A longtime board member of a politically connected Queens nonprofit resigned yesterday after The Post reported that his publicly funded group owed the Port Authority $2.7 million over its stalled plan to create a new business center.
The sudden resignation of Greater Jamaica Development Corp. board member Cruz Russell, whose $173,000-a-year day job is with the PA, came as the bistate agency announced an exhaustive review of its dealings with the nonprofit over the ailing JFK Corporate Square project.
“The Port Authority is assessing its options and evaluating whether ownership of the asset by another entity or the Port Authority would better and sooner generate jobs and economic development,” said PA spokesman Steve Coleman. “The authority’s review of its options will be completed within 45 days.”
Greater Jamaica, which has received millions of dollars in congressional earmarks from Rep. Gregory Meeks over the years, used $2.7 million in PA money to purchase an empty grocery store in 2004, with plans to replace it with an office tower.
By 2008, the PA was supposed to get its $2.7 million back or take possession of the property.
Instead, Greater Jamaica spent about $20,000 to renovate the site, which it uses for meeting space, and no tower was ever constructed.
Russell, meanwhile, sat on Greater Jamaica’s board while serving as director of the PA’s Office of Strategic Initiatives.