Retail Politics: Unions try a new strategy to squeeze potential developers from working with Wal-Mart
For all the complaints and protests about Wal-Mart’s plans to open a store within the five boroughs, the superstore could break ground tomorrow as long as it finds a site that is properly zoned—hardly a problem in retail-friendly New York.
That has not stopped anti-Wal-Mart union leaders from asking City Council Members to flex the shred of land use authority they do have, given the circumstances.
The Council may not be able to block Wal-Mart, but, the union officials say, they want members to commit to making future deals more difficult for developers who allow the Arkansas-based discount chain into the city.
“Related and Vornado do a lot of business in this city, and I’m not sure they want to be the ones to herald Wal-Mart in,” UFCW Local 1500 political director Pat Purcell said. “It’s not advisable to be the ambassador for a hostile party.”
Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, said that he was particularly concerned by Related. The developer has said it is exploring opportunities with Wal-Mart, though Appelbaum insists that Council Member Charles Barron was promised that Wal-Mart would not be a tenant at the Gateway II mall—one possible site that the retail giant is exploring—when Barron’s East New York district was rezoned for the development in 2009.
With the many technicalities written into city land use law, council members could make life increasingly difficult for targeted developers. Those within the anti-Wal-Mart campaign say that they would ask more people to look at the example of Council Member Gale Brewer, who has often used the rules to stop or slow development she opposes from coming into her Upper West Side district. (A spokeswoman for Related declined comment.)…