Queens, NY – In an effort to help a group of businesses within their districts, State Senator Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr. and Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato have sent a letter to Pat Foye, the Chairman and CEO of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

Last year, several businesses along Beach 116^th Street in Rockaway Park reached out to the Assemblywoman’s office, telling her that they were notified that their leases with the MTA would be coming to an end, and the buildings would be opened up to a public bidding process according to the Public Authorities Law of 2008.

Recently, the businesses – which are Last Stop Gourmet Shop, Joseph A. Otton Tax & Accounting, Beach Cleaners and Tailors, and A & J Jewelry – received a letter from the MTA stating that their leases would be terminated on May 31, 2019.

In the letter to Foye, Addabbo and Pheffer Amato have asked that the MTA allow the businesses to remain open in their buildings as the agency opens up their Request for Proposal process to find new tenants.

“While the 2008 Public Authorities Law requires the MTA to legally open the bidding process when these current leases are up, we can ask if they will at least let these businesses remain open, provide the local jobs and services, while the bid process is underway,” Addabbo said. “This isn’t the best situation for the business owners, but the MTA does have the legal right to do this. In the future we may have to look at the Public Authorities Law and see what changes can be made so situations like this do not happen again.”

“The backbone of our community here in Rockaway is our small businesses. By the MTA upholding the public bid process, it will force these businesses to close their doors, causing a great loss not only for the owners but for all the families of our community who utilize these businesses in Rockaway Park,” Pheffer Amato said. “I join Senator Addabbo in urging the MTA to allow these local businesses to remain.”