What’s it like talking with the Bloomberg administration?
They asked me to fill out a survey. … One of the things in that survey said, ‘If we could come to some kind of arrangement, where do you want to be?’ I said, ‘I have to be in North Queens because if I lose my business that comes here on a day-to-day basis, that’s an 18 percent hit on my gross sales; I’ll be out of business.’ So they came back to me, and they said, ‘O.K., Tony, very good.’ And they gave me: Sunset Park in Brooklyn, Fort Greene in Brooklyn, Bronx, Bronx, Bronx, Bronx, and one in Maspeth. Most of them were private property; a couple of them needed remediation.
What’s the current climate like to do business in?
Being in this mind-set of a constant threat of eminent domain and displacement and possibly relocation, you’re like in a twilight zone. It’s almost like a fog—it permeates your thinking, every move that you make. You’re afraid to step forward, you’re afraid to step back. … It’s detrimental to running your business, because it steals a lot of your resources, whether it’s time, energy, money, whatever resource that you have to commit to it. The city should be helping us instead of having us in this twilight zone.
How much do you think land is worth out here?
It’s very hard to say. The fact of the matter is, they should be here, helping us develop our businesses. With the tax dollars that we’ve paid them, why are they willing to invest in a developer but they aren’t willing to
invest in us?
What do you think about the crux of their whole concept here, that the Bloomberg plan has more economic development potential?
Any time you have development that has to have this much intervention by government, it’s almost doomed. It’s going to fail right from the beginning because it’s going to continually demand more and more subsidies.
Do you think as the city gets closer to the end of the rezoning process, more landowners will agree to sell?
I don’t know.
What did you think when you first heard that Sambucci Bros., who are part of your organization (of major Willets Point landowners, the Willets Point Industry and Realty Association), sold to the city?
Maybe he got a little desperate, or maybe he got a little disgusted, maybe it was some heavy-handed tactics—I don’t know. But I can tell you, he feels very, very strongly about having his property taken from him.
Do you think that members of the City Council, four months from now, will still be on your side?
So long as the dynamics of what’s going on here stay the same and consistent, I think they are going to stay, only because a lot of them are term-limited out and they’re running for other jobs; and anybody that votes for the use of eminent domain to take private property, I gotta tell you, I’m going to make sure that they carry that label around with them—that they’re a land grabber.
Where do you see things going right now? Let’s say the city does get the rezoning through. What would happen then, as far as the Industry and Realty Association?
We plan to continue to fight. This is our property, and as I said before, we’re getting bigger. … We’re going to fight for our property, and we are going to litigate this thing.
How much has the group invested so far? You’ve brought on some top lawyers and lobbyists.
We have very, very good people working for us.
Is it in the millions?
That’s not a number I want to share at this point. All I can say is, all of us have contingency funds set aside to continue the battle.
Is it an uphill climb for you at this point?
I don’t think it’s going to be easy sledding, if that’s what you’re asking. But you have to keep in mind that all of us are energized, we’re well funded; we’re well organized.
ebrown@observer.com
