BID will encompass 366 properties and address sanitation, security and marketing needs. The Planning Commission unanimously approved an application by the Department of Small Business Services to create a DUMBO Business Improvement District. The proposed BID would encompass 366 properties containing 575 existing businesses bounded by DUMBO’s York, Old Fulton, Gold, and Bridge Streets and extending to the East River.
Under the proposed BID, businesses and industrial uses would be assessed $.05 per-square-foot and $.004 per dollar of assessed valuation. DUMBO residents would pay an annual $1 assessment. Government and not-for-profit groups will be exempt from the assessment, relieving the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, which, in 2004, obtained City Council’s approval for a 736,000-square-foot development on a full city block within the BID area. 1 CityLand 33 (Dec. 15, 2004).
There were no speakers in opposition at the Commission’s April 27, 2005 hearing. The Commission approved the BID as submitted.
BID Approval Process The Department of Small Business Services, as lead agency, issued a negative declaration on March 9, 2005 and submitted the BID plan to Mayor Bloomberg, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Community Board 2, Council Speaker Gifford Miller, and Brooklyn Council Member David Yassky.
Community Board 2 unanimously approved. Mandatory public hearings before the City Council Finance Committee and the mayor are pending.
CPC: DUMBO BID (N 050365 BDK) (May 25, 2005). CITYADMIN
Uptown retail center will have national retail chain, local vendors and restaurant. The Department of Citywide Administrative Services sought approval for the disposition of Mart 125, the one-and-a-half story, 12,210-square-foot building, located at 260 West 125th Street across from the Apollo Theater. Mart 125 was originally built in the early 1980’s as a market for local Harlem vendors and businesses. Occupancy declined over the years and the building began to deteriorate. It is currently vacant.
DCAS would transfer Mart 125 to the New York City Economic Development Corporation for sale or long-term lease to a selected developer. The existing mezzanine in the building would be replaced by two new, internal floors, providing 10,000 sq.ft. each, and subdivided into smaller retail spaces ranging from 500 to 1,500 sq.ft. The revitalized Mart 125 would provide a total of 34,400 sq.ft. of retail space with the ground floor reserved for a national or regional retail chain and the third floor for restaurant use. (more…)
15-unit residential building with commercial space approved for manufacturing district. The owner of 214 25th Street, a 12,617-squarefoot lot in an M1-1D district of Sunset Park, Brooklyn with two vacant, low-rise manufacturing buildings, sought a variance to convert and enlarge one of the structures into a 15-unit, 20,656-square-foot residential building.
The owner argued that manufacturing uses were infeasible due to the buildings’ small size, cost to retrofit, lack of street access, narrow interior spaces and lack of loading facilities. Community Board 7, a local masonry business and the Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation opposed the variance, citing inadequate parking, local business delivery interruption and over-development of residential units in a manufacturing district. While the neighborhood was not predominantly residential, the applicant claimed that, because residential uses could be permitted by Planning Department authorization, the proposed construction would not affect the essential character. (more…)
BID will address sanitation and security problems and increase marketing for the area’s attractions. The Planning Commission unanimously approved a new BID in the East 161st Street corridor in the Bronx, which will encompass Yankee Stadium, Concourse Village, the Bronx County courthouses, as well as existing one-story fast-food restaurants and street-level retail. The BID is proposed to extend along East 161st Street, from River Avenue on the west to Morris Avenue on the east.
The BID proposal, which culminated nine years of community efforts, will focus on remediation of East 161st Street’s graffiti, litter and security problems. The first year’s budget is projected at $190,000, with almost half, $89,000, allocated towards six-day weekly sidewalk cleaning, garbage pick-up and graffiti removal. The budget will come from an assessment on commercial property owners of $32.97 for each linear front foot and $29 for each $1,000 of assessed valuation. Residential property owners will be assessed $1 a year. (more…)
