space and to generally create more open space and public parks in the area.

Court Square "civic" forming

From DNA Info:

Court Square, a longtime hub for office workers that's grown increasingly residential over the last few years, is getting its own civic organization dedicated to shaping future development.

The Court Square Civic Association will hold its first public meeting Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. at MoMA PS1. It will feature a panel discussion with City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, Penny Lee of the Department of City Planning and Paul Januszewski of the local developer Rockrose.

You all always have developers at your civic meetings, right? Say no more. ROFLMFAO!!!

Developer making quite a mess in Court Square

"Hello Crapper.

The rockrose site at court square (just north of 44th drive and the Citibank building) has become something of a neighborhood safety and cleanliness disaster and no media outlets have covered it (why would they? no one wants to take on the all mighty Rockrose).

When the exterior panels of the building were installed, they were covered in temporary plastic wrap, which was then allowed to peel off and blow into the window and streets below.

There have been several 'falling debris' events at this building over the last 2-3 months. The fire department has shown up numerous times.

Just last week, I was told debris hit a car driving on 44th drive, resulting in a large emergency response (no injuries that I know of fortunately).

How long before some of this debris hits a bus? Many people wait on this street for the Q39 bus.

On Monday at 5:30, there was an accident of some sort where a construction worker was taken to the hospital - again, this drew a large fire department rescue response. I saw no mention of this incident in the news, and work continued at the site the next day as if nothing happened.

The street surrounding this Rockrose site is also a filthy mess. I've complained to 311 and Van Bramer, and of course nothing has happened. Department of Sanitation doesn't even regularly run a street sweeper past here.

I'm hoping if you post this maybe something will be done about this fiasco, since 311 and van do-nothing obviously do not care how many people get hurt so long as the campaign contributions keep rolling in.

-Anon.

LIC just gets taller and taller

From LIC Post:

A new development is threatening to take the title of Queens’ tallest building from the Citi tower.

Developers filed plans Saturday for a 79-story, 774-unit building at 23-15 44th Drive, next to the CUNY School of Law and across the street from 1 Court Square.

According to City documents, the building is slated to stand 964 feet tall. It would loom over the Citi tower, currently Queens’ tallest tower, and would also be taller than a building planned at 29-37 41st Ave., which made headlines last year for its potential to become Queens’ new tallest tower at 914 feet.

Developers for the 41st Avenue project, known as Queens Plaza Park, could not immediately be reached for an update on that project or comment on this story.

LIC: hotel or homeless shelter?

From Court Square Blog:

We were poking around the Department of Buildings website earlier this week and noticed that a new permit was pre-filed with the DOB on July 29, 2015, calling for an eight story-mixed used build, with 19,989 square feet of commercial space and 19,799 square feet of residential space for a FAR of 3.98.2 The occupancy classification on the permit calls for “HOTELS, DORMITORIES” and there will be 29 dwelling units. Based on a review of the permit, the owner appears to be Amsterdam Hospitality, which has ties to homeless shelter developer Alan Lapes.

DOT hogging up municipal parking spaces

From the Times Ledger:

Dozens of angry Court Square residents joined City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) to call on the Department of Transportation to restore nearly 190 public parking permits that were withdrawn from the neighborhood. After a policy change, DOT officials significantly decreased the number of monthly parking permits and began using the public spaces to house agency vehicles and materials.

“Parking is precious in Long Island City and to take away these much-needed spaces is dead wrong,” Van Bramer said. “What has been done can be undone. We are calling on the agency to give back these parking spaces to the hardworking residents of Long Island City who deserve it.”

LIC parking garage space crunch

From CBS:

More than 100 people spent hours waiting on line Wednesday morning, for a special permit in a multi-level parking garage in Queens.

And as CBS2’s Alice Gainer reported, the people in the queue said they have to do it every month now due to a policy change.

The drivers at the Court Square Municipal Parking Garage in Long Island City were stuck going through a long wait as they tried to secure their monthly parking passes.

For some, the nearly three-hour wait paid off with a coveted $200 permit.

But others waited in vain. A man said those in charge at the garage cut off the line and refused to issue anymore permits after a certain point.

The old policy for securing a monthly spot was much easier, according to Jim Rohan. And it didn’t involve first-come, first-serve lines.

“I’ve parked here for seven and a half years, Rohan said. “I signed up. I had a monthly spot every month. I’d pay my 200 bucks, and I was renewed for another month.”

Making matters worse the loss of space, drivers said.

According to the website for the city Department of Transportation, the Long Island City garage has 703 spaces, about 320 of which are reserved for permit holders. But now, they are only giving out 211 monthly permit passes because the DOT is using the spots for other purposes such as construction equipment storage.

I guess the city would rather have these folks drive into Manhattan. Who needs parking?

Entire block to be demolished in LIC

From the Court Square Blog:

Demolition has moved into a new phase at 45-46 Davis Street, the former home of 5Pointz. The last time we checked in, construction crews had erected fences on Davis and Crane Street.1 More recently, they put up the scaffolding on the Jackson Avenue side, shown in the first photo. Demolition is moving along quickly in the middle section of the lot (see the second and third photos), and with the scaffolding up on the Jackson Avenue, it won’t be long before those buildings start to come down, as well.

Sidewalk parking continues at Court Square Diner

"Hi:

I happened to be back there today. On my way to where I was going from the Court St. subway station a car was parked on the sidewalk of the side street (45th Rd.).

On my way back to the subway station it was parked on the sidewalk in front of the main entrance of the restaurant on 23rd St.

