Willets Point United Inc.

P.O. Box 560191 College Point, New York 11356

January 14, 2012 Mr. Allan H. Selig Commissioner of Baseball Major League Baseball 245 Park Avenue, 31st Floor New York, NY 10167 Re: Warning Concerning Potential 2013 All-Star Game at CitiField

Dear Mr. Selig: Press reports1 have speculated that Major League Baseball ("MLB") may select CitiField, the New York Mets' stadium, as the site of the 2013 All-Star Game. I am writing to advise that, prior to any decision, MLB should consider some of the very significant disadvantages and liabilities associated with holding the 2013 All-Star Game at CitiField. As you may know, CitiField is located in Queens, New York directly across 126th Street from the 62-acre industrial business district known as Willets Point. For many decades, the City of New York has deliberately neglected Willets Point and refrained from providing basic municipal services that it provides everywhere else and, as a result, has allowed the public areas here to fall into dilapidation. Now, using the dilapidated public areas that it created as a pretext, the City wants to evict all of the Willets Point businesses and in the destructive eminent domain process, take all of the Willets Point property against the will of property owners. All of this activity is being done to facilitate an unnecessary, implausible and controversial development project a project that Sterling Equities, the Mets' owners' real estate firm, is reportedly bidding to control. I am writing on behalf of Willets Point United Inc. ("WPU"), a coalition of Willets Point property and business owners who oppose the City's Willets Point development plan. It is our assumption that City officials might have provided incomplete and inaccurate information to MLB regarding the projected progress of the Willets Point development plan as of the 2013 date of the All-Star Game.

Heyman, Jon. 2011. Mets will host 2013 All-Star Game. SI.com, January 29. Accessible online at: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/baseball/mlb/01/29/mets.2013.allstar.game/index.html; and Davidoff, Ken. 2012. A Citi of big stars? Newsday, January 7. Accessible online at: http://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists/ken-davidoff/insider-all-star-game-joe-torre-and-prince-fielder1.3436020

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Any such misinformation could encourage MLB to select CitiField as the site of the 2013 All-Star Game a decision that we strongly believe MLB could later regret. To make a wellinformed decision about the suitability of CitiField as the site of the 2013 All-Star Game, WPU suggests that MLB must consider all the following factors: (1.) Outrageous and Unflattering State of Dilapidation At the Venue

City streets located adjacent to CitiField in Willets Point are so absolutely neglected and in such an embarrassing state of disrepair, that they not only fail to provide vehicular access, but severely tarnish the aura of CitiField and the sport of baseball in New York. (See enclosed photograph depicting 37th Avenue leading toward CitiField.) For several decades, Willets Point property and business owners have asked the City to repair Willets Point streets, but the City has not done so. There is no reason to believe that the City will do so now, merely to accommodate an All-Star Game. Does MLB want its All-Star Game to occur in such a tawdry and unflattering environment? The City-caused dilapidation is just one obvious element of a side-show to an All-Star Game at CitiField that will attract the attention of the international media that is present for the game. As property owners fighting to preserve our rights, we will go out of our way to draw press attention to our plight and the role of the Wilpons and the Mets in this struggle. (2.) Ongoing Litigation

Two lawsuits are presently pending against the City, either of which may potentially derail the entire proposed Willets Point development or very significantly delay its implementation. Accordingly, regardless of any assurance by the City, MLB should not presume that the industrial structures and businesses located across 126th Street from CitiField will be demolished by 2013, or that any new development there will be occurring by that time. It is entirely possible that during 2013, and beyond, CitiField will still be located across from the same industrial structures and businesses that exist today. (3.) Involvement of Wilpons, Destructive and Discriminatory Nature of Development, and Investigations of Improprieties It has been reported that Sterling Equities, the Mets' owners' real estate firm, is among the entities that have responded to the City's Request for Proposals seeking a developer of "Phase One" of Willets Point the strip located directly across from CitiField. Indeed, so intense is Sterling Equities' interest in developing that property that it reportedly has teamed with more than one firm to submit multiple bids. (See enclosed article published by Crain's New York Business.) Ironically, while MLB promotes "Baseball's ability to contribute to the economic growth, Page 2 of 4

