Bids away!
Throggs Neck may soon become the next Bronx nabe to be home to a business improvement district.
The Throggs Neck Merchants Association met recently with the City Department of Small Business Services and Bronx Chamber of Commerce to discuss the first steps to form a BID along the E. Tremont Avenue corridor, roughly Miles Avenue to Bruckner Expressway, with an indoor shopping mall at Bay Plaza and shopping center with a Target on Brush Avenue to open in two years.
“We are putting together a database of landlords to get them involved, and that is essential,” said TNMA president Steven Kaufman, adding that officials from the Small Business Administration “are excited and are going to be assisting us.”
The BID will also be getting help from the Chamber’s merchant association and BID program run by Joe Regina, who was instrumental in forming the Westchester Square BID.
“We absolutely want to accomplish this,” said Chamber CEO Lenny Caro. The formation of a Throggs Neck BID is “doable” since the TNMA is basically talking about making a single street, E. Tremont Avenue, part of the effort, said Kaufman. The merchants and landlords areas where BIDs are generally benefit from having a BID, said Kaufman.
“We are seeing a resurgance in Westchester Square and we want to have one,” said Kaufman. “We are going to be surronded by two major malls: one in Co-op City and one on Brush Avenue. We need to do something to soldify our commerical strength.”
Target will definitely soon be a part of the Throggs Neck area community on Brush Avenue in Ferry Point, but local merchants should be able to do well because they provide personal service that largest retailers do not provide, said Community Board 10 chairman John Marano.
“We still have time to plan ahead, so local business should be looking into their strategies about what they are going to be selling and being more creative to keep their customers coming to the local stores,” said Marano.
Forming a BID takes two to three years, said Regina, with planning and legislative phases, then final authorization from the City Council.
Patrick Rocchio can be reach via e-mail at procchio@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 742-3393
