PLAN TO RAZE FULTON ST. GALLERY STUNS MERCHANTS
By RACHEL MONAHAN
New York Daily News
February 8, 2007

Downtown Brooklyn's Albee Square Mall could be demolished as early as this year to make way for a new megadevelopment, much to the distress of current merchants.

A partnership headed by Paul Travis and Aaron Malinsky reportedly will pay Thor Equities more than $125 million for control of the mall - officially known as The Gallery at Fulton St.

The city, which owns the land, must approve the deal.

The developer's application for a city tax benefit estimates that 332 jobs at the site will be lost and 1,879 will be added - 500 of them office jobs.

Creating more jobs was little consolation to the current mall tenants, who are set to lose their stores.

"I don't know if I should cry," said Ted Priftakis, owner for the past 26 years of the restaurant Top Potato.

Adding insult to injury, he said, Thor Equities encouraged Priftakis to stay during a remodeling of the mall a few years ago.

The landlord had yet to notify them of the sale, tenants said yesterday. Crain's New York Business published news of the sale late Tuesday on its Web site.

Eric Waltower, who opened Cunora's Accessories just under a year and a half ago, said he didn't even realize the mall was up for sale until this week.

"If my wife and I had known that this place was going to be sold, we would never have invested in here," he said.

He'd snapped up the opportunity after working his way up from being a street vendor on Bridge St. across from Macy's. He and his wife spent retirement savings and borrowed $3,000 from his father to try to get his business up and running.

The city is set to grant benefits on sales and real estate taxes for the office portion of the building, said Andrew Brent, a spokesman for the city Economic Development Corp.

A vote by the agency's subsidiary - the Industrial Development Agency - is scheduled for Tuesday.

Opponents planned to rally at the mall today.

The tax benefit distressed community advocates further.

"If you're going to give money back to someone from the outside, why aren't you going to give something back to the community?" asked Beverly Corbin, co-chairwoman of the advocacy group Families United for Economic and Racial Equality.

The plan for the site includes residential, commercial and office space, according to the developer's application. Travis declined to discuss details.

The new owner has indicated in a letter to the city that Wal-Mart will not be among the new tenants, Brent said.

 © 2007 Daily News, L.P.