A dormant city construction site is hammering one small business in the East Village. NY1’s Susan Jhun filed the following report.
A stalled city construction site has sat in front of Punjabi Grocery and Deli in the East Village since 2010, blocking access to the store's main customers.
“It's just an eyesore,” said Jashon Singh of Punjabi Grocery and Deli. “Eighty percent of our business has come from cabbies and taxi drivers,”
The small business which has been at this location for the past 21 years, was opened primarily as a place for cabbies to take a rest.
“We used to have metered parking all over here and that drove business. That's how, you know, cabbies could come and take a break after their twelve hour shift,” said Singh.
That changed after the city started The East Houston Reconstruction Project.
The construction site has been here for the past five years and those at Punjabi Deli say in all that time they've had no communication from the city.
“One of the things that we really need is communication, updates. They said it would be done in 2013, it's 2015 now, you know, two years past the limit and nothing is really done here as you can see,” said Singh.
“This is unfair. The city can't just come and dump all over a business and expect that business to survive,” said Ali Najmi, attorney for Punjabi Deli.
Along with information, the small business has requested a taxi relief stand from the city.
NY1 contacted The Department of Transportation and a spokeswoman told us the agency is working closely with the Taxi and Limousine Commission on the possibly of placing a taxi relief stand at the location.
We also contacted the city Department of Design and Construction and a spokesman said work at the site has been stalled but he's hopeful it will continue soon. He went on to say, there is a community liaison who's been issuing alerts about the project however he said that liaison will personally reach out to Punjabi Grocery and Deli to keep the lines of communication open.
NY1 will keep you updated.