{"id":41713,"date":"2025-11-16T23:37:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T23:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/41713\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T23:37:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T23:37:07","slug":"nyc-businesses-affected-by-2nd-ave-subway-say-mta-is-dragging-its-feet-on-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/41713\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC businesses affected by 2nd Ave. Subway say MTA is dragging its feet on help"},"content":{"rendered":"

East Harlem businesses being displaced by the Second Avenue Subway extension<\/a> claim the MTA is dragging its feet forking over the financial compensation and relocation assistance they desperately need.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve left me hanging,\u201d said 59-year-old Lu Nicaj, whose 30-year tile-construction supply shop Eagle Tile is facing closure over the upcoming second phase of the behemoth Manhattan transit project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know the future. I\u2019m keeping my fingers crossed, but I do not know what\u2019s gonna happen,\u201d he told The Post.<\/p>\n

Lu Nicaj fears he is going to have to close his contractor supply business of 30 years if the MTA doesn\u2019t act fast. Matthew McDermott<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the whole David and Goliath thing,\u201d Nicaj said \u2014 adding that this time David might not win.<\/p>\n

Nicaj is just one of several East Harlem business owners being forced out of their storefronts to make way for new subway stops between East 116th and East 125th streets as part of the MTA\u2019s long-awaited $7.7 billion train-line extension.<\/p>\n

The MTA claimed eminent domain on the properties<\/a> in August \u2014 meaning tenants and landowners alike were given no choice but to leave \u2014 while promising to provide the legally required financial compensation and relocation assistance.<\/p>\n

But months later, many businesses being booted by the MTA said they\u2019ve been frustrated by the little help they\u2019ve received \u2014 including Nicaj, who said he\u2019s spent $100,000 to move materials from the nearby lot he\u2019s rented for years to his store his inventory but has heard nothing from the MTA on when or even if they\u2019re going to pay him back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m gonna be in debt and a hole for a while until I pull myself out. It\u2019s gonna be a while before I can make that money back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Several businesses along Second Avenue in East Harlem are being evicted from their longtime homes for the subway project. Stephen Yang for the New York Post<\/p>\n

Nicaj\u2019s actual storefront is not on the chopping block, but without that lot, he has nowhere to store the materials he makes his money from and expects to close down if he can\u2019t find an alternative fast.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t promise me anything. They said they\u2019ll see what they can do,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m getting a lot of pushback, a lot of \u2018Yes, yes, yes, we\u2019ll get back to you, we\u2019ll get back to you,\u2019 but nothing is done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Second Avenue Subway\u2019s first extension phase was completed in 2017 when the Q train was brought to East 96th Street, with the MTA spending about $10 million <\/a>to relocate displaced residents and businesses. <\/p>\n

But many stores now facing eviction over phase two are scared the MTA might not come through in time to keep their businesses afloat.<\/p>\n

Diop has been running his clothing store on in East Harlem for 14 years and is being forced to move out. Stephen Yang for the New York Post<\/p>\n

The corner deli at the end of Nicaj\u2019s block had a 10-year lease on the storefront but is being kicked out by the MTA just three years into that term.<\/p>\n

Its owner said the MTA hired a real-estate broker to show him alternate locations but that none fit what he needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just wasting my time there,\u201d he said of the MTA\u2019s showings, explaining that he\u2019s begun looking at locations on his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll my money is tied up in there. I spent a lot of money. I invested $350,000,\u201d he said of his business.<\/p>\n

The next phase of the subway extension into East Harlem has a budget of about $7.7 billion. MTA Construction and Development<\/p>\n

Next door, the Touba African Store is getting evicted from its home of 14 years.<\/p>\n

The clothing store\u2019s owner, Diop, said the MTA showed him a property he liked three months ago \u2014 but that they\u2019ve failed to follow up with him on the deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say everything, they called the company,\u201d Diop said. \u201cThey said they will call back, but they haven\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diop said the MTA hasn\u2019t shown him another property in three months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am frustrated. I feel like I\u2019m in limbo, but there is nothing I can do,\u201d he said. I\u2019m just waiting on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MTA did not respond to a Post request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"East Harlem businesses being displaced by the Second Avenue Subway extension claim the MTA is dragging its feet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6808,469,57,141,9,56,63,65,64,4025,2990,1687,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-41713","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-east-harlem","9":"tag-harlem","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-mta","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-nyc-headlines","16":"tag-nyc-news","17":"tag-second-avenue-subway","18":"tag-small-business","19":"tag-subways","20":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}