House of Spices sells, city owns 20 percent of private land

Neil Soni from House of Spices, one of the largest landowners at Willets Point, just confirmed to me that the Indian food distributor has reached a deal to sell its property to the city.

The deal is the largest land acquisition the city has made thus far, and brings city ownership of the privately owned land at Willets Point to just over 20 percent. House of Spices, the largest Indian food distributor in the United States, owns four of the 48 privately owned acres of land at Willets Point.

The city also announced a deal with auto-salvage company Prevete Brothers, which owns 12,000 square feet of land in the industrial business community.

Details after the jump.

With the two deals, the city now owns about 39 percent of the 62-acre site when taking into account land the city already controls, such as the roadways. New York City Economic Development President Seth Pinksy called the deals a major step forward for the city’s bid to redevelop the area.

“These agreements with House of Spices and Prevete Brothers, on the heels of our agreements with three additional Willets Point businesses last month and several before that, are a significant step toward attaining our goal of transforming the area into an engine of economic growth and the first ‘green neighborhood’ in New York City,” said EDC President Seth W. Pinsky. “The City now controls almost 24 acres of land in Willets Point. We remain committed to working with the remaining land owners and businesses to reach as many negotiated acquisitions as possible as the project moves through the public review process.”

As one of the largest land owners in the Willets Point Industry and Realty Association — a coalition of business owners who have campaigned against the project — House of Spices agreeing to sell its land may be a major blow to the property owners efforts to halt the city’s redevelopment plans for the hardscrabble business community located across the street from CitiField.

Several members of the City Council have been reticent to support the project because of the potential use of eminent domain, and how many deals the city strikes with property owners prior to the scheduled Nov. 12 vote will likey play a large role in how the legislative body votes on the project.