FAB Alliance Receives CB 2 Support For Expansion Plan And Fee Assessment Formula

Heather Chin -
Photo by Fort Greene Focus.

The Fulton Area Business (FAB) Alliance is one step closer to expanding its boundaries to include a few extra blocks of businesses:

  • on the southern side of Lafayette Avenue between St. Felix Street and Fort Greene Place (Brooklyn Medical Plaza),
  • the northern side of Lafayette Avenue between St. Felix Street and Ashland Place (opposite BAM),
  • the southern side of Fulton Street between Rockwell and Ashland Places, and
  • a bit more of Ashland Place between Fulton Street and DeKalb Avenue.

The merchants group received a vote of support from Brooklyn Community Board 2 (CB 2) this month after detailing their proposal, which would “fill in the gaps between existing business improvement districts (BIDs),” the other being MetroTech BID, which, this past May, also received CB 2 support in their effort to expand in order to incorporate some Fort Greene cultural institutions into their coverage area.

What this boundary expansion means is that the respective BIDs can now levy membership fees from business owners of these sites, use the collective funds to maintain sanitation and other public safety and quality of life projects along those sidewalks, and advocate on behalf of those merchants.

For example, the increase in shootings near Fulton and South Portland Streets since May has been “disturbing,” said FAB Executive Director Phillip Kellogg at the CBS 2 meeting, where he noted that a FAB representative continues to be in touch with the 88th Precinct, businesses, and District Attorney Kenneth Thompson in order express concerns and goals.

However, Kellogg noted, with a budget of $42,000 earmarked each year (out of a total $375,000 for fiscal year 2016-2017) for “Safety and Security Outreach,” FAB “can’t afford a constant [security] presence” outside of special events, especially as fixed costs increase, population increases mean more demand on services, and there is a “reduced opportunity to market to new residents.”

With that tight budget in mind, FAB Alliance is also proposing to change the formula that asses the value of member storefronts, in order to shift the emphasis to property use rather than solely square-footage. This way, they note in their proposal, “assessment [is no longer] the same for a vacant lot [as for] a mixed-use development eight-stories tall.”

The new formula would weight store frontage at 80 percent and overall assessed value at 20 percent. This would lead to an “Estimated 72 percent of existing BID properties seeing a slight reduction in assessment or increases of less than 10 percent [annual fees].” It would also lead to increased service over the years and “allow flexibility as fixed costs increase,” noted the FAB proposal. .

According to Deb Howard, resident and owner of a building at Carlton and Fulton, her “big concern was how to benefit businesses and [ensure] new buildings and residents get neighborhood information and merchant information.

“To us, what the BID has brought in terms of sanitation, streetscapes, plazas, and marketing has shifted the perception of Fulton into a neighborhood with increased activity,” she said. “So any increased rates are worth it.”

Katrine Pollari, owner of a wine shop and wine bar (Bar Olivino and Brooklyn Wine Yard), said she also supports FAB’s expansion. “What they have done so far has preserved the cultural diversity as big businesses moved in,” she told CB 2. “I’ll have a bigger assessment, but I’d never be able to do what FAB does with $1,000 a year [in membership contributions].”