strength and well-being of diverse communities",2 the owners of the Mets are aggressively bidding to implement a project that will absolutely destroy precisely such a community. Willets Point is one of the most vibrant and diverse business communities in New York City. The development of Willets Point requires evicting approximately 250 existing, interrelated industrial businesses many of which are owned and/or operated by people who are predominately Hispanic. No plan necessary to best promote their collective survival has been presented to preserve the service network to which those businesses belong and that attracts their customers. The predictable result will be the discriminatory destruction of 250 businesses that employ approximately 1,700 Hispanic and immigrant workers; all sacrificed to enable a development project from which the Mets' owners are very eager to profit. At the time of the 2013 All-Star Game, if the Willets Point development plan proceeds, the above-described large-scale displacement of the mostly Hispanic-run businesses will be in progress. It will be certainly be a lightning rod for criticism, demonstrations and protests by minority groups and civil rights advocates, and it is in that toxic context that a 2013 All-Star Game at CitiField would take place. Moreover, as we have said, the development of Willets Point relies upon the controversial use of eminent domain to forcibly acquire private property, not for any public necessity, but to facilitate a private economic benefit that will aggrandize already well-heeled interests all under the guise of "economic development". A movement has taken hold all across America to counteract such eminent domain abuse to the extent that 44 states have enacted local laws to prohibit or curtail the use of eminent domain for economic development purposes. Our organization will not miss an opportunity to leverage the All-Star Game to tell a nationwide audience how the Mets' owners seek to benefit from un-American eminent domain abuse and large-scale eradication of minority businesses. To WPU it would be a wonderful opportunity not to be missed, but to MLB it would be something much less desirable. In addition, not only are the Mets' owners pursuing a controversial development that harms Hispanic entrepreneurs and workers and condemns property for a non-public use but the Mets organization also financed, and hosted a fundraising event for, the Flushing Willets Point Corona Local Development Corporation ("LDC"), an organization that was created to lobby for legislation authorizing the proposed Willets Point development. This supposedly notfor-profit group proceeded to do this lobbying while failing to properly register or file required disclosure reports. The unlawful lobbying has already resulted in a then-record financial penalty of $59,090.00 against the LDC approximately 21 times the average fine imposed upon other unregistered lobbyists during the same time frame. The LDCs failure to properly register and report its lobbying activities is just part of the

Mission statement of MLB's Diverse Business Partners program; accessible online at: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/mlb_official_info_diverse.jsp?content=about

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Bidders emerge for Willets Point megaproject | Crain's New York Business

1/14/12 12:50 PM

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Article can be found at http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20111003/REAL_ESTATE/111009993

Bidders emerge for Willets Point megaproject

Two major developers, as well as the real estate firm of the New York Mets' owners, have submitted proposals to turn the Queens property into a modern venue of entertainment, retail, hospitality and housing.
By Daniel Massey Published: October 3, 2011 - 12:44 pm Two major developers and the Mets' owners' real estate firm are among the firms that submitted proposals for the right to redevelop Willets Point, sources said. The Related Companies has teamed up with Sterling Equities, which is controlled by Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, to submit a proposal to redevelop the 12.75 acres included in the Queens project's first phase, the sources said. Silverstein Properties, which is building three towers at the World Trade Center site, also threw its hat into the ring. None of the firms would comment. A real estate source said Sterling Equities had teamed up on bids with more than one firm.
Buck Ennis At least three real estate firms have submitted proposals for the right to redevelop Willets Point.

The Queens-based Times Ledger reported last month that Flushing-based TDC Development also made a bid. Opponents of the development cried foul at TDC Development's proposal because the firm played a role in the Flushing Willets Point Corona Local Development Corp., a nonprofit organization of private and public sector stakeholders seeded partially with city funds that advocated for the redevelopment. The city was paying for private developers to lobby, said a spokesman for Willets Point United. TDC Development did not respond to a request for comment. City officials would not say how many proposals they received by last month's deadline, but indicated they were satisfied with the quantity and quality of the submissions. After receiving multiple responses for the first phase of development, we are another step closer to the new Willets Point, said a spokeswoman for the city's Economic Development Corp. Twenty-nine firms were eligible to submit bids, based on an earlier qualifying round. Among those firms, the Albanese Organization, the Gotham Organization, the Westfield Group, the Richman Group of New York, Edward J. Minskoff Equities and Hamlin Ventures confirmed they did not submit bids. The other firms did not respond to requests for
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Bidders emerge for Willets Point megaproject | Crain's New York Business

1/14/12 12:50 PM

comment. Queens leaders tried to get Islanders owner Charles Wang to team up with one of the qualified bidders, but he didn't bite, a borough source said. The redevelopment of rundown Willets Point is a complicated endeavor, requiring environmental remediation, infrastructure upgrades and land acquisition. To speed things along, the city has split the controversial project, which covers 61.4 acres and calls for nearly 9 million square feet of development, into three phases. The first calls for up to 680,000-square-feet of retail space, as many as 400 units of mixed-income housing, up to 387 hotel rooms, and about two acres of open space. The project overall calls for some 5,000 housing units, but observers questioned whether there are enough in the first phase to make residential development viable, and said responses are likely focused on entertainment, retail and hospitality. I agree with their theoryget a shovel in the ground before the mayor leaves office, said Jack Friedman, executive director of the Queens Chamber of Commerce. But it's got to have something behind it. The reason I heard most often from developers who decided not to bid was it wasn't substantial enough. It's such a small space. The city controls about 90% of the land in the phase one area, and has not ruled out using eminent domain to obtain the rest. A decision on a developer is expected by the spring. The first phase is projected to be completed by 2016, and the final project is scheduled to be finished by 2022. Entire contents 2012 Crain Communications Inc.

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