Here’s one way to gamble on taxpayer-funded urban revitalization.
The only tenant so far in a long-planned retail center that’s supposed to attract shoppers to downtown Jamaica will be a bus station that instead takes them away — to the Resorts World racino at Aqueduct Raceway.
A sign in one of the three storefronts, which have remained empty since they were finished last June, advertises: “Coming soon: Bus Depot Here!”
The Greater Jamaica Development Corp., the politically connected nonprofit that used $9.2 million in taxpayer money to clean up the area and develop the retail arcade, says it has signed a lease with Resorts World for the largest of the storefronts on Sutphin Boulevard.
It will basically be a waiting room for free shuttle buses that run to the racino every 20 minutes. The 2,300-square-foot space is now an empty shell.
The storefronts were the centerpiece of the revitalization of the Sutphin Boulevard underpass under the Jamaica Long Island Rail Road station. Rep. Gregory Meeks secured Federal Transit Administration funds for the site.
The money and other grants that the Queens Democrat sent to Greater Jamaica are under investigation by the US Attorney’s Office, which last year issued a subpoena to the nonprofit seeking information on the funds.
The project to clean up the dark and ugly underpass was years behind schedule and was officially unveiled in a “lighting ceremony” in June attended by Meeks and others. The arcade was dubbed the Shops at Station Plaza and designed to attract “first-class tenants” to “expand the retail opportunities in the downtown,” according to Greater Jamaica’s latest tax filing.
The LIRR, which owns the property, licensed the use of it to Greater Jamaica in 2007 and has to sign off on the lease to Resorts World. It is unclear if a bus depot is among the permitted uses under the agreement.
Fred Winters, a spokesman for Greater Jamaica, insisted that the space is more than a bus station and will serve as a “visitor’s center” for Resorts World. He said he would not disclose the rent until the agreement is finalized.
A spokesman for the MTA, the parent agency of the LIRR, would not comment on the pending agreement.
Robin Eshaghpour, a Queens property owner who said one of his companies was supposed to lease and manage the retail space, told The Post that he had not been informed about the pending lease.
“Greater Jamaica has refused to cooperate with me, has breached its agreement with me, and has kept me in the dark,” Eshaghpour said.
Winters said: “Greater Jamaica is in full compliance with their agreement with him.”