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March 10, 2010
East Harlem Left Disappointed by Local Hires at Another East River Plaza Store
DNAinfo
by Jon Schuppe
Another reason why Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement signatories might be wanting to re-read the fine print.
In a couple of weeks, a second big-box store will open at East River Plaza, the cavernous new shopping center built with promises to provide hundreds of jobs to local residents.
But the community is bracing for more disappointment.
Early indications are that the new retail tenant, Best Buy, appears to be falling short of goals to take 60 percent of its new hires from East Harlem, neighborhood leaders say.
That apparent setback comes several weeks after a decision by the first tenant, Costco, to lay off 132 workers, leaving less than half the staff local.
...The memorandum of understanding with Tiago, a partnership of Forest City Ratner Companies and Blumenfeld Development Group, was signed after the community board agreed to allow overnight truck deliveries at the shopping center. That document wasn’t legally binding, but was important to a neighborhood with a 17 percent unemployment rate and where a quarter of residents use food stamps.
Posted by eric at March 10, 2010 11:12 PM