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Second Avenue Merchants Look for Tax Breaks to Help Them Through Subway Construction

By Amy Zimmer | November 30, 2010 4:49pm
Miki Agrawal, who runs Slice Organic Pizza on Second Avenue, and other businesses owners complain that construction is hurting business. She wants a sales tax-free zone to draw shoppers.
Miki Agrawal, who runs Slice Organic Pizza on Second Avenue, and other businesses owners complain that construction is hurting business. She wants a sales tax-free zone to draw shoppers.
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DNAinfo/Amy Zimmer

By Amy Zimmer

DNAinfo News Editor

UPPER EAST SIDE — Can designating the construction zone around the Second Avenue Subway as a sales tax-free shopping district save the stores there?

That's one idea struggling shopkeepers are putting forward to keep their businesses afloat. Several of them met with State Sen. Bill Perkins Tuesday morning and walked along the dusty, maze-like area.

The shopkeepers had a litany of complaints:

Andrew Grossman's parking lot on East 92nd Street was suffering due to unannounced street closures preventing drivers from getting in or out.

Business is down 40 percent at Francis Woon’s nail salon on Second Avenue and 83rd Street as residents have been fleeing the area.

Attorney Norm Siegel said is contemplating legal action if help isn't given to suffering businesses because of the construction delay.
Attorney Norm Siegel said is contemplating legal action if help isn't given to suffering businesses because of the construction delay.
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DNAinfo/Amy Zimmer

Miki Agrawal has been getting frequent tickets for deliveries to her organic pizza shop on Second Avenue and 77th Street since the loading area across the street has been fenced off and trucks are forced into a no-standing zone.

Taeshin Shin let go of five of his 10 employees at his spa on Second Avenue and 93rd Street and one of the three workers at his Subway franchise, forcing him to work there 12 hours a day to make rent.

Many of these mom-and-pop shops are concerned they won’t make through construction, which will was supposed to finish in 2012, but is now estimated to last until 2016. 

"The delay, the noise, the dust, the obstructed sidewalks have negatively affected the businesses," said Norm Siegel, a civil rights attorney working with the Second Avenue Business Association.

Besides dropping the sales tax, he is calling for a real estate abatement, better sanitary conditions and legislation to help these stores with financial assistance if they've lost business because of the delay. If nothing is done, they will seriously consider litigation, he said.

Perkins, who held a hearing about the construction later on Tuesday, seemed to support the sales tax-free proposal.

"It's a major economic development opportunity for the city and region with the intention of being good for small business," Perkins said of the subway construction. "But at the rate this is going, the benefits expected aren't going to be realized for some of these businesses."