Thanks." - Anonymous

Yet another tower at Queens Plaza

From Curbed:

Our friends over at New York YIMBY got their hands on new renderings for 23-10 Queens Plaza South in Long Island City. The mixed-use building, developed by Property Markets Group and designed by SLCE, will rise in the Court Square neighborhood and add 345 units and 44 stories atop an existing warehouse, which will be converted to parking and loft office space. As YIMBY points out, by keeping the existing industrial building, the project will connect with the street "in a way that's atypical for new construction" in the neighborhood, an area where developers routinely tear down warehouses ahead of redevelopment.

Excuse me while I go spike my hot chocolate...

Giant skyscraper planned for Queens Plaza

From Curbed:

Long Island City's Court Square microhood is getting yet another new apartment building—and this one is a biggie. Heatherwood Communites filed plans for a 596-foot-tall, 58-story at 42-12 28th Street, just down the block from the developer's new rental building 27 on 27th. The 28th Street project will have 477 apartments, ground floor retail, bike storage, parking, a pool, gym, and two roof terraces.

Can Queens - especially LIC - really absorb all these people? At what point is critical mass achieved?

Also trying to figure out how a building just south of Queens Plaza is considered to be in Court Square.

Parolee responsible for car break-in spree

From LIC Post:

The police believe that they have nabbed a man responsible for a large number of neighborhood auto break-ins.

Long Island City—from Court Square through Hunters Point—has been subject to about 60 auto break-ins in recent months, according to Captain Brian Hennessy, the commanding officer of the 108 police precinct. However, an August 24 bust has brought that spike to a halt, he said.

Hennessy said the police caught the perpetrator breaking into the cars by wrapping his fist up in clothing and punching the windows.

They arrested Rafael Medina, a 45-year-old from the Bronx, who was out on parole when he was busted. He is back in prison.

Purves Street lot for sale (hooray?)

From The Real Deal:

A development site in the Court Square area of Long Island City is slated to hit the foreclosure auction block May 17 with an outstanding lien of $38.54 million.

The residential development site, at 44-30 Purves Street, was formerly controlled by developer and landlord Baruch Singer and investor David Weiss, who financed a residential project at the site in 2006 with a $13 million mortgage-backed loan from G3-Purves Street LLC, an entity which appears to be linked to Goldman Sachs.

The lender filed to foreclose on the property last year after Singer and Weiss reportedly broke the terms of their non-recourse loan agreement with G3 by failing to pay $90,000 they owed in real estate taxes and several other liens against the property.

Baruch and Weiss acquired the property for $9 million in 2006, public records show. The duo also appears to have purchased an adjacent site for $5 million; that site is subject to the same foreclosure action. They listed the property for sale in 2007 with a broker team from Pinnacle Realty but failed to find a buyer before losing control of the site.

You may recall Purves Street from previous posts with assistance from Miss Heather.

Good luck with that

From DNA Info:

A new beer hall and a music venue might be on tap for Court Square — part of a plan to turn the booming neighborhood into a nightlife hub.

Rockrose Development Corp. is building thousands of luxury residential apartment units in the industrial Long Island City neighborhood, but retail amenities are still sparse.
The company's president, Justin Elghanayan wants to change that.

Rockrose has plans to draw retail tenants to the neighborhood — with hopes for a beer hall, music venue and high-end restaurants — with the anticipation that Court Square will be one of the city's next nightlife and cultural destinations.

700-unit building planned for Court Square

From The Real Deal:

Midtown-based Rockrose Development plans to develop an approximately 700-unit rental building at the former Eagle Electric building in Long Island City. It is the firm’s third major rental project launched in the neighborhood’s Court Square section since 2007. Combined, the three buildings will have nearly 2,400 units when completed.

The development firm paid an affiliate of the Brooklyn-based Kraupner Group $48 million for 43-22 Queens Street, a 320,000-square-foot industrial building that was one of at least a half dozen large properties once owned by the Eagle Electric Manufacturing company, city records show. The Real Deal reported the sale last week but at the time the identity of the buyer was shielded behind a limited liability company. The deal went into contract in September and closed on Dec. 14, the documents show.

Rockrose plans to demolish a portion of the six-story building, located between Queens and Dutch Kills streets, and the Sunnyside rail yards. On the existing building’s current footprint, Rockrose also plans to construct a modern tower of up to 30 stories using the 200,000 square feet of additional air rights.

For tax reasons, more than 50 percent of the project, which has development rights of 520,000 square feet, needs to be new construction, Justin Elghanayan, Rockrose’s president, said. “There are a lot of interesting architectural possibilities of combining the old with the new, which is very much in the spirit of Long Island City,” Elghanayan said. He added, “It is very rare to have a rental loft building,” because most are converted to condominiums.

New station design causes privacy concern

From DNA Info:

Some people are willing to pay extra to live near a subway station. But for the residents of buildings on 23rd Street, the redesigned Court Square station has become a little too close.

Tenants residing on the blocks between Jackson Avenue and 44th Drive say that mesh windscreens on the station platform — about 10 to 15 feet from their bedroom windows — allow straphangers waiting for the elevated train to look directly into their apartments.

Currently, most windscreens at stations along the 7 train line are covered with stained glass or thick, opaque glass blocks, which give residents of nearby buildings more privacy.

Joseph Conley, the Community Board 2 transportation committee chairman, said he has spoken to the MTA about the privacy complaints.

"They’re looking at how to rectify this situation and we are waiting for their response," said Conley, who was also told that the MTA is installing the transparent panels at elevated stations around the city. "So it’s not just this location."