“Flushing merchants celebrate a victory”

Posted: 13 Aug 2010 10:30 PM PDT

   The new business assistance plan, which bumps up the city's aid pledge from $2.25 million to $6 million, includes: $2.25 million for marketing and outreach; $500,000 in loan guarantees; $200,000 in legal assistance, training and government access; $50,000 for signs directing shoppers to Union Street; 75 validated parking spaces at Queens Crossing; and capped parking rates five years post-construction.
   "We want to create a shopping area that highlights the cultural and economic contributions of the Korean-American immigrant merchants who built Union Street into an important small business hub," said Daniel Kung, co-president of Union Street Small Business Association.
   Two weeks ago, the City Council approved the $850 million, five-acre, Flushing Commons mixed-use development project, which will be located west of Main Street, between Union and 138th streets and 37th and 39th avenues.
   "The merchants have been here since the late 60s, early 70s, and they have helped build the Flushing community," Kui said. "The project could potentially have an adverse impact and that's why it is very important that they speak up and let the community and the elected officials know their concerns."
   Flushing Commons will replace Municipal Parking Lot 1 with a mix of 620 upscale condominiums, retail and commercial areas, a YMCA, a public green and 1,600 underground parking spaces. Construction is expected to begin sometime next year and be completed in 2010.
    "What's done is done. Now, I want to make sure that we move forward," said Ikhwan Rim, the owner of Rim's Jewelry on Union Street, where the press conference was held, and the co-president of the USSBA. "The merchants can not do it alone. We need help from the City Council."
   Rim was one of many merchants who pushed the city to increase assistance, fearing that a lack of parking during the Flushing Commons construction would deter shoppers from patronizing stores along Union Street, an otherwise bustling business corridor.
   The city's plans to provide some temporary parking on the other side of Main Street, near or on College Point Boulevard, but business owners feel that is hardly convenient as it is a 20-minute walk from their stores.
   "This is a hard situation right now, but maybe it is a good opportunity for us to change," Rim said optimistically. "We could transform Union Street with better signage, better roads, nicer places and LED lights on the streets. That's the kind of positive thinking we need right now."
   City Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing), who has long advocated on behalf of the Union Street merchants, vowed to continue his support by allocating a portion of his discretionary funds to them.
   "We in Flushing stand united and I intend to work together to protect the backbone of our society — small businesses here on Union Street," Koo said. "Yes, we disagree on the construction of the Flushing Commons project, but we are here to put our differences aside and work to ensure that the Union Street merchants are protected."