WILLIAMSBURG — A Grand Street bodega owner said his business has plummeted due to a massive MTA construction fence that has encased most of the store's facade for four months.
And the situation could get worse for the desperate businessman.
Last week construction workers told him the work zone would be expanded, meaning there would be a sliver about 2 feet wide for customers to enter the bodega, located at the northwest corner of Grand Street and Bushwick Avenue.
"It's so bad for us, they kill our business," T&A Deli and Grocery owner Ismail Mozab, 49, said.
The blue fence that currently blocks off access to the bodega on all sides but one small side entrance went up in July and was scheduled to be removed on Dec. 5, permits on the wall read.
On Friday morning, however, construction workers came and peeled off the expiration date, leaving the re-opening date blank, workers at the struggling bodega said.
The bodega's monthly rent is $9,000 and since July they've barely been breaking even, said Mozab, who has six employees. Even delivery men have assumed the bodega is closed and left without dropping off merchandise, a store worker said.
"It's too hard for us to pay," said Mozab. "They want to close the bodega."
The construction project that began in July will repair the staircases at all four entrances to the Grand Street L stop.
So far construction has begun on two entrances. The full project is slated to cost $3.5 million and be completed by May of 2016, according to the MTA's Capital Dashboard that tracks all of the agency's capital spending.
The company SH5 Construction Corp. was hired through the MTA's Small Business Mentoring Program, which aims to hire more minority and women owned sub-contractors.
"These repairs are capital enhancements to protect our customers — in this case, improving staircases and rehabbing any parts such as treads, risers and walls associated with the structure," Amanda Kwan, a spokeswoman for the MTA said.
An exasperated employee and manager, Ali Rohan, 53, who's worked at the bodega for 10 years said that some days he only saw construction workers inside the work site for one or two hours a day.
When workers came last week saying they needed more sidewalk space, Mozab called his lawyer. "Don't let them do anything!" his lawyer had urged him. Mozab is still considering his legal options, he said. His lawyer was not immediately available for comment.
A worker for SH5 Construction Corp at the site who declined to give his name said that some unforeseen circumstances had led to the delay and that it could take until late January to open up the entrance. He also said the second two entrances that still have to be repaired would involve a smoother, faster process.
Managers at SH5 Construction did not immediately return a request for comment.