BUSHWICK — A business owner has been forced to lay off most of his staff and switch his focus to online sales after the MTA said his bike shop had to relocate while it fixes nearby subway lines, he said.
The agency previously announced that a handful of businesses would need to relocate while it carries out massive reconstruction on the M train in Bushwick announced earlier this year.
But AJ Nichols, 30, who owns Harvest Cyclery at 1158 Myrtle Ave, said that while negotiations with the MTA haven't even started, the uncertainty has forced him to let go five of his seven employees, move to Virginia with his wife and two children, and focus mainly on online sales.
"We're not even in a dialogue about numbers," he said, talking about the amount he'd be compensated for the move.
"They haven't even begun to discuss a number and this was supposed to be done at this point in the year. My mind's a little blown.
"If all I'm getting [compensated] is moving costs and storage, my business will fail. It's a goner. If you're saying I have to close in my peak season, it's a goner. This is a small business death sentence."
Nichols' business is one of three the MTA needs to relocate for three months while the "Bushwick Cut," a spur of aboveground M train tracks just north of Broadway, is reconstructed.
The work is slated to begin in the summer.
The owner said he had to take steps now because he relies on his summer high season to fund the shop for the rest of the year. With the summer uncertain, he needs to cut back now.
The owner of another business in the path of the project, the Asian-fusion eatery Little MO, declined to comment on his negotiations with the MTA. The owner of coffee shop Little Skips Outpost, which is also marked for relocation, couldn't be reached for comment.
In addition to these three businesses, residents of about 30 apartments and homes on Ditmars Street and Myrtle Avenue also need to leave during construction, the MTA said.
On Ditmars Street, the relocation will last for a full 10 months.
"Nearly 90% of the 30 apartments/household units have agreed to relocate," stated an MTA report released this month.
MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said that the agency has been focusing on other properties and that negotiations with the bike shop would begin after that.
However, following a call from DNAinfo on Monday, an MTA attorney contacted Nichols' lawyer after weeks of not returning calls, he said.
"They essentially said that we were low priority," he said. "The residential tenants were being taken care of first and that's all I really know."
While Nichols said the Monday evening phone call made him feel a bit better about the situation, he has nonetheless been forced to make a series of backup plans.
"This deal was supposed to be done over two months ago," he said.
"We first heard about this in April. That was nine months ago. We're just now getting a call back saying, 'Yeah, we're working on it.' Well dang."
The MTA awarded the $80.6 million contract for the reconstruction work to Schiavone Construction Co., a contractor currently involved in the Second Avenue subway project, which has a history of worker safety and fraud issues, DNAinfo reported.
With his shop's future and his livelihood in limbo, Nichols decided in August to move to Virginia, where he's switched his focus on online sales while maintaining a skeleton crew at Harvest Cyclery.
Last year, Nichols was reportedly strong-armed out of his shop's first location on Bushwick Avenue, which it had occupied since 2012.
A management company run by Robert Durst's estranged wife Debrah Lee Charatan bought the building and started issuing the business violations for having too many bikes in the shop, the Daily Beast reported.
He fought the company in court but eventually set his sights on the new location on Mrytle Avenue.
Nichols said he spent about $100,000 building out the shop.
"This is the second wacky real estate battle we've been involved in," he said. "The first one ate up so much of my time and resources, it almost ruined us. Luckily we were able to bounce back and it's been working out quite well.
"But It's almost impossible, the situation that we are in. It's one in a million. It doesn't exist. I've only got so much fight left."
