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Iron Triangle May Lose Its Spice

Video: Food Fight

Things are heating up in hardscrabble Willets Point, and it’s not because of the curries and chilies produced at G.L. Soni's House of Spices. Daniel Massey reports.
Photo By: Daniel Massey
Queens -

The city’s ambitious development plan for the area surrounding the Mets’ new ballpark threatens to send the country’s largest Indian food manufacturer packing.

G.L. Soni’s House of Spices wants to expand its headquarters in the so-called Iron Triangle, a rag-tag complex of auto body shops and scrap metal businesses in Willets Point.

In April, 2007, Mayor Bloomberg announced plans to fill the 60-acre virtual no-man’s land with a hotel, housing, offices, a park and a school. The coming of CitiField, set to be completed in time for the Mets’ 2009 season, helped spark the revitalization move.

But Bloomberg’s plan has caused some bitterness at G.L. Soni’s House of Spices, where the owner wants answers: will he be able to stay and expand? Or will the city lose yet another manufacturing business?

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