14 MARCH 1, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Delayed bridge project is killing Middle Village businesses
Tropical Restaurant and the car wash next door are obstructed by a temporary barrier from on long-delayed construction project.
BY RYAN KELLEY
RKELLEY@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
TWITTER @R_KELLEY6
People used to wait outside to
get into Tropical Restaurant in
Middle Village on Valentine’s
Day, but this year, the holiday brought
owner Steven Vinas nothing but
heartbreak.
Sitting at a table in the completely
empty dining room on Feb. 23, he said
this is what it looked like on Valentine’s
Day a week prior, and just about
every other day for the past year. The
restaurant has been serving its popular
Ecuadorian cuisine for 13 years on
Fresh Pond Road near Metropolitan
Avenue, but Vinas, 44, said business is
plummeting because of a botched construction
project outside his front door.
“I started seeing the business like a
cancer, killing you slowly,” Vinas said.
The reconstruction of the bridge
deck on Metropolitan Avenue has been
a source of local frustration for more
than a year. Originally scheduled to
begin in July 2016, delays pushed the
start of the construction to January
2017 when the contractor, Mugrose
Construction Inc., had trouble securing
the permits for the job.
At that point, the projected timeline
for the fi rst phase of work to be completed
was January 2018. During the
summer of 2017, however, the project
was delayed again for two months because
repair work to the M train line
forced the MTA to send extra shuttle
buses into the area.
By the end of 2017, very little
progress had been made at Metropolitan
Avenue, and the Department of
Transportation (DOT) confi rmed to
QNS that it had defaulted its contract
with Mugrose Construction. In the
two months since then, the project has
been at a standstill.
Vinas took his concerns to Assemblywoman
Catherine Nolan, who then
wrote to DOT Commissioner Polly
Trottenberg expressing concern for
the status of the project. Trottenberg
sent a letter in response, which Vinas
also received a copy of, and it said the
bonding company for the project was
expected to have a new plan in place
by Jan. 19.
As of Feb. 22, however, that plan was
still not in place, according to a DOT
spokesperson.
“The contractor’s bonding agency is
in the process of rebidding the project
to a contractor who will complete remaining
work,” the spokesperson said.
“A new schedule will be submitted aft er
the new fi rm is under contract.”
For Vinas, that means the temporary
concrete barrier that protrudes in front
of his restaurant could be there for at
least another year. It makes accessing
the restaurant more diffi cult, and the
traffi c it causes makes fewer people
want to stop. He was only prepared to
ride out the storm for the original oneyear
timeline of the project, he said.
“Everybody has their own story
behind it, but I’m feeling it fi nancially,
emotionally, and feeling very bad
about the whole situation,” Vinas said.
“I’m very disappointed in how the city
does business, and it hurts the small
business.”
What was once the most successful
of fi ve Tropical Restaurants owned by
Vinas and his brother, the Middle Village
location has declined 40 percent
Photo by Ryan Kelley/QNS
in sales over the past year, he said. The
owner of the car wash next door told
Vinas that he is even worse off .
But the small businesses aren’t
the only ones feeling the weight of
the stalled project. Vinas said an employee
from the CVS across the street
came into the restaurant one day and
suggested that the national pharmacy
chain was struggling as well.
A source familiar with the situation
told QNS that the CVS on Metropolitan
Avenue suff ered a 25 percent loss in
sales over the past year.
If something doesn’t change soon,
Vinas said Tropical won’t be around
for much longer. He already had the
second fl oor — which was used by the
restaurant for parties — converted
into an apartment to try to make up for
the losses. Now his lease is up and his
landlord has set new terms, including
higher rent, Vinas said.
Within the next 60 days, Vinas must
decide if he will keep trying to survive,
or close his doors for good.
“You might come back in 90 days and
I’ll be closed, only because of this, and
it breaks my heart,” Vinas said.
